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LSU’s Five Rushing Touchdowns Blazes Past UAB To 41-10 Victory

November 20, 2022 · Jace LeJeune

A week after the offense struggles on the road in a 13-10 win over Arkansas, the best dose of medicine for the LSU offense on a cold, rainy night in Tiger Stadium was the running game in a 41-10 win over UAB.

To cap off the Tigers’ last home game of the regular season, the running game heated up when the temperature was in the 40’s as the offense had 266 yards and five touchdowns on the ground. Despite not having leading ball carrier Josh Williams and also Armoni Goodwin, offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock leaned on the other two scholarship running backs Noah Cain and John Emery Jr.

“It was very important. We already knew going into last week, playing Arkansas, that everyone had to play their best game but it’s tough. All of Coach Kelly’s speeches touch on the mental toughness of getting back on track and just playing football. We all know we can play. I’m just glad we were able to execute tonight at a high level.”

LSU RB Noah Cain on importance of offense getting back into rhythm

Cain had a three touchdown night to go along with 76 yards on 13 carries. Although Emery fumbled the ball twice, he showed his explosiveness with 46 yards rushing and also started the scoring with a two yard touchdown run. Even though both running backs combining for four touchdowns, it turned out that neither was tonight’s leading rusher.

Jayden Daniels and John Emery Jr. both run for touchdowns tonight against UAB. (Photo taken by Jason Saucier)

That honor belongs to LSU’s dynamic quarterback Jayden Daniels. After struggling last week with only 86 yards passing against Arkansas, Daniels had a bounce back night and showed why he was so great in the Tigers’ three game stretch against Florida, Ole Miss, and Alabama. For the third time this season, Daniels threw for over 200 yards and ran for over 100 yards in a single game. Heading into this season, no LSU quarterback has ever done that through four quarters and this year, the Arizona State transfer has done so twice. In the win, he completed 22 of 29 passes for 297 yards including a touchdown pass to Brian Thomas Jr. while leading the team with 111 yards rushing and another touchdown on 12 carries.

“Jayden Daniels prepared really well, and you can make the case this was his best game of the year. He pushed the ball down the field vertically, saw things, and he was assertive. I think he was responsible for over 400 yards. Anytime a quarterback does that, that’s a pretty good day. So, I think that decisiveness and that assertiveness, you could see it in his preparation this week.”

LSU Head Coach Brian Kelly on Jayden Daniels’ performance

In the passing game, Malik Nabers put on a show as he had seven catches for 129 yards with three of those grabs going for 20 yards or more. In the game, Nabers also reached 1,000 yards receiving in his career while also notching his first 100 yard performance of the season. With Kayshon Boutte being out because of the flu, it was the Tigers’ leading pass catcher this season that took over the game.

“It was good. Like I said last week, I had a great week of preparation. I felt like as an offense, we didn’t. We attacked the week harder. It was good, you know. If you prepare harder, then the end will be easy. We just go out and perform.”

LSU QB Jayden Daniels on offense bouncing back from last week

Defensively, it was a slow start for the Tigers. After giving up a big 66 yard return on special teams, UAB would tie the game at 7 with a touchdown run by DeWayne McBride and then would make a field goal to pull within four at 14-10, but that was as close as it would get for the Blazers. LSU would then either force a punt or a turnover on downs the next nine UAB drives and would outscore the opposition 27-0.

On senior night, defensive end Ali Gaye sacks UAB quarterback Dylan Hopkins for a loss in front of his family, who saw Ali play for the first time in person at Tiger Stadium. (Photo taken by Jason Saucier)

On senior night, Ali Gaye had a sack in front of his family that came to see him play for the first time ever in Tiger Stadium. Joe Foucha had four tackles. Jay Ward and Micah Baskerville had three tackles a piece. Mekhi Garner and Jarrick Bernard-Converse had two tackles. LSU Head Coach Brian Kelly loves how this senior class has set the tone for this team from becoming a last place team in the SEC West last season to first this season. He is also proud of how this team has mentally grown over the course of the season.

“I told our team in our meeting before we head to the stadium-called our Mental Edge-I told them I wanted to be able to come in front of media and talk about the growth of this football team. In particular, the mental toughness that they have acquired over the year.”

“Mental toughness to me in our team is accountability. It’s their ability to count on their teammates and themselves out there. This team did that against a team, if you listen to people talk, you’re supposed to beat them. It requires an accountability that you’re intentional in what you do, do your job when you’re supposed to do your job and you do it the right way, the way it’s been taught.”

“I am so proud of our mental toughness and their ability to do it the right way late in November against a team they’re supposed to beat. The wins have been nice. The individual achievements have been really neat-the SEC West Championship, but I’m most proud of the mental toughness this group has shown.”

LSU Head Coach Brian Kelly on the team’s mental toughness

Leading the team in tackles tonight was Greg Penn and freshman phenom Harold Perkins. Penn had eight tackles and a TFL while Perkins had five tackles and two tackles for loss. The Tigers’ rushing defense shut down one of the nation’s leading rushers in UAB’s McBride. McBride came in averaging 156.3 yards per game, but only ran for 34 yards while only averaging 2.6 yards per carry against this brick wall LSU defensive front. The passing game was not much of a factor either with Dylan Hopkins completing less than 50% of his passes for 158 yards.

“I think that our preparation during the week was a big emphasis on stopping the run. (DeWayne McBride) is one of the best running backs in the country. Coach House put together a great game plan on stopping the run game and we went out there and executed it well.”

LSU LB Greg Penn on shutting down UAB’s rushing attack

LSU defensive lineman Jaquelin Roy (99) and linebacker Harold Perkins (40) played a big role in shutting down one of the best running backs in the country for UAB. (Photo taken by Jason Saucier)

It was a great way to close out the home season and to cap off the last game in Tiger Stadium for the seniors. LSU now improves to 9-2 overall and will have one more regular season game against Texas A&M before making the trip to Atlanta for the SEC Championship game.

Pregame:

1st Quarter:

2nd Quarter:

3rd Quarter:

4th Quarter:

Final Stats:

Offensive Cumulative Stats:

STAT UAB LSU
NET TOTAL YARDS 259 565
NET RUSHING YARDS 48 266
Rushing Attempts 22 41
Average Per Rush 2.2 6.5
Rushing TDs 1 5
Yards Gained 63 268
Yards Lost 15 2
NET PASSING YARDS 211 299
Completion-Attempts 17-35 23-31
Completion Percentage 49% 74%
Avg Per Completion 12.4 13.0
YAC 103 86
Passing TDs 0 1
Drops (%) 2 (06%) 1 (03%)
TOTAL 1ST DOWNS 12 31
Rushing 1st Downs 3 15
Passing 1st Downs 8 13
Penalty 1st Downs 1 3
TOTAL PLAYS 57 72
Avg Yds/Play 4.5 7.8
Rushing-Passing 22-35 41-31

Offense Efficiency Comparison:

STAT UAB LSU
RED ZONE ATTEMPTS 2-3 6-7
Red Zone Points 10 41
RZ TDs Rush-Pass 1-0 5-1
RZ FG Made-Att 1-1 0-0
RZ Turns 1 1
3rd Downs 4-14 11-13
4th Downs 0-3 0-1
Penalties 8-73 3-39
Fumbles-Lost 0-0 2-2
Pts Off Turns 0 0
POSSESSION TIME 26:51 33:09

Special Teams Comparison:

STAT UAB LSU
Punts-Avg 6-45.8 1-44.0
Inside20 2 1
Field Goals 1-1 0-0
Kick Returns 2-89 1-20
Punt Returns 1-0 3–3

Defensive Comparison:

STAT UAB LSU
TACKLES 77 48
Solo Tackles 39 28
Tackles for Loss 4 5
TFL Yards -5 -18
Pass Breakups 3 5
QB Hurries 0 1
Sacks 1 1
Sacks Yards -1 -6
Takeaways FR-INT 2-0 0-0
Forced Fumbles 2 0
Fumble Recoveries 2 0
FR Yards 0 0
Interceptions 0 0
INT Yards 0 0
TDs INT-FR 0-0 0-0

UAB Passing:

# PLAYER C-A YDS TD I C% RTG
9 HOPKINS,D 14-29 158 0 0 48 94
4 ZENO,J 3-6 53 0 0 50 124.2
PASS TOTALS 17-35 211 0 0 49

UAB Receiving:

# PLAYER NO YDS TD LNG AVG TGT C% YAC DR
11 SHROPSHIRE,T 4 54 0 36 13.5 12 33 0 1
48 DAMOUS,B 3 56 0 27 18.7 5 60 47 0
7 RUDOLPH,S 2 27 0 20 13.5 4 50 0 0
84 PAYNE,D 2 17 0 13 8.5 2 100 20 0
2 FARRIER II,F 2 12 0 15 6 3 67 0 1
3 JONES,T 1 27 0 27 27 1 100 29 0
8 BOYKIN,D 1 7 0 7 7 2 50 0 0
22 MCBRIDE,D 1 6 0 6 6 1 100 7 0
10 MCDONALD,T 1 5 0 5 5 1 100 0 0
9 RECEIVERS 17 211 0 36 12.4 35 49 103 2

UAB Rushing:

# PLAYER ATT YDS TD LNG AVG
22 MCBRIDE,D 13 34 1 6 2.6
1 BROWN JR.,J 6 24 0 9 4
5 WITHERSPOON,L 1 -4 0 0 -4
9 HOPKINS,D 2 -6 0 0 -3
4 RUSHERS 22 48 1 9 2.2

UAB Punting:

Punter NO YDS AVG LNG I20 50+
GREENWELL,K 6 275 45.8 55 2 2

UAB Field Goals:

Kicker Time Dist Result
M.Quinn 2nd-14:57 29 GOOD
TOTAL 1-1 LONG OF 29

UAB All Purpose Yards:

Player Tot Rush Rec KOR PR IR-FR TDs
BROWN JR.,J 90 24 0 66 0 0 0
DAMOUS,B 56 0 56 0 0 0 0
SHROPSHIRE,T 54 0 54 0 0 0 0

UAB Defense:

# Player (Starter) TotTk Solo Sack TFL Int BrUp QBH FF
1 J.Key 12 9 0 1 0 0 0 0
0 K.Swoopes (S) 6 3 0 0 0 0 0 1
50 N.Wilder (LB) 6 2 0 0 0 0 0 0
12 G.Cash (S) 5 3 0 0 0 0 0 0
20 D.Bynum (CB) 5 4 0 1 0 0 0 0
10 N.Eason Jr. 5 3 0 1 0 0 0 0
11 D.Miller 5 3 0 0 0 0 0 1
98 T.Howard 4 2 0 0 0 0 0 0
7 T.Taylor (LB) 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
93 M.Fairbanks II (DE) 3 1 0.5 0.5 0 0 0 0
15 D.Tuazama 3 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
25 R.Ellis 3 2 0 0 0 0 0 0
92 K.Penn 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
4 S.Thomas V (CB) 2 1 0 0 0 2 0 0
21 W.Boler (S) 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3 C.Daniels 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0
96 A.Carbajal III 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
44 I.Forte (DL) 1 0 0.5 0.5 0 0 0 0
99 F.McWilliams (DL) 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
10 T.McDonald 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
13 R.Collier 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
33 C.Dempsey 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
51 T.Brown 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
TOTALS 77 39 1 4 0 3 0 2

UAB Punt Returns:

Returner NO YDS AVG LNG TD
THOMAS V,S 1 0 00 0 0

UAB Kick Returns:

Returner NO YDS AVG LNG TD
BROWN JR.,J 1 66 66 66 0
THOMAS V,S 1 23 23 23 0
TOTAL 2 89 45 66 0

UAB Team Stats By Quarter:

1st Rush Pass CAI TotY Avg 3rds Pens
1st 5 5-8 8-85 8-8-0 93 7.2 1-2 0-0
2nd 1 4-1 8-60 5-8-0 61 5.1 0-3 3-24
3rd 4 9-33 11-13 1-11-0 46 2.3 3-6 2-17
4th 2 4-6 8-53 3-8-0 59 4.9 0-3 3-32
Total 12 22-48 35-211 17-35-0 259 4.5 4-14 8-73

UAB Scoring Summary:

Qtr Clock Score Type Play Drive Score
1 09:19 TD RUSH D.McBride 5 yd rush
PAT kick by M.Quinn (GOOD)		 3/30/1:12 7-7
2 14:57 FG M.Quinn 29 yd Field Goal 11/63/6:02 14-10

LSU Passing

# PLAYER C-A YDS TD I C% RTG
5 DANIELS,J 22-29 297 1 0 76 173.3
13 NUSSMEIER,G 1-2 2 0 0 50 58.4
PASS TOTALS 23-31 299 1 0 74

LSU Receiving:

# PLAYER NO YDS TD LNG AVG TGT C% YAC DR
8 NABERS,M 7 129 0 47 18.4 8 88 39 1
11 THOMAS JR.,B 4 21 1 8 5.3 4 100 5 0
80 BECH,J 3 61 0 29 20.3 4 75 3 0
86 TAYLOR,M 3 39 0 15 13 3 100 26 0
10 JENKINS,J 2 29 0 25 14.5 5 40 8 0
2 LACY,K 2 12 0 14 6 3 67 0 0
21 CAIN,N 1 6 0 6 6 1 100 5 0
82 MASHBURN,J 1 2 0 2 2 1 100 0 0
8 RECEIVERS 23 299 1 47 13 31 74 86 1

LSU Rushing:

# PLAYER ATT YDS TD LNG AVG
5 DANIELS,J 12 111 1 28 9.3
21 CAIN,N 13 76 3 15 5.8
4 EMERY JR.,J 9 46 1 14 5.1
12 DAVIS JR.,D 5 28 0 16 5.6
36 DEMAS,N 2 5 0 5 2.5
5 RUSHERS 41 266 5 28 6.5

LSU Punting:

Punter NO YDS AVG LNG I20 50+
BRAMBLETT,J 1 44 44 44 1 0

LSU Field Goals:

Kicker Time Dist Result
TOTAL 0-0 LONG OF 0

LSU All Purpose Yards:

Player Tot Rush Rec KOR PR IR-FR TDs
NABERS,M 129 0 129 0 0 0 0
DANIELS,J 111 111 0 0 0 0 1
CAIN,N 102 76 6 20 0 0 3

LSU Defense:

# Player (Starter) TotTk Solo Sack TFL Int BrUp QBH FF
30 G.Penn III (LB) 8 5 0 1 0 0 0 0
40 H.Perkins Jr. (LB) 5 3 0 2 0 1 0 0
13 J.Foucha (DB) 4 1 0 0 0 0 1 0
18 B.Ojulari (DE) 4 2 0 0 0 0 0 0
5 J.Ward (DB) 3 3 0 0 0 1 0 0
23 M.Baskerville (LB) 3 1 0 0 0 1 0 0
2 M.Garner (DB) 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
11 A.Gaye (DE) 2 1 1 1 0 1 0 0
24 J.Bernard-Converse (CB) 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
99 J.Roy (DL) 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0
3 G.Brooks Jr. 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
10 J.Jenkins 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0
28 M.Burns 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0
33 W.Weeks 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
15 S.Ryan 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
32 D.Tolan 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
35 S.Jones 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0
44 S.Roy 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
95 T.Hill 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
TOTALS 48 28 1 5 0 5 1 0

LSU Punt Returns:

Returner NO YDS AVG LNG TD
CLAYTON JR.,G 3 -3 -01 2 0

LSU Kick Returns:

Returner NO YDS AVG LNG TD
CAIN,N 1 20 20 20 0

LSU Team Stats By Quarter:

1st Rush Pass CAI TotY Avg 3rds Pens
1st 7 9-41 8-113 6-8-0 154 9.1 3-3 0-0
2nd 10 11-85 11-116 9-11-0 201 9.1 3-3 1-15
3rd 7 9-49 5-41 4-5-0 90 6.4 2-3 2-24
4th 7 12-91 7-29 4-7-0 120 6.3 3-4 0-0
Total 31 41-266 31-299 23-31-0 565 7.8 11-13 3-39

LSU Scoring Summary:

Qtr Clock Score Type Play Drive Score
1 10:44 TD RUSH J.Emery Jr. 2 yd rush
PAT kick by D.Ramos (GOOD)		 9/79/4:11 7-0
1 05:59 TD RUSH N.Cain 5 yd rush
PAT kick by D.Ramos (GOOD)		 8/75/3:20 14-7
2 05:20 TD RUSH N.Cain 1 yd rush
PAT kick by D.Ramos (GOOD)		 12/79/5:16 21-10
2 00:40 TD RUSH N.Cain 1 yd rush
PAT kick by D.Ramos (GOOD)		 4/55/0:34 28-10
3 06:50 TD RUSH J.Daniels 2 yd rush
PAT kick by D.Ramos (FAIL)		 6/57/2:46 34-10
4 09:46 TD PASS B.Thomas Jr. 5 yd reception thrown by J.Daniels
PAT kick by T.Finison (GOOD)		 9/86/3:34 41-10