Tigers get Cocky

This was a huge win.

I know South Carolina is not one of the elite teams in the SEC, but winning at their place was a giant boost for the Tigers. Now at 5-1, the Tigers will play Georgia to keep pace with Alabama in the West.

A few observations from Saturday:

*Defense looked much better. Not great, but much, much better. The Tigers sacked Garcia six times, picked up two fumbles and Curtis Taylor came up with a great pick after the Tigers went up late. Tyson Jackson looked like an NFL first rounder as LSU’s “Express” package gave South Carolina fits. Reminded me a bit of the “Bandit” package LSU used against Florida in ’97 by then defensive coordinator Carl Reese. Part of this may have been due to injuries as François and Alexander were out and Nevis hurt his ankle in the first half. Blitzes were coming from a number of directions as the hits on Garcia wore him down and created big plays for LSU. Kudos go out to Coach Mallory. The Tigers held the Gamecocks to 42 yards in the second half as the play calling was more aggressive than it has been all year. That’s about as impressive a performance as you are going to see.

*Lee made some very nice throws, but he has got to stay away from these killer interceptions. His completion percentage is strong and will continue to get better. He now has five straight home games after cutting his teeth in some of the toughest stadiums in the country. I think Lee is doing just fine.

*The “local village idiot,” also more commonly known as Richard Condon, has been showing his ass on the radio. He rips Lee and supports his argument by asking with a skeptical tone, “do you believe if LSU was down with two minutes left that he can move down the field and win the game?” Uh, you mean like when he threw the game winning pass on the road at Auburn with 1:03 left on the clock? Idiot.

*Hats off to Coach Miles. I think he is underrated and unappreciated by the national media. You don’t hear his name mentioned with some other upper echelon coaches, but just look at what he has done at Oklahoma State and now LSU. He has an 84.8% winning record at LSU with two appearances in the SEC title game, an SEC title, two BCS Bowl wins and a National Championship. He is now 7-0 after a loss while at LSU and has a gaudy 11-4 record in SEC road games.

*The BCS…Fear not Tiger fans, LSU comes in at #13 in the BCS standings but there is plenty of time and plenty of games for the Tigers to climb the polls. LSU plays Georgia and Alabama and would get a rematch with Florida (most likely) in the SEC Championship game. The Tigers would probably leap frog a one loss Ohio State or Penn State. Texas, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech and Oklahoma play a series of games against each other that will create spots above LSU. I don’t know if the Tigers are good enough to win out, but if the Tigers can win this weekend, they will enter November with a legitimate shot to defend their title.