At Least we Won the Tailgate

The downside of a conference championship is that one team goes home on a big down note after a highly successful season. This season, after winning 10 games and garnering a #3 ranking in the polls, LSU fell on its face in the biggest game of the season. LSU was dominated on offense, defense and special teams.

To a small extent, Georgia out coached LSU, but the biggest failure was in execution. Georgia’s first two scores were directly due to failures in the Tiger secondary and great throws by Shockley. The blocked punt probably falls on Jackson. As the Georgia outside blocker moved in, Jackson had 2 choices, either call a timeout or throw to the uncovered gunner. Instead he tries to punt and gets blocked. This is simply a failure to quickly and correctly make the correct decision based on what the opposition is doing.

Offensively, the Tigers flat out stunk. For all the progress he has made, JaMarcus has a long way to go to be the quarterback able to bring LSU another championship. This is not meant to be a criticism of Russell, only an acknowledgement that without a strong running game, he can’t carry the Tigers offensively, at least not yet.

What happened?

1. All of LSU’s old bugaboos reared their heads: turnovers, penalties and missed opportunities on big plays.

2. LSU’s offensive line was average at best all season. These guys never really jelled and were never dominant. This put more and more pressure on Russell to try and make plays in long distance situations. LSU struggled to run the ball and it only got worse as the season progressed. Which leads us to…

3. LSU started its 4th string RB in the SEC Title game. I assume Addai and Vincent were nicked up thus explaining the extensive playing time given to Carey.

4. The Tigers just ran out of gas. After all the early season turmoil and the rescheduling of two games, the Tigers were running on fumes. LSU was playing its 11th straight week and it showed against a VERY talented and well coached team.

5. Georgia was just better that day. It happens, despite all your preparation and practice, the other team just rises to the occasion and plays better than you. And finally…

6. Of the 11 SEC Champs since 1995, over half were led by senior QB’s (Wuerffel in ‘96, Manning in ‘97, Martin in ‘98, Davey in ’01, Campbell in ’04 and Shockley in ‘05). The trend is toward success for upper class QB’s in the title game and that held true Saturday as Georgia’s 5th year Sr. D.J. Shockley brought home a Championship.


I am sure a lot of folks will be pointing fingers at coaches and players about this poor showing. Fans need to accept the fact that it happens. Don’t forget that in 2003, the Tigers beat Georgia in the SEC Championship in a similar way. That was an excellent Georgia team that just ran into a Tiger team marching toward a national championship. Let’s be grateful for 10 wins and look forward to what year two has in store.