LSU football escapes with win over Arkansas thanks to Jayden Daniels, offense
BATON ROUGE — LSU football needed a stop.
The Tigers had allowed too many long drives in the first half and too many big plays in the second to Arkansas. The LSU offense was on a roll, scoring touchdowns on its last four possessions, so all the Tigers needed was a stop.
Facing third down and 18 with under five and a half minutes to play at its own 22-yard line, LSU (3-1, 2-0 SEC) finally forced an incompletion. But not so fast. Harold Perkins was called for roughing the passer, giving Arkansas a fresh set of downs.
The Razorbacks tied the game on the next play, adding an exclamation point to a worrying night for LSU's defense.
Ultimately, it didn't matter.
LSU won 34-31 over the Razorbacks, going on a 9-play, 72-yard drive over the final 5:01 to bleed out the clock and set up Damian Ramos for the go-ahead field goal with five seconds left.
The Tigers' offense saved the day, scoring on their final six drives. But despite No. 12 LSU's explosiveness with the ball, its defense still couldn't get the job done against Arkansas (2-2, 0-1), a serious concern moving forward as the Tigers go deeper into SEC play.
A rough start for Jayden Daniels
After arguably a career-best performance last week against Mississippi State, Jayden Daniels did not have an ideal start versus Arkansas.
He missed Malik Nabers on a third down throw that would have gone for a first down, tossed an interception on the next drive and underthrew two deep balls to Nabers and Thomas on LSU's third drive.
All three scoreless drives resulted in LSU trailing by six with less than six minutes remaining in the first half. The Tigers made a field goal and Daniels hit Brian Thomas Jr. for a 49-yard touchdown to end the half, but LSU still went into the break trailing 13-10.
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LSU's defense bends ... and finally breaks
LSU's defense certainly bent to start Saturday's game.
The Tigers allowed two drives of 12 or more plays for over 13 minutes of game time in the first half. Arkansas picked up its fair share of key third downs, taking advantage of LSU's soft outside coverage and using quarterback KJ Jefferson's legs to its benefit.
LSU finally broke toward the end of the second quarter when Jefferson hit wideout Tyrone Broden over Denver Harris for a touchdown to give Arkansas a 13-3 lead.
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Koki Riley covers LSU sports for The Daily Advertiser. Email him at kriley@theadvertiser.com and follow him on Twitter at @KokiRiley
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: LSU football: Jayden Daniels leads Tigers to win over Arkansas
