LSU vs Ole Miss Week 5 Review
Erik Trosclair • October 1, 2025
Let's get into it!
LSU drops one against Ole Miss. It is time to talk about this LSU offense.
The teams trade punts to open the game. Ole Miss goes 3 and out. LSU goes on a 5 play 67 yard drive that was capped off by a Nic Anderson 7 yard receiving TD. LSU 7-0. Ole Miss answers with an 18 play 83 yard drive that was capped off by a Lucas Carneiro 25 yard field goal. LSU 7-3. Garrett Nussmeier throws an interception on LSU's next drive. The teams trade punts. Ole Miss fumbles the ball away on the following drive. LSU goes 3 and out. Ole Miss goes on a 5 play 70 yard drive that was capped off by a Kewan Lacy 15 yard rushing TD. Ole Miss 10-7. LSU punts on the next drive. Ole Miss goes on a strong 9 play 69 yard drive that was capped off by a Cayden Lee 2 yard receiving TD. Ole Miss 17-7. LSU kneels out the half. The teams trade punts to open the 2nd half. LSU goes on an 8 play 33 yard drive that was capped off by a Damian Ramos 39 yard field goal. Ole Miss 17-10. Trinidad Chambliss throws an intercept on Ole Miss' next drive. LSU takes advantage by going on a 6 play 16 yard drive that was capped off by a Damian Ramos 48 yard field goal. Ole Miss 17-13. Ole Miss responds by going on an 11 play 75 yard drive that was capped off by a Logan Diggs 6 yard rushing TD. Ole Miss 24-13. LSU punches back by going on a 15 play 80 yard drive that was capped off by a Harlem Berry 6 yard rushing TD. Ole Miss 24-19. Ole Miss runs out the clock on the Tigers. Ole Miss wins.
Takeaways
- On opening drives, LSU has run 19 plays for 62 yards and has thrown 1 interception. Something needs to change here.
- No, Brian Kelly, LSU fans are not spoiled. This offense is yet again near the bottom of the SEC in rushing offense.
- Brian Kelly's comments about practicing are getting old quick. You make too much money to not take accountability.
Awards
- Offensive MVP - Harlem Berry - Harlem was able to score a TD for the Tigers in a big game. His future is bright!
- Defensive MVP - A.J. Haulcy - What more can you say about this guy?! A true leader on the field who FLIES to the football.
The Tigers will look to heal up during the bye week.
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New Orleans Saints 19 - 31 Buffalo Bills The Saints were never supposed to or expected to win the game today against the Bills, who are one of, if not the best team in the NFL. That being said, I wanted to see the team clean up the penalties and show some fight against a really good opponent, which they did. The team is in the rebuilding process, something we all knew going into the season, so what is most important for this team is showing that they have key building pieces in the building. Multiple young players showed up for the Saints today in key moments, with the most notable being Kendre Miller and Jonas Sanker. Kendre Miller has shown flashes in previous games, and today when the Saints relied on the run game, he took 11 carries for 65 yards and a touchdown. These numbers aren’t jaw dropping by any means, but it shows that he is potentially ready to take the reins as RB1 whenever Alvin Kamara leaves the team. On the other side of the ball, Jonas Sanker was the best player on the field, with 5 tackles, 3 PBUs, and the first interception of the Saints’ season. When Julian Blackmon went out, Jonas Sanker was called upon earlier than expected, and he’s showing key flashes in his young career. The defense is one that visibly lacks talent, yet they had a solid performance overall against one of the most dangerous offenses in the league led by the MVP Josh Allen. Although they let up two touchdowns to start the game, the Saints’ defense held the Bills scoreless in the second quarter, providing a perfect opportunity for the offense to take control of the game, which they failed to do. Like I said above, Jonas Sanker gave the defense their first turnover, and the defense had 3 sacks in big moments (Cam Jordan, Carl Granderson, Bryan Bresee). This being said, the Saints are in need of talent on defense, with their defensive line lacking the necessary speed/agility to succeed in the 3-4 scheme. They can rush the passer and get some pressure, but dropping into coverage is an issue, one that showed up when Dalton Kincaid scored the final touchdown of the game with just over 7 minutes left. Kellen Moore clearly had a gameplan focused on running the ball against the Ed Oliver-less Bills’ defense, and it worked well until the Saints were forced to turn to the pass game. Quick sidenote, I of course took the Spencer Rattler over at 200.5 yards, which he had hit the previous 3 games. It was Rattler’s first game of the season with less than 200 yards and 30 passing attempts, and with the way the Saints run game was working, that could become a new norm. The Saints also ran much more plays from under-center than they had in prior games this season, as Moore decided this would be a key in helping reduce pre-snap penalties. The biggest focus for both Kellen Moore and this offense, in my eyes, after the first 3 games was getting the pre-snap and offensive penalties under control. I expected them to do slightly better in Buffalo with another loud crowd, but they had 0 penalties on the offensive line, and the only offensive penalty was an intentional grounding. The offense did have a couple missteps in this game, with Moore calling a Philly special in an unnecessary situation, and Rattler having yet another bad open miss in the endzone. Kellen Moore dialed up the Philly special right before the half on 3rd and goal from the 5, even though the run game had been working, and Chris Olave ended up throwing an interception. I don’t mind the aggressiveness this showed, but it prevented the Saints from being able to kick a field goal to cut the lead to 1 before the half (if they got stopped on another type of play). As you can see below, Rattler mainly focused on short and outside passes, and the one long incompletion down the middle was due to yet another inaccurate redzone pass. Redzone misses have been a recurring theme for Rattler since week 1, something I hope he can clean up, and if he does he truly can be a good quarterback for this team. Here is Rattler’s throwing chart for the game:
HOW ‘BOUT THEM CAJUNS? The Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns emerge victorious last night, 54-51 in double-overtime against the Thundering Herd of Marshall, in a rematch of the 2024 Sun Belt Conference Championship Game. And it was a thriller, that’s for sure! Nearly just ten months ago, these two teams met at Cajun Field as the top two teams in the conference. Marshall ran away with the victory 31-3 to claim the conference title. This offseason, however, Marshall ran into a train wreck as they lost the majority of their roster to the transfer portal and graduation, including their head coach. The Cajuns on the other hand were looking forward to a season with higher expectations with the additions of QB Walker Howard, WR Shelton Sampson, and CB Curley Reed, to name a few. Yet despite all of this, Marshall came into this game in a much better position. With Howard (out for season), Sampson (out for 4-6 weeks), and other key starters out with injuries, particularly on the offensive line, the Cajuns have had a rough 1-3 start to the season. Despite a good running game, the passing game has never molded itself, and defense trended backwards as the non-conference season progressed, particularly on the ground. Meanwhile, Marshall came into this game 2-2, which included a rushing defense that ranked 34th nationally and an emerging QB in Carlos Del Rio-Wilson who won SBC Offensive Player of the Week last week. Final Takeaways 1. Louisiana’s rushing defense needs to find a better way to slow down the run game Coming into this game, Louisiana’s rushing defense ranked 127th nationally as they allowed 216 yards per game on average through four games. Not only that, but they’ve allowed the season leading rushers of Rice, Missouri, Eastern Michigan, and now Marshall to have their best season games against the Cajuns. Marshall’s leading RB Michael Allen ran for 138 yards on 19 carries and two touchdowns. Furthermore, QB Carlos Del Rio-Wilson also had a field day of his own, scrambling 21 times for 81 yards. This has certainly been the reason why the Cajuns have lost games this season, and very easily, this Marshall game could’ve ended up the same way. 2. Marshall QB Carlos Del Rio-Wilson outplayed Louisiana’s secondary Yesterday may have been a win for Louisiana, but for a Cajuns secondary that came in ranked 22nd nationally in passing yards allowed (allowing only 160 yards per game through the air), what Marshall did to this secondary should be concerning. We knew coming into this game that Marshall’s Carlos Del Rio-Wilson was an emerging quarterback who would put Louisiana’s secondary on the back of their heels. But there were just lots of wide open receivers that allowed Del Rio-Wilson to dissect this Cajuns secondary. He threw for 258 yards and three touchdowns while going 24/31. Hopefully this win is a wake-up call for this secondary as they dive deeper into conference play, because Sun Belt quarterbacks like Southern Miss’ Braylon Braxton (who played for Marshall last season), Arkansas State’s Jaylen Raynor, and Texas State’s Brad Jackson are very much capable of doing the same as Del Rio-Wilson did last night. 3. Despite facing adversity, Louisiana played real disciplined football last night versus Marshall One of the most impressive things a team can do in football is limit themselves to very few penalties, or no penalties at all. For Louisiana, there was not a single penalty thrown against them in regulation. This comes after Louisiana was flagged ten times for 85 yards at Eastern Michigan last week, which played a role in why they lost. They were flagged once in overtime last night on a very weak roughing the kicker penalty as Marshall went to take the lead in OT on a 51-yard field goal. Given that the team was dealing with an injury-riddled offensive line and still finished with no holding penalties says a lot about how well prepared and disciplined this team was. While some would argue penalties don’t affect who wins the ball game, having zero penalties in regulation definitely helped keep the Cajuns take this game into overtime rather than losing it. 4. Lunch Winfield has earned his shot at becoming Louisiana’s starting QB after 2nd half resurgence Had to save the best for last. Redshirt sophomore quarterback Lunch Winfield has always patiently waited for his opportunity ever since he joined the team in 2023. From time to time, he would come into games for special QB run packages. This season, Coach Des really wanted to emphasize that role since he was out-beaten in the quarterback battle by Walker Howard and Daniel Beale, but also knew he was a talented player. Well, sometimes things don’t always go the way they’re planned, and Lunch Winfield finally got his opportunity last night after the Cajuns benched Daniel Beale who finished the night 7/15, 72 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions. When he came in to replace Beale halfway through the third quarter, there was an immediate spark in the offense. Lunch already had scored a rushing touchdown earlier in the game (which was his first collegiate touchdown), but he came back in for good. What happened after that was history. In 20 minutes of play, Lunch led the Cajuns offense to four scores (he accounted for three of the four scores: two of which were beautiful touchdown passes and one was a rushing touchdown) that helped tie the game at 41 a piece and take it into overtime. He eventually won the game for the Cajuns in double overtime after a 10-yard run to the right pylon and a hurdle into the end zone, capping off one of the greatest comeback performances by a quarterback in recent UL football history (definitely the best in my memory). Lunch finished the game, playing for only a quarter and a half plus overtime, with 254 total yards (125 through the air and 129 on the ground), as well as accounting for five total touchdowns (two through the air and three on the ground). For an offense that has struggled through the air this season (only one passing touchdown prior to yesterday), I think it is safe to assume that Lunch has found himself as the starting quarterback for the team moving forward this season. Up until yesterday, there were question marks about his passing ability, but all of those doubts were answered by his spectacular second half performance. Coach Des was asked after the game if this performance would open his mind up to starting Lunch, and his response was “It absolutely does.” The team would like to build off of this momentum, and moving forward with Lunch would definitely help that. Up Next for Louisiana The Cajuns will now head into a bye week as they prepare to face the 3-1 Dukes of James Madison on October 11th in Harrisonburg, VA. Abdul Abusada via Cajun Sports Talk (@CajunSportsTalk) and Cajuns Insider.