LSU's season hangs in the balance. These three critical Tigers—Sloan, Perkins, and Davis—must deliver stellar performances to conquer Texas A&M.
The LSU Tigers are faced with maybe their toughest matchup of the season so far against the Texas A&M Aggies and don't have a ton of momentum after the loss to the Vanderbilt Commodores.
If the Tigers want to right the ship and take another step forward, these players (and coach) will need to perform at the top of their game if LSU hopes to secure a victory:
OC Joe Sloan
Before getting into any players that need to perform better, Sloan has been the team's biggest weakness of the season. His play calling has been poor and the offense has yet to really look prepared.
Sloan has been completely incapable of adapting to the opponent and situation. Calling wide receiver screens on second down while losing in the last couple of minutes of the game just doesn't get the job done.
If he wants to save his job, the offense must start looking better and more confident. Given that it's so late into the season, though, it's unclear how much can actually change. He'll just need to figure something out.
LB Harold Perkins Jr.
When the opponent has a mobile quarterback, all eyes go to Perkins. He wasn't able to play against the Aggies last year, and Marcel Reed destroyed them. If he can slow him down at all, it would be a win.
Perkins has also been inconsistent this season. Last week, he was very down. The Commodores picked on him both in coverage and in the run game, with very little done on the Tigers' side to adjust.
Unlike what they did with Diego Pavia, committing Perkins to spying Reed will be key to having a chance at stopping the speedy quarterback from killing them with his legs.
Reed's arm is good enough to worry about, so LSU must try to make Reed one-dimensional.
OT Weston Davis
Brian Kelly has not shied away from the fact that Davis has struggled this season, but he also doesn't seem close to moving to Carius Cune there, either.
Davis is a redshirt freshman starting in the SEC, so there are expected to be some bumps. He has been a liability for much of this season, though. Now that Tyree Adams is out, left tackle will be a question mark as well. It will be even more important for Davis to not be a turnstile in pass protection.
Pro Football Focus has credited Davis with 22 pressures allowed in 223 pass-blocking snaps. That is tied for the eighth in the nation. Texas A&M has a dominant pass rush, which will be ready to feast if the tackles aren't ready to compete.