LSU Football: Offensive Explosion in Scrimmage Is Just What the Tigers Need

All the talk in Baton Rouge this week has been about the dismissal of star cornerback Tyrann Mathieu, but the Tiger offense appears to be getting cranked up.

According to Jim Kleinpeter of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, the Tiger offense erupted in its scrimmage on Thursday night, which featured 120 plays and was heavy on red-zone work.

Quarterback Zach Mettenberger completed 15 of 26 passes for 170 yards, five touchdowns and one interception. Running backs Kenny Hilliard and Alfred Blue each topped the 100-yard mark as the Tiger ground game gained a total of 300 yards.

That'll work.

Despite the gaudy statistics, head coach Les Miles complimented the defense.

"Defense probably won the day but there was enough offense for us secure some of the mistakes we made," Miles said (via Nola.com). "There was some good tackling. The guys up front got after us. The good news is we didn't get anybody hurt."

Talk about burying the lede. 

Is the Mad Hatter trying to keep his offense under the radar? If he is, he might want to avoid releasing statistics after scrimmages, because that was some serious firepower from the Tiger offense.

It's exactly why the Tigers won't be significantly hurt by the loss of Mathieu—they already solved their biggest problem from last season.

This is a different team than the one that took home the SEC crown last season, and because of that, LSU wouldn't have been counting so much on Mathieu anyway.

Mettenberger can stretch the field, and that will impact the entire Tiger running game. The return of the four horsemen at running back and essentially five starting offensive linemen has the Tiger offense poised for a big-time season.

Even if Miles doesn't want to talk about it.

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