LSU Football: 3 takeaways from statement win over Texas in Week 2

LSU football defeated the Texas Longhorns 45-38 in Austin, Texas. What did we learn from the Tigers’ statement win over the “we’re back” Longhorns?

Sam Ehlinger made the statement “Texas is back” after a bowl win over Georgia about eight months ago, but the Longhorns took some steps in the wrong direction in Week 2.

LSU marched into Austin for a top-10 battle in Week 2 and stole a win from the Longhorns in thrilling, yet impressive, fashion.

What’d we learn from the Tigers’ win?

3. Texas’ defense was exposed

ESPN color analyst Kirk Herbstreit said all night that Texas Longhorns’ defensive coordinator likes to be aggressive and put its defensive backs on an island on one on one match ups. The result of Todd Orlando playing so much man coverage: 471 yards passing by Joe Burrow and three receivers with over 100 yards. Maybe they should have played more zone.

The Longhorns were re-tooling their defense this season under Orlando and head coach Tom Herman starting seven underclassmen. When you have so few juniors and seniors you don’t have much if any talent depth.

Their lack of talent depth, especially upfront was exposed and Burrow was never threatened when Texas only rushed four. The Longhorns had to blitz to get pressure on the LSU quarterback.

Those underclassmen for the Longhorns showed their inexperience in big moments missing tackles, assignments and having bad technique in the game. Burrow used his experience versus inexperience to carve up the Longhorns’ secondary.