FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Justin Jefferson has never been a fan of cold weather.
But when the temperatures dipped for Saturday’s 6:30 p.m. kickoff against Arkansas, Jefferson’s game elevated to new levels.
The sophomore receiver went for a career high 117 yards on six catches, including his third touchdown of the season, in LSU’s 24-17 win over the Razorbacks, despite numbness induced by low-30s temperatures.
“I couldn’t feel my fingers or my toes,” Jefferson said. “It was a little difficult catching the ball and running.”
Difficult as it might’ve been, Jefferson made it look easy – particularly on his first-quarter touchdown. On the first play of LSU’s second drive, Jefferson and quarterback Joe Burrow got exactly the matchup they were looking for. Jefferson’s double-move left his defender in the dust, and Burrow delivered a strike for the Tigers’ first touchdown pass since September.
“It was a corner up,” Jefferson said, referring to his route. “We’ve been working on it this whole year. We finally got the chance to run it. It was one-on-one, me and the safety. He was playing inside of me, and I knew he was going to go for the corner. I just went straight up, and it was wide open.”
It was the biggest play of the night for a passing game that had its most efficient outing in a month. Burrow finished 15-of-21 for 195 yards and the score, but wasn’t happy with his play afterward.
“No,” Burrow answered when asked if he felt like it was one of his better games in recent weeks. “It felt like we were sluggish. It felt like we got complacent. It felt sluggish out there. I don’t know what it was, but I’m excited to get back on the field for practice.”
It wasn’t a perfect game, but Burrow’s 165.1 passer rating was his second-best of the season. His touchdown to Jefferson put LSU ahead early, and his third down conversion to Derrick Dillon on the Tigers’ final drive sealed the win.
Head coach Ed Orgeron said he was pleased with the playcalling of offensive coordinator Steve Ensminger.
“I thought at the beginning Steve dialed it up pretty good,” said Orgeron. “We had some guys open. When we protect, we feel we can get guys open and be successful.”
Jefferson, meanwhile, is up to 669 receiving yards through nine games, a 74.3 yard per game average that would be the best by an LSU receiver since Jarvis Landry and Odell Beckham Jr. averaged 91.8 and 88.6 yards per game, respectively, in 2013.
Most satisfying for the sophomore was getting his third score of the season, and his first since grabbing a pair against Ole Miss Sept. 29.
“Me and Joe have been trying to get in the end zone, especially this whole week, watching Arkansas film,” Jefferson said. “It’s really him putting his trust in me to go make a play.”
NO SHIRT, NO PROBLEM
Had Greedy Williams known ahead of time, he’d have gladly joined his fellow defensive backs on the field for a shirtless warm up.
Instead, he took the field pregame as surprised as everyone else to find DBU had gone bare-chested in the cold weather.
“If they would’ve told me to do it in the locker room, I would’ve done it,” he said. “But I didn’t feel like stripping.”
The trend started with sophomore safety Grant Delpit, who took the field without a top and soon recruited his fellow secondary teammates to join him – minus Williams, of course. Even John Battle, the senior safety who missed the game with an ankle injury, shed his shirt.
“We saw Grant come out shirtless, JB went along with it,” said sophomore safety JaCoby Stevens, who earned his first start of the season and picked up two of LSU’s 12 pass break ups. “I said, ‘Hey, I’m going to take my shirt off.’ We wanted to make a statement that it doesn’t matter what kind of weather environment we’re in. We’re going to play LSU football.”
The Tiger defense did just that, giving up just 216 yards, including just 16 on the ground. They also broke up 12 Arkansas passes and picked off another, an excellent one-handed grab by Kary Vincent.
Dave Aranda needed the entire depth of his secondary, too. With Battle out and Kristian Fulton gone by halftime with an ankle injury, the onus fell on Vincent, Terrence Alexander, Stevens, and Ed Paris to fill in on short notice.
No warning. No shirt. No problem.
“Coach O always preaches next man up,” Stevens said. “Last week, John Battle went down and Todd Harris stepped up. We had a lot of guys step up today. We have a lot of depth.”
They also have the respect of their quarterback, an Ohio native used to cold weather himself.
“That’s toughness, baby,” Burrow said of the shirt-free pre-game session.
STATEMENT DRIVE
After LSU followed up Burrow’s touchdown pass with punts on back-to-back possessions, Ensminger decided to send a message.
That message came through loud and clear on the Tigers’ fifth drive of the game: a 14-play, 74-yarder that featured 12 runs and ended in seven points.
“We needed to run the football,” Orgeron said. “We couldn’t protect very well, so we got on the headsets and said, ‘Let’s run the football. Let’s be physical.’”
The result was six rushes from Clyde-Edwards Helaire for 23 yards and two first downs, followed by three more Brossette totes for 15 yards. After Burrow hit Jefferson for 16, the Tigers ran on three of their next four plays, finished by a 12-yard Brossette touchdown that came with a little push.
Initially hit around the eight-yard line, Brossette got into the end zone thanks to a pile-pushing effort from his offensive line.
“Everybody got their little pushes in,” Jefferson said. “It was the whole offense. It was a team effort.”
Stevens agreed. He and his defensive teammates were both happy to get the seven minutes of rest and fired up by the physical nature of the drive.
“We feed off each other,” Stevens said. “To see Nick and the whole line push basically 10 yards out from the end zone, that hyped us up.”
“I thought that was at turning point in the ball game,” Orgeron added. “It slowed down their tempo, gave our defense a chance to rest. Our defense was playing lights out. I thought it set the tempo for the rest of the game.”
Said Burrow: “That drive was vintage LSU Football.”