The Dog Ate My Post
by Poseur on Sep 5, 2010 10:41 AM CDT
in Football
Email
Print
I had a long post all ready to go full of insight and wisdom (obviously, someone else wrote it), but computer ate my post. So let me sum up with a visual aide
The fourth quarter was terrible, but it was more of a loss of focus than a lack of talent. And hell, everyone thought this game over. I'm not pleased the team spent the last hour of the game sexting co-eds for a hook up in Buckhead after the game, but I see how it happened. The team needs to find a killer instinct.
And I know I'm supposed to freak out per the guidelines in my LSU Blogger Handbook, but I'm encouraged by the first three quarters of the game instead of feeling dour over the last quarter. Jefferson was effective and spread the ball around, our offensive line only allowed one sack, and UNC couldn't run the ball at all. Until TJ Yates became the second coming of Johnny Unitas in the fourth, the passing game was kept largely under control.
There are things to work on. If Ridley is not carrying a football around campus next week, something is seriosuly wrong. The offense, once again, needing just one first down to put the game away in the fourth, couldn't get it. Turning a 3rd and 5 on the 19 to 4th and 39 at the 47 takes a special kind of poor play. But most importantly, the team had a 20 point lead to blow in the first place, and LSU won the game.
Week one is often ugly. Look around the SEC and around the nation. Oklahoma let Utah St hang around all game. Auburn played a fairly close game against Arkansas St. Florida had problems with Miami of Ohio. Oh, and Ole Miss lost to an FCS team. I'll take the ugly win over the BCS opponent.
21 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
Done
I’ve seen enough – yes, one game into the season. This is the same team as last year – better than average to maybe excellent talent on both sides of the ball. Yet underachieving results. An offense that goes into a shell for a complete half (seen that before?). A defense that looks stifling one minute is getting torched for 400 yards.
Jordan Jefferson needs to go as QB. I’d rather take my stabs with Jarrett Lee or whoever is down the depth chart from there. He locks in on a receiver – plus that pick at the end of the 1st half is unforgivable. The fact that our cupboard is seemingly this bare at QB leads me to the last point – the inevitable. Les and staff should start packing. I know we’ll do the classy thing and let a classy man like Les go until the end of the season.
For the record, I’m not a panic-stricken type fan who has a kneejerk reaction. I’ve watched the last two seasons and saw this direction we were taking. Just me personally, I took a wait-and-see approach to this season before forming my opinion. I truly thought I would be into the heart of the SEC season before I would come to this, but against a UNC team lacking almost an entire starting unit, UNC is on the doorstep ready to win the game.
Hey I would love nothing more than to eat crow, and the Tigers go undefeated. I think Les Miles is a good man, I’m rooting for him. He deserves it. Just I don’t see this happening.
Agreed...
Same team as last year – Agreed
Underachieving – Agreed
Jefferson needs to go – Agreed
T-Bob is not the answer
What is it about this team lately that no matter whom the opponent theyre always in the game right until the final play (or so it seems). Why can’t we kick the living crap out of a team when we have them down? 30 – 10 should have wound up 54 – 13.
Why is it we’re in the top 5 in recruiting every year and still just a slightly above average team? Coaching? I’m going to have a seizure one of these days watching this team.
unfortunately, i have to agree w/ most of what you say.
I find myself only able to get excited about individual players. PP is clearly awesome. Our committee of rb’s this year look to be superior to last year’s committee. RR looks very dangerous.
I agree that Les and our coaching staff seem over whelmed. This UNC team was NOT good on offense. Yates played well, but we freaking gave him underneath all day.
I would say that as bad as JJ looked, I still want him in there instead of Lee. Despite JJ’s faults, he doesn’t seem to melt down quite like Lee does. Also, JJ’s ability to scramble for 3-4 yds is huge compared to Lee’s inability to move. I am not saying that JJ is great or even playing well…but i don’t think we have any reason to think Lee will be better.
Panic!
I don’t know. I’m pretty darn disappointed. If you take out our two big offensive plays and UNC’s two big offensive plays, we had 212 total offensive yards, 1 offensive touchdown, and 4 turnovers. If you take out UNC’s two big offensive plays, they had 240 yards of offense and 2 turnovers. Except when we made big plays, we had an absolutely putrid offense. We had exactly two drives in the second half of more than 3 plays. One of those had 4.
To me, this game was more or less a continuation of last year. There was an offense that could get nothing going and a defense that played just well enough.
Father. Husband. Lawyer. Nerd.
by Richard Pittman on Sep 5, 2010 11:06 AM CDT reply actions
Seriously though...
Crowton has got to go. I’m sorry. Trying to milk the clock in the 3rd quarter is… is…. shit man I’m speechless…… It’s unconscionable. LSU wasn’t playing the Citadel or the like; they were playing a UNC squad, although short-handed, is still a very talented and dangerous team. This team is seriously lacking a killer instinct, and I believe Crowton has a lot to do with it, at least offensively.
I don’t know what to say for the defense. Perhaps they were left on the field too long…? Young and inexperienced? I dunno, but they left much to be desired as well.
Defense too
I think the poor performance was as much the LSU defense’s fault as it was the offense. The D looked like 2008’s unit – fast and gassed. But what it is really scary is that we did not have one single sustained 80 yard-ish offensive drive. Take away the breakout run from Shepard (sp?) and all you got left are special teams brilliance. Trying to find a bright side. Maybe our quick scoring and special teams excellence kept the D on the field too long?
defense in the second half seemed to be content to let UNC soak up yards and use up the clock. it was probably in concert with the offensive philosophy of milking the clock as well. take away that 97 yard eff up, and it probably would have worked out pretty well. but hindsight is 20/20.
i dont know why im not reacting like most, but i wasnt that disappointed in what i saw last night. most of the glaring problems (or message board complaints) from last season seemed to be corrected. playmakers and freshmen saw the field, the offense had rhythm (no looking to the sideline presnap), and the option was even run to the long side of the field. the offense looked crisp and the defense looked stout. i even thought the clock management at the end of the first half was a nice use of the timeouts and showed miles’ aggressiveness.
even the mistakes that happened: the roughings, the holdings, the blown coverages, the fumbles. they all had direct consequences that nearly cost the result, but also bring about an opportunity for teachable moments in the coming week and throughout the season.
granted, the game was more exciting at the end than it should have been, but the result was gained, and LSU got the win.
Offense more than D
I think the defense deserves time – lots of young guys, so we can hope for improvement. I’d be more concerned if UNC had just run over us. Not too soon, though, to panic about the offense. I saw no improvement at QB, our O-line got manhandled at times by their 2nd teamers and the fact that Hebert was our first guy off the bench on the o-line (and at a different spot than he has played) does not reflect well on our depth. It seemed like Crowton/Miles were determined to “establish the run”, which translated to a very conservative approach, which almost translated to an L.
Not ready to panic,
but I agree with some of the earlier comments about looking like last year’s team. We seriously lack a killer instinct. As for QB, I say stick with JJ. I don’t think he’ll ever be the elite of the SEC, but he strikes me as someone who can be solid if given a good gameplan. And speaking of that, I still don’t care for Crowton’s calls.
Our run defense was good, it should be noted, but likely because they could pass at will.
I noticed that a few places posted this as an upset. Wasn’t UNC ranked higher than us? And didn’t everyone know about the suspensions for quite a while? The line may have been severely slanted, but it’s not like we were playing Jacksonville State, or some directional school. Oh, wait, I guess North Carolina is sort of directional. But you know what I mean. They are a great program, and even if it was sloppy, it will look like a quality win later on, because I think they have a lot of wins in them this year.
Lost in all of the panic is the fact that the defense held UNC to 0.7 yards/rush on 33 attempts.
That is a great performance. As for giving up huge passing yards, we have to work on that. Our passing defense is supposed to be our strength and I am pretty confident that we will fix those issues. I was more than a little perplexed that we kept blitzing PP. Maybe his late game cramps were caused by being asked to do too much.
As for JJ, I thought that he was much improved over last season. His pick at the end of the half was bad, but in that situation, it wasn’t the end of the world. QBs (even the best of them) throw occasional picks (especially at the end of halves). The grounding call was vintage JJ, but it only happened once. For the most part, he go the ball down field. He’s not a Heisman hopeful, but he is not the primary cause of our woes.
The play calling was terrible (just like last year). Les needs to have a very short talk with Crowton where he tells him that he should consider taking the soon to be vacated position at Northwestern State (home of former LSU assistants who couldn’t cut it).
Why didn’t Michael Ford play? I thought he was supposed to be a stud. He could hardly have been any worse than Ridley. I thought Ridley ran hard, but he carries the ball like a loaf of bread. He is lucky he wasn’t stripped more often.
O-line was a little better but T-Bob is killing us. Is he really our best option off the bench?
D-line is much better.
Overall, frustrating game. PP is a stud. The coaching was again suspect on both sides of the ball. JJ was better. T-Bob is not cutting it. PP is still a stud. Ridley needs to be sleeping with a football in his hands. Ford needs to be given a chance to prove himself.
Thank god we held on for the victory. Maybe our guys will maintain a killer instinct for the entire game next week.
by Displaced Tiger on Sep 5, 2010 2:21 PM CDT reply actions 1 recs
Dazed and Confused
After watching Florida struggle against Miami (Ohio) and reading about Ole Miss’ loss to Jacksonville State and the close game between Oklahoma and Utah State, I really don’t know what to say about the LSU-UNC game. I wonder if, perhaps, my expectations were too high for LSU in its first game, but the way they played in the first half sort of destroys that reason for my disappointment. Maybe, I’m forgetting that, like LSU which I hope has players in second place on the two-deep chart who are just about as good as the starters (the only difference being experience), UNC is the same with very good players waiting to step in to take a starter’s place. But, again I’m taken back to the first half, and the LSU team that gave me hope that maybe we are on the right track this year. And, maybe I want Coach Miles to succeed so bad, that I tend to overlook some of what appear to me to be very serious flaws in his coaching abilities and that of his staff. But again, LSU’s play in the first half confuses me to the point that I can’t tell who should be held responsible for what was almost a debacle, the coaches or the players, or both. Well, I’ve heard many times that teams make the greatest improvement in their play from the first to the second game. If so, we should see a much better LSU team on the field next weekend. And, after the game against Mississippi State I should have a much more accurate determination of how the rest of the season will play out. Till then, all I can do is keep the faith. GEAUX TIGERS!!!
It will be interesting to see what UNC...
does from here on out—there is a good chance they will not get those players back. The Ga Tech game in two weeks will be interesting. It is frustrating because the team mantra is “finish” and coaches/players alike let up as well as Musburger/Herbstreit—LOL. Crowten is too predictable as always—if it is third and short, it seems we are going to run up the middle a lot. We got the win and now the team needs to keep improving and try to correct mistakes—ball control, playing the whole game.
Coach Crowton needs to switch to the rhythm method
Sorry about your post – Notepad and copy/paste is the only way to go for long prose posting.
It’s one thing to try to speed up the clock with a lead or use a “comfortable” lead in the first game of the season to test out your running game. But when you have a quarterback that desperately needs to establish himself in the eyes of himself and the team and the fanbase as the guy that can handle SEC heat, you can’t put the clamps on him – essentially telling him you’re afraid he’s going to screw up a sure win. So if you give up some freak scores and your defense gets figured out/tired out in the fourth quarter he then is forced to suddenly switch from don’t screw up mode to they score once and we lose mode.
Whatever rhythm Jefferson had in the first half seemed to be sucked out of him by the gameplan in the third quarter. Even counting the first drive that was killed by Ridley’s fumble he was allowed to attempt only three passes the entire quarter – not what he needed after the interception on the last drive of the first half. The first drive of the fourth quarter was a good mix of plays in that Jefferson was more involved, allowing the coaches to see that he needs to work on pitching the ball on options and not throwing to his linemen to knock you out of range of the field goal that would have put the game away. But he should have been involved like that in the 3rd quarter.
For this team to win, JJ needs to be established as the Man, even with his limitations. The playcalling has to reflect that.
The sun will still set in the west.
Games like this are going to happen every year. And when a team survives a game like this, it non only helps them out experience wise (now telling how valuable this game was to RR and RS10) but it helps them realize what needs to be built upon. In this case, it’s Secondary play and blitzing your best corner back isn’t exactly the smartest thing to do, even though he is a fast sonbitch and an all-around athlete if you have young players in the secondary. Or, when you are milking the clock on 2nd and 10 or less, it’s okay to not make a second effort for 3 extra yards as long as you stay inbounds and keep the clock rolling. Really, we are SO lucky this game was our first of the year. Might not make sense to us as fans, but now at least the coaches know what needs to be built upon.
Now lets go to Vandy and kick some ’Dore ass.
Geaux Tigers!
Fan of: The Fighting Mongooses.
Good and Bad
I saw brilliance on special teams (other than the muffed FG early on). If Peterson keeps flying like that he’s gonna need a cape. Offense looked good at times. So did the defense. Now, if we can just get that production for all four quarters we’ll be good to go. I think we can do it. I think we can (and will) fix these problems. This was an early game with a lot of negative media attention because UNC couldn’t count on their players to do the right thing, or at least keep their fingers off the tweet button. Yet somehow LSU got set up as the fall guy for it. That’s gotta be tough on the players.
This is true,
we won the game—ugly, uninspiring, whatever you want to call it—no excuses if you lose, no apologies if you win.
Not closing the deal
Our team seems to think the game is over after 3 quarters…maybe a math tutor is in order? (Apologies to any Tar Heels who might be reading.) I maintain that even with the suspensions, UNC is a quality win for us.
I like..
all of the responses in this thread — other than the calling for JJ to be benched… WTF? — we will get to see a lot of what this team and coaching staff is made of in the next couple of games.
One thing I am dead certain of though, is that Crowton has got to be relieved of play-calling duties; he just doesn’t get it. If not for the whole game, at least the for the second half of games…
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recent FanPosts
Tigers Basketball Schedule
Next 5 Games
Alabama
|
Sat 02/11 | 6:00 PM CST |
|
Mississippi St.
|
Tue 02/14 | 8:00 PM CST |
|
@
South Carolina
|
Sat 02/18 | 12:30 PM CST |
|
Georgia
|
Wed 02/22 | 7:00 PM CST |
|
@
Mississippi
|
Sat 02/25 | 12:30 PM CST |
Last 5 Games
|
@
Vanderbilt
|
Wed 02/08 | L 61 - 76 |
|
Arkansas
|
Sat 02/04 | W 71 - 65 |
|
Kentucky
|
Sat 01/28 | L 50 - 74 |
|
@
Mississippi St.
|
Wed 01/25 | L 71 - 76 |
|
@
Florida
|
Sat 01/21 | L 64 - 76 |
Certain photos copyright © 2012 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
