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Last week the statistical profiles of both Auburn and LSU led one to believe that both teams were quite similar, and the game would likely come down to which teams great front seven could force the others iffy passing game into mistakes. That’s about what happened, as Auburn’s Jarrett Stidham threw two interceptions, while Auburn’s defensive line wasn’t able to get home and Joe Burrow made some big throws in the 4th Quarter to help lead LSU to a victory. Now we shift our focus to Louisiana Tech. As we did last week, the profiles for both teams will be in a table, and we’ll include stats from last season and so far from this season.
Last Season:
A note on these stats: The offensive and defensive S&P+ marks are calculated as adjusted scoring averages and for the situational ratings, above 100 is good and below 100 is bad. Links to an explanation on the various stats here, here and here:
Stat Watch
| Data | Louisiana Tech | LSU |
|---|---|---|
| Data | Louisiana Tech | LSU |
| S&P+ Percentile | 48.6% (71st) | 83.2% (19th) |
| Offensive S&P+ | 29.3 (57th) | 30.5 (42nd) |
| Off. Passing | 96.7 (80th) | 119.2 (16th) |
| Off. Rushing | 112.1 (28th) | 128.0 (7th) |
| Defensive S&P+ | 28.8 (73rd) | 21.1 (18th) |
| Def. Passing | 91.1 (97th) | 113.1 (20th) |
| Def. Rushing | 82.9 (121st) | 116.0 (24th) |
| FEI | -.016 (69th) | .102 (28th) |
| F/+ | -3.2% (72nd) | 33.5% (21st) |
This Season:
Stat Watch
| Data | Louisiana Tech | LSU |
|---|---|---|
| Data | Louisiana Tech | LSU |
| S&P+ Percentile | 45.9% (71st) | 84.4% (21st) |
| Off. S&P+ | 37.5 (28th) | 28.2 (76th) |
| Def. S&P+ | 37.6 (107th) | 12.8 (6th) |
| FEI | .026 (47th) | .180 (12th) |
| F/+ | 3.4% (63rd) | 43.7% (15th) |
LSU took a dip this week in S&P+, which was further explained in detail here by Bill Connolly: https://www.nola.com/lsu/index.ssf/2018/09/lsu_sp_orgeron_auburn.html#incart_river_index
When looking at last year’s numbers, Louisiana Tech looks like a solid C-USA squad, but an overall mediocre one that fits right in line with allowing LSU to work out it’s kinks and still comfortably win. The strength of their team was the rushing offense, which LSU has had no problems with so far this year, while their defense was very poor, which would allow LSU to improve on that side of the ball. This year, they’re a similar story, just in the extreme. The offense is still the strength, but so far it’s a Top 30 unit. LSU’s defense is one of the best in the country so far, and should win that battle, but it’ll be a test. The Tech defense is even worse though, and that should allow the LSU offense to figure out some things and get rolling while heading into the rest of SEC play.