Behind the Box Score: Texas Bowl

Sometimes, the box score lies. Sometimes it seems to tell a different story than the game we actually watched, but there it is, in the cold, hard numbers. Sometimes, wins look like losses or it seems the "wrong" team won based on the stat sheet. This is not one of those times. LSU blew the doors off Tech on both the scoreboard and the stat sheet. Let us count the ways.

5. After throwing a brutal interception, setting up a short Red Raiders touchdown drive to cut the lead to one, Brandon Harris then guided LSU on five consecutive touchdown drives. None of them were remotely cheap, as each drive went for between 60 and 80 yards. When the going got tough, LSU got to work and ended the game in style. Not the "5" you were expecting, right? We'll save that for later.

10/20. This is one of those good stat/bad stat things. Tech went 50% on third down conversions, which is a pretty good rate. However, facing TWENTY third downs is rarely a good thing, especially when you fail on ten of them. Tech was constantly facing third and long, and it speaks to Mahomes' ability that he was able to create so much out of nothing. Speaking of Mahomes...

28/56. Mahomes spent the game doing a pretty great Jeckyll and Hyde impression. A 50% completion percentage isn't going to cut it, but he also threw for 370 yards and 4 touchdowns. Then he also threw a critical interception and was sacked six times. He's going to part parts of this game on his highlight reel, and then try and forget the other 80% of the game happened. Just a really odd game from a slippery quarterback who, let's be honest, was fun to watch.

0. The number of field goal attempts. OK, each team punted from inside the 50, which drives me insane (and LSU did it twice), but both teams finished drives. Each team made the red zone four times, and LSU converted all four chances into touchdowns. Tech only went two for four, but one of those failures was in the waning seconds of the game. Get to the red zone. Score touchdowns.

12.20. Brandon Harris' ATVSQBPI. Hard to complain about that, even if he was a bit inefficient. He scored two touchdowns, which helps him out, and the big long bomb gave him 254 yards on 22 attempts. This was the kind of game Harris needs to be having all of the time. It wasn't perfect, but the good far outweighed the bad.

8/4.0/2.5. Kendall Beckwith had his best statistical game of the season, just in time for NFL draft season! He had eight tackles, but more importantly, 4 TFL's and 2.5 sacks. He was a wrecking crew last night. Please, Kendall. One more year. For us.

212. What more can you say about Leonard Fournette? He rushed for 212 yards on 29 carries, and it seemed like a disappointment because he fell just shy of 2000 on the season. He also scored five touchdowns, four of them on the ground. Another dominating performance from the best running back on the planet. We're lucky to get another year out of this guy. Enjoy it.