Grading Out: Eastern Michigan

LSU's 44-22 win over Eastern Michigan was something. That something being pretty odd and at times a bore to watch. Despite all that, yours truly and Paul are here to grade the performances of each individual LSU unit and see if they performed as poorly as you may have thought during the game, or maybe a little better.

Quarterback

Jake: C-. This isn't a grade on Harris throughout the entire season so far, or how I think he'll do for the rest of the season. This is strictly based on EMU. And it was not good. There were six drops, but as opposed to Syracuse where he made great throws and had drops, here he missed throws and had the drops. He also looked jittery in the pocket at times as well. It wasn't a good outing by any stretch, but I don't think we'll see anything that poor again from him.

Paul: B. The end line was ugly, but I really don't think Harris played nearly as bad as his wide receivers. I believe there were six total drops, so 10/14 for 180 yards and a couple of TDs would look a whole lot shinier. My biggest concern about Harris is pocket feel, though he seems to have kept his composure well despite poor WR and OL play at times this year.

Running Back

Jake: A. Awesome as usual. Fournette was Fournette, running every which way on the defense. But Derrius Guice showed off as well. He is incredibly shifty and effortlessly moves around to escape tackles. Had a lot of nice second half runs.

Paul: A. Fournette banged out his longest TD run of the year and continued to look like the universe swallowing wildebeast that he is. Williams, after struggling some vs. Cuse looked again like the piledriving chain moving dragon we know him to be. My sole regret here is not a ding on the grade, just that Guice and Brossette didn't get much run. My initial anticipation is that those two would carry the load 2nd half as we were cruising to victory.

Wide Receiver

Jake: F. Yeah, they were this bad. So many drops. Just so many drops. It was bordering on ridiculous. I'm pretty sure nearly every WR had one, and it was the reason the decision to go to the passing game didn't go well in the first half. They were putrid.

Paul: DNP. I'll start grading them, when they start participating.

Offensive Line

Jake: B. Really good in the run game, helping to open up a lot of great holes for the backs to run through. And with the exception of Harris' INT, they gave him pretty good pass pro for the most part. Not perfect by any means, but overall they were solid.

Paul: B. Solid day at the office. That blocking on Fournette's 75 yarder is a pretty little thing.

Defensive Line

Jake: B. Pretty solid against the run. Arden Key was really close a couple of times to getting a sack, and when they got to the QB they definitely affected him. But they didn't quite get there enough and that allowed EMU to dink and dunk their way down the field a bit in the second half.

Paul: A. Davon Godchaux is the best player on this defense. Lewis Neal is the heart and soul up front. We finally got to see the backup ends produce, as Sione Teuhema seems to be coming into his own wiht 7 tackles, 1 TFL. Eastern slugged to 98 total rushing yards, but on just 2.8 a carry.

Linebackers

Jake: C+. When Beckwith was in, they were great and EMU could not get anything going. But when the back-ups went in, particular Duke Riley, EMU got a lot more going on the ground and hit a lot more players for good gains. That knocks the grade down from me. Debo's INT was nice though.

Dan: D. Beyond Beckwith and Debo we have nothing. And while Beckwith and Debo have been pretty good, neither has stood out as an elite player to me this year, either. So you have one good 1st unit and a really bad 2nd unit. This is a major weakness of the D right now.

Defensive Backs

Jake: B. Kevin Toliver got a nice pick, as did Jamal Adams. They were really good in the first half, hardly giving up anything, but EMU completed four straight passes on a drive in the second half that resulted in a TD, including one that went for 30 yards, and that means just a B from me.

Paul: B-. 3 picks are nice, though a couple were unforced errors. They let a dude named Brogan complete 71% of his passes on the day, so I put them on the low end of B land.