Arkansas 31 - LSU 30: Next Day Thoughts
by Richard Pittman
on Nov 29, 2008 11:49 AM CST
in Football
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Well, this season could not have ended much more discouragingly than it has. LSU, losers of 3 of its last 4 and 4 of the last 6, needs to regroup for next season. Changes have to be made on the coaching staff, and not just necessarily on the defensive side of the ball. The second half was marked by some awful offensive football, as LSU's offense sputtered with 4 consecutive 3-and-outs in the 3rd and 4th quarter and got a total of 2 first downs in the second half.
People will rightly point to the defense, which definitely struggled at times and did not adjust to what Casey Dick brought to the game at all. In particular in the first two Arkansas possessions of the game the defense appeared to have no idea what it was doing. I think everyone acknowledges that the defense has had problems and has been very porous this year as a whole, and for about a quarter it looked like we would get run out of the stadium.
We settled down in the second quarter, dominating both offensively and defensively, and then opened the second half with a quick touchdown strike. After that, we tried to play to run out the clock, and the result was a whole lot of punting and whole lot of playing with the defense on the field.
I think the defining drive of the game was the last drive of the 3rd quarter, which bled into the 4th quarter. The drive started with Arkansas at their 5 yard line. Ten plays later, Arkansas was facing 3rd and 29 at their own 11 yard line, and ran a safe draw looking to punt. An Arkansas offensive lineman coaxed Tremaine Johnson into an unnecessary roughness penalty, which Johnson claimed after the play was caused by the lineman poking him in the eyes. That gave Arkansas a first down when they would have had to punt from their end zone.
Later on the drive, Patrick Peterson was called for holding, then Rahim Alem was called for unsportsmanlike conduct for kicking the ball. All told, LSU picked up 42 yards of penalties on that drive, and each penalty gave Arkansas a first down. We held them to a field goal, but the drive took 17 plays and kept our defense on the field forever.
At that point, I knew we were in trouble. I knew we were in bigger trouble when we took the kickoff and went 3-and-out.
When we got the ball back with about 5 minutes to play, I thought we would escape. We picked up a first down, ran a little clock, but then when the drive stalled with over 2 minutes to play, I thought we'd be lucky to get out of it with a win. Arkansas had been too effective passing the ball, and they would be in a 2-minute drill. Still, Arkansas had no timeouts, and our pass rush had been doing a good job. When 4th and 1 came up with under :30 to play, I knew they were not going to run a 1-yard play. They didn't have time for that. They were going to the end zone, and they caught Chris Hawkins in 1-on-1 coverage and threw a perfect pass.
Now, we plan for next year and hope that the bad mojo of this year doesn't carry over.
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What a wonderful day to be a Tiger Fan. I agree 100% that changes must be made. I am not willing to state exactly what those changes should be (other than the co-defensive coordinators) and I just have to take whatever comfort can be obtained from the statements attributed to Coach Miles in this morning’s Advocate (online).
"Our football team should win that game," LSU coach Les Miles said softly and tersely. "Our football team should manage that game better and play smarter. The drive that was assisted by at least three penalties that allowed our opponent to get three points. It makes you sick.
"I told the team that’s the last time. It ain’t happening anymore. Those people that get back on this plane and go back to Baton Rouge are going to work awfully hard. To those seniors and those guys and individuals that busted their tails in that game, it’s sad because that’s one that should have been in the win column."
I think, the “softly and tersely” description reflects an anger normally unheard of from Miles. His “softly and tersely” appears to be as pointed as Saban’s sideline antics. I think quiet anger is much more dangerous to those who are the recipients of that anger. This will not be a good week to be a Tiger. He knows what has happened and, it appears, he is going to make some changes quickly.
That said, looking back on the season, take away a couple of pick-sixes, take away some stupid penalties in yesterday’s games, and we would be at our double digit win level.
I agree that Jefferson was handcuffed in the second. Whether it was his limited knowledge of the playbook, or whether it was a “don’t lose” mentality on the part of Crowton, Ar-kansas knew what was coming and made the adjustments needed.
Our Co-DC’s never knew that Nathan Dick left and Casey Dick took the field. If they did, they didn’t make the needed adjustments.
All in all, I’m waiting to see what CLM will do to make sure “It ain’t happening anymore”.
by lawildbull on
Nov 29, 2008 1:45 PM CST
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Pouyaille.
I don’t know what I was more disappointed in, the penalties that allowed Razorback drives to stay alive or the ZERO fourth quarter points. I agree, changes have to be made. We cannot point to one single thing that was the cause of our 7-5 season. It wasn’t just problems at the QB position and it wasn’t just Les Miles / coaching staff et al. I’m sure that adjustments will be made. They cannot come soon enough.
If I can, I’d like to mention a positive in amongst this negativity: We beat Auburn at Auburn for the first time in 10 years. I’m proud of that much and it’s my favorite part of the 2008 LSU Tiger season.
by CajunCavern on
Nov 29, 2008 2:43 PM CST
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Pretty much going to ditto the above.
Poor tackling hurt as well (Did anyone else notice all of the second effort yards?). Playcalling, as stated above, had me scratching my head. Near the end of the first half, with third and less than a yard, and still significant time left, and we throw to the end zone? What? The field goal that we got (rather than a TD) wound up being the difference in the game.
Overall, I was pretty pleased with JJ, and maybe Crowton thought he had to be conservative (in the second half) because of his inexperience.
by artiger on
Nov 29, 2008 4:24 PM CST
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Last call of the game
Does anyone know why Miles decided to try and kick a 63-yard FG at the end of the game instead of taking a shot at the end zone with Jordan Jefferson’s arm?
by Brandon Friedman on
Nov 29, 2008 5:15 PM CST
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I suppose he felt the percentages were better.
63 yards into the wind is pretty hopeless, but a lot of folks thought that about Tom Dempsey many years ago. David has hit more than one from 52 yards out.
If it had been my choice, I would have thrown it up for grabs and hope one of our tall receivers could snatch it, but that rarely works either.
by artiger on
Nov 29, 2008 5:56 PM CST
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lasjdflkdsf
I was doing family stuff early in the day so I didn’t get to start watching the game until midway through the third quarter but that was plenty. This was the first loss this year that really left me disgusted. Florida, Georgia, Bama even Ole Miss were all arguably more talented than us (our lack of a quarterback being the biggest issue, obviously). But Arkansas?
The offense was terribly inconsistent which is somewhat expected with Jefferson at qb. But where was the running game? Where did Charles Scott go the last half of the season? Then the defense. I don’t remember which drive it was but I’m sure everyone knows which I’m speaking of when I talk about dumb penalties. Completely dumb, undisciplined play gave Arkansas free first down’s time and time again. Not to mention all of the missed tackles where we allowed their RB’s to sneak out an extra yard for a first down.
There’s no way you can put all of the undisciplined play on the coaches. What I saw from the team, specifically the defense was just total unconcern and disregard over the game. I mean I am used to fans here (and everywhere) throwing in the towel when we’re no longer in the hunt for the national championship or sec title. But for the players to show that same attitude is a real problem. Talk about taking things for granted. I’m sure we can all remember the teams from ten years ago when winning ANY sec game was something to celebrate and appreciate. If the team doesn’t get their act together we’ll be well on our way back to those days and I don’t think anyone wants to relive the DiNardo days.
I’ll finish this rambling rant with what I thought was the worst part of the game yesterday. Even with the completely craptacular play of the entire team, Arkansas’ ineptitude gave us the ball around the 45 yard line with 16 seconds left and THREE timeouts. Colt David has shown repeatedly he can kick 50+ yard field goals so all we had to do was move the ball TEN YARDS. The first play was good and just bad luck with the referee impeding the receiver. But the next play? Jefferson drops back and holds the ball for 5 seconds then chunks it down field. Then we’re left with 2 seconds and a field goal that doesn’t have a chance. I just can’t understand what the coaches were thinking. 16 seconds and ALL THREE timeouts is plenty of time to pick up 10 yards. We should have been running 3 step drop slants, outs, anything but a play that lasts 10 seconds. We could have even run a draw which you can bet Arkansas wasn’t expecting.
by jochexum on
Nov 29, 2008 6:16 PM CST
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"I just can’t understand what the coaches were thinking."
Jochexum, I think you’ve summed it up pretty well for all of us in that one statement.
Trying to be glass is half-full about it, I told my wife that we may finally be able to improve our seats next year. The season ticket renewal rate was something like 99.7% last time around. It will be interesting to see if it’s that high in 2009.
by artiger on
Nov 30, 2008 10:07 AM CST
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