BATON ROUGE, Louisiana — When Louisiana State kicked off to Missouri, Tiger Stadium was deafening. By the third quarter, Death Valley was considerably quieter, as many fans had had enough of what became a 42-7 blowout win for LSU.
Missouri, now 2-3 on the season, left Baton Rouge demoralized after its worst loss since joining the Southeastern Conference.
“Obviously not happy with any part of that performance,” Missouri coach Barry Odom said. “They handed it to us in every area.”
Missouri crumbled in front of 102,071 screaming fans. Here are three takeaways to help make sense of Saturday night’s blowout.
**On a new level:**
Since Missouri’s arrival in the SEC, an eastern division team has not won an SEC Championship.
Whether the competition is in head-to-head matchups, recruiting or overall records, the SEC West consistently outperforms the SEC East. On Saturday night, the case was no different.
From the opening kickoff, LSU throttled Missouri. The Tigers of Columbia were outmatched in almost every facet of the game with the final score capping off Missouri’s most dismal performance of the season.
LSU outgained Missouri by 369 total yards. Saturday was the first time this year that Missouri was held to under 400 total yards of offense.
Meanwhile, the Mizzou defense was consistently bodied by the LSU offensive line. Missouri only sacked the quarterback once and had a measly two tackles for loss.
**No Fournette, no problem:**
Leonard Fournette was LSU’s top offensive weapon coming into Saturday’s game. When LSU announced he was out, it appeared that the Tiger offense was toothless.
That was until Derrius Guice tore the Mizzou defense open.
The LSU sophomore ran all over the Missouri defense, rushing for 136 yards and three touchdowns in the first half. He finished with 163 yards on 17 attempts.
Meanwhile, normal-third-string running back Darrel Williams rushed for 130 yards and three touchdowns. In total, LSU finished with 418 rushing yards and six touchdowns.
**Mizzou offense Lock’d up:**
In Missouri’s first four games, the offense looked like a different beast from what fans came to expect last season. On Saturday night, the team had a relapse.
For the first time all season, Drew Lock looked uncomfortable in the pocket, Missouri’s wide receivers couldn’t shake their defenders and the offensive line was gashed. It was not the performance fans came to expect from the 2016 Missouri offense.
The Tiger pass attack, which was averaging 391 yards per game coming into Baton Rouge, faltered in Death Valley. Lock only threw for 167 yards. The only touchdown pass of the game from wide receiver Eric Laurent on a trick play.
Missouri’s run attack found the same level of success as the Tiger passing game. Missouri’s running backs rushed for 77 yards on 22 attempts.
_Edited by George Roberson | groberson@themaneater.com_
