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Yeah yeah, no moral victories and no moral losses, but let's get the hell out of that stadium before they find a way to put more time on that clock, mmkay LSU?
Good Lord...I'm not sure what else to say? Completely schizophrenic effort from LSU in a game they spent almost an equal amount of time trying to win and lose.
The defense looked completely asleep at the start, did an amazing job of adjusting to limit Johnny Manziel to just 4.9 yards per pass and 1.6 per rush and picking him off three times. And then they very nearly tried to hand the win away with a couple of very, very foolish personal foul penalties.
The offense managed 219 rushing yards and Jeremy Hill again put a game out of reach with a long touchdown run in the fourth quarter. And yet it still managed a ridiculous 29 pass attempts, including five on a drive that should've been a clock-killer. Even with a gift of a pass-interference penalty, the staff refused to feed the running backs when a long, slow drive could've remarkably cut down on the late-game drama.
The Tigers committed 13 penalties, and while there were a few questionable ones at least 10 of those were earned the hard way, with blatant stupidity. The offensive playcalling was the very definition of the phrase "too cute," wasting entirely too many first downs with unproductive pass plays that either featured a drop or a horribly missed throw. Far too many times did I find myself saying "well that would've been a great first-down call," on nice second- or third-down running plays. One would have thought last week's display would've given this coaching staff a better sense of this team's identity.
Call it an early morning hangover, call it another sloppy road-game effort and (yes and, because all of these things were true and you really can't use the "or" conjunction) call it extremely mystifying play calling, but still, call it a win. LSU is 7-1 at the bye week, with three of the final four games at home. Bring on Bama, because everything is still there to play for. Geaux Tigers.