Five takeaways from LSU’s SEC title loss to Georgia

LSU’s playoff hopes were dashed in the Texas A&M loss, but LSU remained in the New Year’s Six discussion entering the SEC title game.

Heavy underdogs, LSU got off to a fine start, but its conference championship hopes evaporated soon after. LSU’s offense managed to respond to a special teams mistake that cost LSU a touchdown, but Georgia’s offense figured some stuff out and started to put pressure on LSU.

The Tigers didn’t respond well. A turnover put Georgia in possession to go up two scores and the opening of the floodgates followed. LSU made one last push in the second half, but it was never enough to really make it a game.

LSU now awaits its bowl destination, which many think will be the Citrus Bowl in Orlando.

It’s difficult to know what to make of this LSU team, especially after the last two weeks, but here are five takeaways following the Tigers’ loss to Georgia in the SEC Championship.

Special teams drown LSU again

Joshua L Jones

LSU won’t take the field again for a few weeks, so let’s talk about special teams problems, just for old times’ sake.

[autotag]Jayden Daniels[/autotag] led LSU into the red zone on its second drive. With a chance to take the lead and strike first, LSU sent its field goal unit out. The kick was blocked.

LSU’s field goal unit thought the ball was dead and gave up on the play – but there was no whistle blown. Georgia scooped it up and brought it back for six and Georgia took a 7-0 lead.

Georgia was the better team Saturday. That’s not a debate, but this was a costly special teams mistake. If LSU converts that field goal, the Tigers hang around a little bit longer and the game script is different.

It’s a sequence that’s played out too often for LSU. Special teams mistakes against Tennessee and Georgia put LSU in big holes. That can’t happen in a game where everything needs to go right.

Georgia made the plays that LSU needed

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Upsets require something special. Three-possession underdogs need everything they can get. That’s not what happened to LSU today.

If LSU were going to win this game, it needed to be the one returning a field goal the other way.

Later in the first half, LSU turned it over after Georgia intercepted a ball of a [autotag]Jack Bech[/autotag] helmet bounce. That’s the type of break LSU needed. Instead, the Tigers suffered from it and Georgia scored the next play, going up two possessions.

It’s the little thing and in a game of this amplitude, those little things are magnified.

This was a year of progress

John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports

The last two games are going to leave a sour taste in the mouth of LSU fans, which is understandable.

Getting outclassed in back-to-back games is not what you want to see.

But this was a year of progress. The last two weeks does not change the fact that LSU beat Alabama, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State. It doesn’t undo the fact that LSU won the west in a year where nobody thought it would.

If [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] manages to hold this recruiting class together, this program is headed in the right direction.

The progress has been seen on and off the field. All year, we saw fight from this team. They lost to some better teams, but they never quit.

Heading into the bowl game and 2023, you have to feel pretty good about where LSU is.

LSU's opening script was good

John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports

In the opening moments, LSU looked like it belonged on the field. It got a first down on its opening drive and moved into the red zone on the second.

LSU’s third drive ended in a touchdown when Daniels with Boutte over the middle and Boutte made the best play he’s made all year, doing some work after the catch and taking it to the house.

It wasn’t a bad start against the nation’s best defense, but Georgia started to wear LSU down and the difference was felt in the trenches.

Georgia made a big stop when LSU tried to run it up the middle on third and one. More and more pressure was put on an already banged-up Daniels and LSU was not able to find any more consistency.

With Daniels not able to push the ankle any further, [autotag]Garrett Nussmeier[/autotag] entered in the third. LSU found some success but was again stopped on a 4th and 1 inside UGA’s 10.

Had LSU converted on that red zone trip, the lead would have been cut to 11.

LSU's defense didn't have answers

Joshua L Jones

Georgia’s offense is efficient as they come. Talented from top to bottom with an experienced quarterback like Stetson Bennett, defenses have to be firing on all cylinders to slow the Bulldogs down. LSU was not today.

Bennett looked comfortable attacking LSU over the middle of the field and LSU’s front wasn’t able to generate consistent pressure.

Georgia made all the right moves. When LSU blitzed, Bennett trusted his receivers to win in single coverage, and they did, When LSU dropped more defenders back, Georgia ran all over LSU.

UGA was able to counter any adjustment LSU made, just as you would expect an elite team to do.

Story originally appeared on LSU Tigers Wire