BATON ROUGE -- When it was tied 7-7 at the half it didn't feel like a close game.
It was sort of like taking a good-looking girl to the senior prom and no one knows she's your out-of-town cousin.
So the 33-10 final score wasn't exactly a surprise.
Arkansas finished the first half with a nice 86-yard drive for its only touchdown, but on that drive with 2:20 to play until intermission, the Razorbacks ran their first snap in LSU territory. On a brilliant afternoon when they were dismal on third-down conversions they didn't face a third down on that touchdown possession.
On that drive everything seemed to go their way, but only on that drive. They did get a field goal in the second half, but the Tigers had already scored a touchdown and were about to start another leg of a relay race in which they were obviously going to win.
In the first 30 minutes LSU seemed to be going through the motions. Maybe the Tigers were hung over a week after losing to Alabama -- again -- 24-10, but at the half the alarm was sounded loud and clear: There would be no giving up the Golden Boot.
The Tigers did a simple thing at the half. They made an adjustment in their offense and caught the Razorbacks flat-footed. LSU sped up the tempo which allowed speed to control the game.
They took possession to start the second half and immediately drove 75 yards in eight plays for a touchdown using only 3;47.
That's when the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville answered with the field goal.
The Tigers sort of shrugged and went 65 yards in just five plays, using 1:53 of clock, with the key being Derrius Guice slicing through the Razorbacks defense for a 33-yard touchdown. He had 56 yards rushing on the drive and would finish the game with 147 yards, just 5 more than the Razorbacks totaled on the ground on 34 carries.
LSU missed its first two extra points in the second half but that was forgettable.
The Tigers went 69 yards in 4 plays in just 1:43 the third time they got the ball in the second half with Danny Etling hitting DJ Chark on a 68-yard touchdown pass. The pair teamed up for LSU's first touchdown, a 45-yard bomb in the opening quarter.
So once again en route to a loss, the Razorbacks gave up far too many big plays, something former Razorback and NFL player Ken Hamlin pointed out last week when he spoke to the Northwest Arkansas Touchdown Club.
Etling's years at LSU have not always been easy. He's been heavily criticized at times, but not this morning. Tigers Nation may be wondering if it is too late to get him on the Heisman Trophy radar after he completed 11 of 16 passes for 217 yards.
The Tigers would score a final touchdown -- Guice of course -- after the Razorbacks for some reason tried a fourth and 1 from their own 22. They had failed on third and one and got the same results on fourth down.
Yet scoring 10 points on a team that gave up 24 to Troy is not a moral victory. Not even close.
When LSU decided to take over the game to start the second half, they simply took over the game and never looked back. Head coach Ed Orgeron said after the game that it meant a lot to them to keep the Golden Boot for a second year.
The Razorbacks never quit. They were just beaten on the vast majority of the downs.
The season isn't over yet, though it might take a minor miracle for the Razorbacks to win their final two games and get bowl eligible, especially considering Mississippi State manhandled LSU 37-7. But this one is a home game for the Hogs and the crowd can help.
Sports on 11/12/2017