By: Doug Ireland/Sports Information Director
BATON ROUGE – The LSU football team looked every bit the nation's No. 2 major college squad Saturday night, taking command with two touchdowns in the closing minutes of the first half and whipping Northwestern State 49-3 before 92,405 at Tiger Stadium.
The Demons dipped to 1-1 after losing their first matchup with LSU since 1942, with a first-ever contest at SMU ahead next Saturday night. The Tigers went 2-0 heading into their Southeastern Conference opener next Thursday at Mississippi State.
"That is definitely the number one team in the country. They are a great football team," said Demons' coach Bradley Dale Peveto, who was an assistant at LSU when the TIgers won the 2007 BCS national championship. "They were pretty impressive on television (last week whipping No. 3 Oregon 40-27) and they are even more impressive in person.
"That is a fast, fast team. They get edges that you do not think they are going to get. They are as physical a team as I have watched in a long time," he said. "I was in this league for four years and I do not remember seeing a team that physical."
The home opener throng at Tiger Stadium, including well over 4,000 NSU fans, was the largest crowd to watch a Northwestern football game, surpassing the previous high of 86,520 at Georgia's Sanford Stadium in 2002. In that game, the No. 4-ranked Bulldogs dumped the Demons 45-7, and that NSU team went on to reach the FCS playoffs.
LSU went to 11-0 all-time against Northwestern but gave up points for the first time ever. John Shaughnessy drilled a 44-yard field goal one minute into the second quarter to draw the Demons within 7-3 and ultimately become a historic footnote.
"That does mean something to us," said Peveto. "We wanted to win, but when you've played a school 10 times and haven't scored, that's business you want to take care of and we did. It just turned out that we didn't convert on some other opportunities on their end of the field, and you give a ton of credit to that LSU defense for that."
The Tigers' defense overwhelmed the Demons afterward as the outcome was resolved. LSU held Northwestern to only 95 total yards and just six first downs on 56 snaps.
A 21-point second quarter and a touchdown on the opening series after halftime turned the game into a rout.
LSU took command just before halftime, moving quickly downfield to make it 28-3 after the Demons' bid to draw closer misfired with a bad snap on a fourth-and-5 at the LSU 37. Michael Ford capped a 52-yard, 5-play drive in a half-minute by pounding it in from 3 yards out with 20 seconds to go before halftime.
The Tigers' defense was rugged while LSU scored three second-quarter touchdowns.
The Demons were stymied, except for a 25-yard fake punt pass from Don Canyon to Justin Aldredge, after getting some production in the first period. Otherwise, on 16 other plays, Northwestern netted no yards against a ubitiquous LSU defense.
“If there's a better one out there, I want to see it,” said Peveto. “They are so fast, so physical, so well coached, and they play every snap like it's the last one.”
The Tigers went up 7-0 by scoring on their first series, getting a 9-yard Jarrett Lee pass to Deangelo Peterson midway through the first quarter. The Demons took the kickoff and moved into Tiger territory, but a bad snap in shotgun formation on second-and-3 at the LSU 31 helped spoil the chance. It did help get NSU on the board, however.
After a punt to the LSU 13, NSU's Jeremy Lane sacked Lee for an 11-yard loss back to the Tigers' 3. The Demons forced a short LSU punt, got a first down but had to settle for the 44-yard Shaughnessy field goal 14 minutes before halftime.
The Tigers moved 63 yards on eight plays for a 14-3 advantage at 9:50 of the second quarter on a 1-yard dive by Spencer Ware. Less than two minutes later, it was 21-3 on a 6-yard Ware sweep set up by a diving interception by LSU defensive tackle Michael Brockers at the Demons' 15 two plays earlier.
The last-minute TD sent LSU soaring into halftime and the Tigers roared out of the lockerroom.
LSU removed any doubt about the outcome by taking the second half kickoff behind backup 69 yards in six plays over the first 2:28 to go up 35-3 on a 9-yard run by Ford.
The Tigers added two more touchdowns, off drives of 57 and 68 yards, and kept the Demons shackled after halftime.
LSU finished with 400 total yards, 175 on the ground and 225 passing on 17 of 21 aim. NSU's Brad Henderson completed his first seven passes and finished 16 of 26 with the interception.
"I have to give credit to Bradley Dale Peveto because they are well coached," said LSU coach Les Miles. "I think they are going to be a very good team. I like their team. They have a good defense. I felt their special teams did a good job.
"I knew that their special teams was going to run a fake on us, I told our team to keep an eye on it. I know this guy, and shoot, I coached with him. Well, (NSU special teams coordinator) Brendan Farrell did it to us. You talk about small victory, those guys had a small victory on that play, just so you know."
