ATLANTA – Say it every week that each play matters in a college football game but some tell the story better than others.
In the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, one play symbolizes what was about to come in No. 1 LSU’s 63-28 victory against No. 4 OU on Saturday evening at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
The Sooners were already trailing 21-7 early in the second quarter, and LSU faced a third-and-10 at OU’s 20 yard line. OU defensive back Brendan Radley-Hiles was called for a targeting penalty and was ejected and pretty much had the writing on the wall.
“Yeah, um. It was a football play, man. I was 100 percent in the wrong,” Radley-Hiles said. “I made a mistake. From a team perspective, that was very selfish of me to put my team in that position. I've just gotta grow from it. I'm 100 percent responsible for it. I'm gonna be a man about it. My actions affect a lot of people.”
With Radley-Hiles out and Delarrin Turner-Yell not playing because of a broken collarbone, it became a rough spot for Justin Broiles and Woodi Washington to emerge as difference makers.
Neither did as Joe Burrow threw for 493 yards and accounted for eight total touchdowns as LSU racked up 692 yards of total offense.
Radley-Hiles said he apologized to the team, but there was no righting the ship for Alex Grinch’s group from that point forward.
“Because as a man, you've gotta take responsibility for your actions,” Radley-Hiles said. “I take full responsibility. I just want every player and every coach, every staff member, everybody that traveled with us here to know how genuinely apologetic I am for the situation. I just wanted to look everybody in the eyes when I did it.”
They attacked and attacked. Broiles had 11 tackles and Washington had 10 because the Tigers kept looking their direction.
Lamb, Motley go out in style
Look, it’s hard to view the box score and see anything positive, but there were some. Wide receiver CeeDee Lamb and cornerback Parnell Motley went out with solid outings.
Lamb had four catches for 119 yards, including a 51-yarder to set up the Sooners first touchdown. Motley had seven tackles, forced a fumble and had two pass breakups.
“I don't even care if they're up 50 or we're up 50, I'm going to play my heart out,” Motley said. “And I most certainly say that I did today. I played my heart out, man. We were saying, 'if tomorrow wasn't promised, what would you give today,' and I can most certainly say I gave it all today to the potential that I wanted to be. But just came up short.”
Rattler’s surprise appearance
It was a nice gesture by head coach Lincoln Riley to give quarterback Jalen Hurts one more snap late in the fourth quarter before removing him.
But what Riley did after that has certainly raised some questions. If Tanner Mordecai has been the backup quarterback all season, then why was Spencer Rattler inserted into the game?
Rattler took over and completed an 8-yard pass and ran for eight yards.
“I wasn't fully warm, but like I was comfortable out there,” Rattler said. “Coach Riley put me in a good situation. There were only a couple of minutes left in the game, so we kind of did what we had to do and like I said, I'm just read to really play.”
Will they? Or won’t they?
That’s going to be the important decisions looming forward with wide receiver CeeDee Lamb, center Creed Humphrey, running back Kennedy Brooks, linebacker Caleb Kelly and linebacker Kenneth Murray.
Kelly said he’s definitely back. With OU not reaching the national championship, he only played four games. He’ll be a redshirt senior in 2020.
“I’ll definitely come back. I’ve talked with coaches, everybody, I’ll for sure be coming back,” Kelly said. “The dilemma was if we went to the national championship. There’s no dilemma anymore.”
Brooks became the premier back for the Sooners down the stretch, but he said Saturday wasn’t the time or place to talk about such things.
“Right now, I just want to be with my boys and my family,” Brooks said. “That's all I'm thinking about right now.”
