Not so hard to do

• By RANDY ROSETTA
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Jan 2, 2009 - UPDATED: 6:47 a.m.

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Of all the big plays and dramatic turning points in LSU’s 38-3 thumping of 14th-ranked Georgia Tech on Wednesday, two passes broken up in the end zone on the Yellow Jackets first two series were as big as anything that happened the rest of the night.

On Tech’s initial opportunity with the ball after the Tigers opened the game with a rapid-fire touchdown drive, the Jackets were poised for an immediate answer.

Quarterback Josh Nesbitt and running back Jonathan Dwyer hooked up on a 40-yard pass play on the first play to move the ball from the Tech 20-yard-line to the LSU 40. On the second snap, Nesbitt dropped back again and uncorked a bomb toward Demaryius Thomas, who had worked his way behind Chad Jones.

The ball was on the mark and Thomas was in the end zone, but Jones recovered at the last second and got a hand on the ball as it reached Thomas. Incomplete and after two more plays the Jackets had to punt.

Tech got the ball back still down by only a touchdown and pieced together what turned out to be its only effective drive of the night. The Yellow Jackets churned out four first downs, converted twice on third down — once after stumbling into a first-and-25 — and converted on fourth down.

From the Tigers 12, Tech sputtered and on third-and-5, Nesbitt tried to zip a pass to Thomas. But LSU’s Patrick Peterson knocked the ball away in the end zone to force a field goal.

Those two drives accounted for 17 plays and 97 total yards — of Tech’s 314 — and garnered three points. The Jackets ran 49 more plays the rest of the night, only eight in the red zone and never reached the end zone.

LSU coach Les Miles isn’t likely to win any popularity contests with Georgia Tech fans.

With the game in hand, 38-3, the Tigers ran a fake punt from near midfield with 9 minutes left to play. On fourth-and-5, punter Brady Dalfrey took the snap and slipped a pass underneath to Jones, who raced 21 yards to the Tech 33.

Miles was asked about the call after the game and he didn’t exactly apologize.

“We’ve kind of had that fake ready to go for a while and getting to the end of the season, we were kind of itching to call it,” Miles said.

Asked later why the call came that late in the game, Miles said “he didn’t want to give the ball back to them” because of how Tech rallied from a 28-12 deficit to beat Georgia.