Rabalais: LSU Tigers look like team in reverse

Advocate staff photo by BILL FEIG -- The LSU football team is lead onto the field by the cheerleaders during the first half.

So, LSU, don’t want to play for another national championship?

Was the horror of Jan. 9 that traumatic that you don’t want to face that pain again? Because at this point, you look like a team backing away from the pinnacle.

There was nothing redeeming about playing Towson on Saturday night going into the game other than it was a chance to improve. You were coming off an underwhelming 12-10 win at Auburn, a three-touchdown underdog. Towson, an FCS team from the Colonial Athletic Association, was supposed to be a glorified scrimmage.

Unfortuntely, few of your fans wanted to see it. Tiger Stadium was only about half full. And that’s being generous. The opponent didn’t help. Neither did the rain.

At this point, a lot of them are probably glad they stayed away.

I know you are all too young to remember the Curley Hallman era back in the early 1990s. That’s good. Talk about horrors. But your 38-22 victory over Towson certainly was a flashback to the bad old days.

Half-empty stadium. No energy. A rainy, depressing day overall. And you played the perfect part of an LSU team stumbling around doing its best to lose, or at least look bad in winning.

Oh yes, it sure had the look and feel and smell of 1992 all right. Thanks for the memories.

Every team can have an off night. Trouble is, since you clobbered Washington 41-3 (a win that stands out in even more stark relief since the Huskies upset Stanford on Thursday) you’ve looked like a team that has regressed.

The Towson game was supposed to fix all that. One last tune up before the Southeastern Conference meatgrinder begins for real next week at Florida.

Is there more wrong under the hood than any of us realized? Because this was a rattle ... sputter ... clunk ... wheeze kind of night. Do you realize you managed to commit more penalties (10 instead of nine) and turnovers (three instead of two) than you did at Auburn? Do you realize you allowed more yards rushing (188) and more yards overall (291) to an FCS team than you did to a team from your own conference last week (130 and 183)?

Credit to Towson. These guys came to play and they had some players, like running back Terrence West and free safety Jonathan Dangerfield. We all gave Towson no respect, no respect at all, and that was clearly a mistake.

Eventually, superior talent trumped all. Russell Shepard made a nice run and Zach Mettenberger made a couple of nice deep passes to Odell Beckham Jr. for touchdowns (despite having turned it over for the fifth straight game).

But there are no more Towsons left on the schedule, fellas. No more North Texases or Idahos, either. It’s SEC the rest of the way and as you know this isn’t a conference where you can nap on anyone.

You’re going to have to find a way to win prettier than this, Tigers, or you’re going to have to learn to accept some defeats.