Biggest comeback nobody saw

Published 6:00 pm Friday, September 29, 2017

Troy’s visit to Tiger Stadium this week reminds that the last time the Trojans were guests, LSU fans witnessed the greatest comeback in school history.

At least, a few did. More like a handful at most. Extreme diehards. Maybe a couple a dozen.

Most had fled the premises at halftime, dazed and terror-stricken, looking like they were cheap extras in a Godzilla movie.

This would have been 2008, when the Tigers were defending their 2007 national championship, and though it had already been established that there would be no repeat, it was fairly well expected that LSU would waltz over Troy.

It wasn’t happening, much to the displeasure of the fan base.

But, at the time, it was still odd to see Tiger Stadium evacuate so efficiently at halftime.

It’s commonplace now, but this was before emptying Tiger Stadium by the half had become as fashionable as it is today, regardless of the situation.

It was still an oddity then, and I remember thinking from the press box that Civil Defense and FEMA and all them should come study how effectively LSU fans got the place cleared out, and with so little warning.

You just looked up and — shazaam! — everybody had just vanished. It’s old hat now, they’ve been perfecting it ever since, but it was striking and impressive at the time.

Of course, it was hard to blame them. They had no way of knowing they were about to miss out on some history.

All they knew was that at halftime LSU already trailed Troy 24-3 and, for the odd few who stuck around through the homecoming festivities, the Trojans zipped right down with the second-half kickoff and quickly made it 31-3.

That’s four full touchdowns.

With 2 minutes left in the third quarter, there was little reason to do an about-face from the parking lot –— it was still 31-3.

LSU did manage to score right at the end of the third quarter, which would have brought a sarcastic cheer if there’d been anybody there to mock-clap.

But then it got nuts.

The crazy thing was that maybe it exposed two offensive styles that night.

After that game, head coach Les Miles admitted — and you’re going to die laughing at this — that his game plan in the first half had been too conservative, that the Tigers had been too stubborn about running headfirst into a line stacked chock-a-block with every available Trojan.

Unfortunately, that Miles epiphany would not take long term, as you well know.

But that’s what LSU was doing while the hyper-speed-up Trojans were running circles with seemingly eight wide receivers in every route spinning around the bewildered Tigers.

Oh, and LSU freshman quarterback Jarrett Lee threw his seventh pick six of the season.

That’s how a heavy favorite gets down 31-3 very late in the third quarter.

Funny thing about those über-tempo offenses, though. They look great when they’re clicking. 

When they quit making first downs, as they did after LSU finally solved the mystery, well …

Troy head coach Larry Blakeney defended himself afterward.

“If you’re a spread team,” he said at the time, “you can’t just switch to the wishbone.”

But you could maybe huddle up occasionally.

Instead, Troy threw 72 passes that night, half of them in the second half while trying to nurse home an unexpected big lead.

Still playing at warp speed, Troy was using chunks of 25, sometimes 30 seconds of clock per possession. The Tigers didn’t even have to hurry up once they decided to play some offense of their own, which they did.

Troy had six possessions in the fourth quarter, and only one of them lasted more than a minute. Just barely — it was 1 minute, 10 seconds.

It was the most methodical desperate comeback you ever saw, except that it wasn’t really desperate.

It was a walk in the park once the Tigers’ defense figured out that offensive contraption.

The Tigers never needed an onside kick. They even gave up a turnover in the midst of the rally. Once they even settled for a field goal.

Their second touchdown of the fourth quarter kind of made it interesting.

“I look up, it’s 31-24,” Miles said after the game. “And we’ve still got over 10 minutes to play (10:31 to be exact). If our opponent doesn’t throw 72 passes and stop the clock for us, it would have been very difficult for us to come back.”

Instead, LSU took the lead for good, 33-31, still with 4:30 to play, which was plenty of time to add on an insurance touchdown — 40-31 — with 1:40 to spare.

The Tigers scored 30 points in the fourth quarter, and it didn’t even seem like they got in any big hurry about it.

The 28-point comeback is still the biggest in school history.

And hardly anybody saw it.