Ed Orgeron can't hide disappointment with play of offensive line vs. Auburn

The disappointment on the face of Ed Orgeron was intoxicating. Following another loss on the season, the LSU Tigers face their second consecutive lost season following their legendary national championship run.

One reason for the unraveling of Orgeron’s squad has been the play of their offensive line. In their loss against Auburn last night, the unit didn’t give LSU what they needed in the running game.

Prior to the season, Orgeron believed his experienced group of lineman would be one of the strengths of his football team. In his post-game press conference, Orgeron was left with nothing but disappointment over the play of his offensive line.

“We have two guys on that offensive line who we won a national championship with. I thought that would be one of the strengths of our football team, but it’s not,” stated Orgeron. “Gotta continue to look at it and improve.”

Moreover, Orgeron was asked about LSU’s ineffectiveness rushing the football. To answer, he once again brought up his team’s offensive line issues as the culprit.

“We’re trying to run the football, just every time we run the football we get stuffed,” said Orgeron. We wanted to throw more short passes on first down, but not to say that we wasn’t going to run the football. Got to find ways to run the football, and we gotta block.

“We still didn’t give our quarterback enough time to throw. We had six-man protection, and we got beat one-on-one.”

Evidently, no matter what Orgeron tried to do along his offensive line, it didn’t work. Now, LSU sits at 3-2 — starting the gauntlet that is their SEC schedule.

LSU Offensive Struggles

While LSU’s offense led the to a national championship in the past, yesterday it hand-delivered them a loss.

Quarterback Max Johnson did all he could for Orgeron, but it wasn’t nearly enough. Against Auburn, Johnson completed 26 of 46 passes for 325 yards, one touchdown and one interception.

However, the real hole on offense was the Tigers’ running game. Yesterday, their leading rusher was Corey Kiner, who rushed five times for 22 yards.

Additionally, the offensive line couldn’t protect the quarterback either. Auburn terrorized Johnson, accumulating 3.5 sacks and six quarterback hurries during the game.

It doesn’t get any easier moving forward for Orgeron’s squad. Over the next month, LSU plays Kentucky, Florida, Ole Miss and Alabama. A gauntlet of talented SEC teams.

If their offense doesn’t figure it out, things could get ugly fast for Ed Orgeron and the LSU Tigers.