First Impressions: LSU 21, Iowa 14

Well, that was a game that happened.

Bad football is better than no football, especially when we are faced with nine months of being forced to talk to our families, but... wow. That game was pretty terrible. This game was just barely better than no football.

Let's cover the good stuff first. Jeremy Hill is a bad, bad man. 216 yards on 28 carries, and a game busting run in the final two minutes to nearly put the game away. This was quite possibly his last game in the purple and gold, but he went out on a high. I don't want to say he single handedly won this game, but he came about as close as you can come to doing just that.

The defense also played well until the fourth quarter. We were hoping it would be the Iowa defense that would start to wilt under the relentless attack of LSU's power run game, but it was a bit of the opposite. LSU's defense stopped getting those big stops and went from an absolutely dominant unit in the first half to a merely decent one in the second.

That said, they made the stops when they had to, got some key turnovers (even two fumbles that the referees decided didn't count), and put LSU in a position to win the game. Sure, they allowed two touchdowns, but those scoring drives were for a combined five yards.

We had some high hopes for Anthony Jennings, and he looked decent for a freshman making his first start... until he threw a God awful pick. From that point on, he just couldn't make a good throw or even a good decision. His terrible play got Iowa back in the game and made it virtually impossible for LSU to put the game away. He looked like a kid terrified of making a mistake, which is what usually leads to more mistakes.

But this is a game that will be remembered, if it is remembered at all, as a series of punts, terrible officiating, and the occasional bizarre play. It was only fitting the game would end on a punt that never should have happened, but was the result of Miles mismanaging the clock. The punt bounced off of an LSU helmet, and several laterals later, the game was over, but only after the officials forgot aout all of the flags they threw on the play.

A win's a win, and the experience was invaluable for Jennings. It was also great to see the defense keyed by the play of the freshman corners. That's another good sign for next year. However, this was an ugly win in an ugly game, that hopefully no on outside of our fanbases was actually watching.

Bowl games are glorified exhibitions, and I'm still not sure what we were exhibiting, but it certainly wasn't quality football. But these are the last memories we get to cling to as we enter the long, dark offseason.