LSU-North Carolina : Viewer’s Guide to the Sunday Replay
by Billy Gomila on Sep 5, 2010 6:00 PM CDT
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Here's a quick rundown of a few things to watch for from last night's angrypants mcragefest game. At least, for those of you who think they can make it through without being overcome by fiery, face-melting rage.
via dalecityknightz.files.wordpress.com
- Freshmen, freshmen everywhere. True freshmen Tyrann Mathieu, Eric Reid, Tharold Simon, Alfred Blue and Spencer Ware all saw playing time, mostly on defense/special teams, and at least three were involved in some of the major plays of the night. Mathieu was of course responsible for what should have been a game-icing strip in the fourth, and the onside kick hit Blue
as he was getting illegally tackled by a UNC playerbefore the UNC recover. And Simon appeared to blow the deep coverage on the 97-yard touchdown to Jheranie Boyd. He probably (I'm guessing without knowing the defensive call) should have been over the top of Claiborne on the play. - Offensive line. Overall, not really that bad, paving the way for 162 yards and 4.5 per carry. Joseph Barksdale and Josh Dworaczyk did very well. T-Bob Hebert and Alex Hurst (surprisingly given the talk he got this summer) were two of the main sources of the struggles. I believe both holding calls (including the fourth-quarter call that negated the touchdown) were on these two.
- Stevan Ridley was a microcosm of LSU. He really had a couple of nice runs, flashing some quick feet and the ability to push defenders for an extra yard or two. But he mixed that with a pair of horribly inexcusable fumbles. The fourth quarter fumble was the worst possible outcome of that play. Even if he falls down and fails to get the first, UNC is out of timeouts and LSU could have bled the clock down to a miniscule figure. Bits and pieces of good things mixed in with terrible mistakes. And that pretty much describes the entire effort last night.
- Tackling. Overall just a really bad night in this area. What was remarkable was that at times, it didn't matter. The defense was moving so fast that the ball carrier was swarmed shortly after the miss. But when it was bad, it was bad.
- Final thought. The best adjective I can think of for this game is bi-polar. The highs of the second quarter couldn't be higher. Big plays on offense, Patrick Peterson taking over special teams and a fast, aggressive defense playing dominant football. But then the fourth quarter was completely checked-out, as if the Tigers thought they should already be in the locker room. The question going forward is, where in between those two extremes, will LSU settle.
Those watching on CST, post your observations in the comments.
EDIT: For those out of state, you can catch a replay right here
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Never been a Crowton fan
Last night, I’ll say he at least seemed to have a theme to his playcalling for once. Which is a good sign. If you look at the long drive in the 4th quarter that ended in the called-back-TD-kablooey sequence, I actually thought that was a really well-called drive for the most part.
But it was as bi-polar as everything else really.
Serious question.
Patrick Peterson seems to have a problem with cramps. Do most LSU fans want him on special teams full time even tho it will mean he is out on defense in the later stages of games? Maybe I’m way off base but I would want that guy on defense more than returning kicks.
I understand hate. I'm a Alabama fan.
wait and see on that one
word is UNC was using their backup backups on special teams last night. I am hoping for the best, but I want to see how he does against an sec coverage team first.
To your question though, I want him on D. A 70 yard Pick-Six is more valuable than a 70 yd return in my book, and his ability to neutralize the SEC’s best receivers is worth even more.
Managing Editor/Chief Lackey-And The Valley Shook THE LSU Tigers Blog of the Week for 52,136 Weeks in a Row and Counting
points and field position were pretty key last night
W/ our inability to move the ball, his skills put us in a significantly more favorable position. I agree that he is needed at the end, but I think he should definitely be helping out the O as much as possible.
Also
Murphy and Ridley are going to be an interesting litmus test for the “Miles benches backs who fumble” meme.
I feel bad for Murphy.
I have really been pulling for him. I’m not going to give up on him yet…But he may be of more use to us on the bench.
Defense
Missed tackles were the biggest problem. A lot of the stuff they had problems with doesn’t require dramatic adjustments. Just tighten things up.
Smoke Route
Some of Jefferson’s throws to Mitch Joseph, and some of the quick slants thrown early look like smoke routes, which LSU ran a little last year. Basically the QB has the freedom to make a quick fire read out to a WR (or TE) he thinks the D is cheating off of on a run play.
In the throws to Joseph JJ read the Sam Linebacker as blitzing and pulled the ball and tossed it out to Joseph quickly. It’s a great weapon to have in your arsenal.
Ugh I hate to say this
Because it’s such a cop-out. But if that run stands the rest of that 4th quarter might have gone very differently. 37-10, game over essentially.
Not that that makes what came next okay by any stretch of the imagination.
by Billy Gomila on Sep 5, 2010 10:35 PM CDT up reply actions
They did not show a replay of the hold during the game,
I was curious about it, all the announcers said was T-Bob was pleading his case—not all that important now. Did anyone think WTF of the obvious helmet to helmet hit on Shepard—the announcers just kept saying how great of a play it was by NC defender during the replays.
I don't have much to comment on
I’ve been saying all off-season that I think we’ll be an improved football team but we’ll probably have a worse record in 2010 than in 2009, and as of right now I think I look like freaking Nostradamus. 8-4 (4-4) regular season is looking pretty good right now.
I think it is obvious that we are better this year than last, but we aren’t a dominant team. We’re going to have to scrape and claw in every game we play in. Special teams will keep us in every game again this year…and they’re going to have to.
This game really wasn’t that bad. We easily left a 9 point differential on the table. Jasper’s miss, then our roughing the kicker penalty which lead to a UNC score, and then our fumble in the red zone. All of that stuff was bad luck and really had nothing to do with a lack of preparedness. Then like Billy just said, Ridley’s TD run was called back on a bad call. This game could easily have been a blow out.
Who came in for Barksdale when he went down?
was definitely a helmet to helmet.
i thought it was a more of a foul than barrow’s late hit, or francois’s pass interference.
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