Oklahoma-LSU: Three Keys to the Game

These are the three keys to the Sooners to beat LSU on Saturday: Run it Back, Hold That Tiger, and Keep Your Cool.

Oklahoma running back Xavier Robinson. / BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Oklahoma can make a pretty impressive statement on Saturday by going on the road to LSU and beating the Tigers.

That would make the Sooners 2-2 in SEC road games this season. That’s not easy to do.

And closing out the year by beating Alabama and LSU would be a potent salve for an aching fan base.

OU (6-5 overall, 2-5 SEC) opened as a 7-point underdog, but that line is now down to 6. LSU (7-4, 4-3) had won six in a row before a three-game losing streak — all by double digits.

While Brent Venables' Sooners were thumping ‘Bama 24-3 last week, LSU was hanging on to beat Vanderbilt 24-17.

It’s OU’s first trip to Baton Rouge, and it will be the third-largest crowd ever to watch an Oklahoma football game. No. 1 on that list was the 2017 trip to Ohio State, where 109,088 filled Ohio Stadium. No. 2 is the 2015 trip to Tennessee, where 103,455 rocked Neyland Stadium.

LSU is averaging 101,547 for its six home games this season, but Tiger Stadium seats 102,321, which is also its listed capacity.

LSU is 18-2 in its last 20 games in Baton Rouge, and coach Brian Kelley is 14-1 in night games in Death Valley.

The teams have met just three times before — all in the postseason — and the last two were very bad for Oklahoma and ended with national titles for LSU: a 21-14 loss to Matt Mauck, Nick Saban in New Orleans for the BCS National Championship, and a 63-28 loss to Joe Burrow and Ed Oregon in Atlanta in the College Football Playoff. Early in Bud Wilkinson's tenure, OU won 35-0 in the 1949-50 Sugar Bowl.

The game kicks off at 6 p.m. and will be carried by ESPN.

Here are three keys for Oklahoma to beat LSU:

Run it Back

Last week against Alabama, OU finished with 50 running plays and 12 passes. Seven of those were scrambles, but that’s likely the formula Oklahoma needs again to beat LSU.

The Tigers are just 64th in the nation in run defense, and while the Sooners’ overall numbers rushing the football aren’t good (76th nationally), they did make some major changes in pounding Bama for 257 yards on the ground. 

No doubt the LSU coaching staff will anticipate that, but Jackson Arnold and Joe Jon Finley need to avoid the temptation to throw against a heavy box. 

OU’s heavy personnel — two backs, two tight ends, full-house backfields, power formations — can get this done if they’re efficient like they were last week. 

Hold That Tiger

Oklahoma’s weakness on defense has been the passing game — specifically the long ball. Even last week, when seemingly everything else was working, Bama QB Jalen Milroe hit the Sooners for completions of 32, 28 and 30 yards, and nearly completed a 36-yard touchdown.

LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier doesn’t exactly major in the deep ball.

Wideouts Kyren Lacy and Aaron Anderson both average 15.0 yards per catch, but LSU ranks 77th nationally at just 11.81 yards per completions, and Nussmeier ranks 60th individually. Of their top 11 receivers, seven average less than 10 yards per catch. Expect a lot of passes, and a lot of check-downs.

Still, LSU has three receivers with more than 50 catches this year. (Bauer Sharp leads Oklahoma with 41, Deion Burks has 31, and Brenen Thompson is third with 19.) 

Nussmeier’s going to chuck it around the field. OU needs to be good in coverage — especially against the tight end, where Mason Taylor has 52 catches for 518 yards and two TDs. Brent Venables said he might be the best tight end in the SEC, and the Sooners have struggled to cover that position all season.

Keep Cool

Nothing sinks Oklahoma like turnovers.

Brent Venables has said it numerous times this season: when OU wins the turnover battle, the Sooners are 5-0. When they lose the turnover battle, they’re 0-5. (Maine was a tie.)

Good pass protection is paramount, as QB Jackson Arnold has fumbled 11 times and lost six (Michael Hawkins has fumbled three times and lost two). Running back Taylor Tatum has fumbled four times and lost three. But it’s not just the offense. Billy Bowman and Peyton Bowen have combined to fumble three punts this season and lost one.

Regardless of how many times Arnold and Xavier Robinson run the football, or how many times Garrett Nussmeier strafes the OU secondary, if Oklahoma gives the football away, the Sooners will lose.