BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Josh Williams had a pair of rushing touchdowns and Garrett Nussemeier threw for 332 yards as LSU defeated Vanderbilt 24-17 Saturday night at Tiger Stadium.
The Tigers (7-4, 4-3 SEC) snapped a three-game losing streak, their longest since the 2021 season.
Leading 14-10 at the end of the first half, LSU saw its lead shrink to 14-10 after a 47-yard field goal by Brock Taylor on the Commodores first possession of the third quarter.
In arguably its most important drive of the game, the much-maligned Tigers offense, which had been held to 29 combined points the last two weeks, completed an impressive 77-yard, 10-play scoring drive, culminating in a Nussmeier 12-yard touchdown pass to Kyren Lacy to make it 21-10. The key play of the drive was a 24-yard pass from Nussemeier to C.J. Daniels on a fourth down inside Vanderbilt territory.
Lacy finished with 85 yards receiving and a touchdown on six catches.
Forcing a Vanderiblt punt on its ensuing possession, LSU made it a two-score game on a 28-yard field goal by Damian Ramos, extending its lead to 24-10.
Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia made it a 24-17 game late in the game on a 1-yard touchdown run, but LSU was able to keep the ball for the final 5:47 of the game, sealing the victory.
Pavia finished with 43 yards rushing on six carries for Vanderbilt (6-5, 3-4) and was13-of-24 passing for 186 yards.
The LSU defense, which had given up 107 points during the three-game losing streak, had its best performance since an Oct. 19 victory over Arkansas. Vanderbilt was held to 308 yards of total offense.
Seeking its first victory over LSU in Baton Rouge since 1951, Vanderbilt scored on the first play from scrimmage on a 63-yard touchdown pass from Pavia to Quincy Skinner.
Williams scored the first of his two touchdowns on LSU’s second possession of the game, capping off a 90-yard scoring drive for the Tigers with a 20-yard touchdown.
After stopping Vanderbilt on fourth down deep inside LSU territory, an 80-yard, nine-play drive was finished off by a 21-yard touchdown run by Williams to give LSU the lead for good at 14-7. He finished with 90 yards rushing on 14 carries.
The takeaway
Vanderbilt: The Commodores had their fair share of chances early in the game after the first-play score, but a failed fourth down conversion near the end of the first half deep inside LSU territory led to the go-ahead touchdown for the Tigers.
LSU: It was one of the most balanced performances for a Tigers offense that has struggled to produce points during the losing streak. LSU had 129 yards rushing and 332 yards passing, but more importantly didn’t turn the ball over for the first time in three games en route to the victory
Up next
Vanderbilt: Hosts Tennessee on Saturday.
LSU: Hosts Oklahoma on Saturday.
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