The defense looked great. Alabama scored 14 offensive points and one of those TD drives was set up by a Lee interception. Bama’s running game was held in check for the most part as the defensive line clogged holes and guys actually made tackles. I think all the talk of firing defensive coaches (from talking heads on the radio, more on that below) needs to be set aside as clearly things are clicking at this point. Curtis Taylor’s injury may be a case of addition by subtraction. Danny McCray has looked very good in the back and LSU has not had a blown coverage (at least as far as I could tell) in the past two weeks.
Offensively, Lee killed LSU. No way around it. Four picks against the #1 team in the country are too much for anyone to overcome. Lee had a few nice passes, but for the most part he struggled. As I have said repeatedly, this is frustrating process that fans will have to deal with. I know there are calls for Jordan Jefferson to get in there but you have to ask yourself one question, do you trust LSU’s staff to make the right personnel decisions? I guarantee they know way more than anyone in the public about Jefferson’s ability to lead this team on offense. Now if you ask them if they would have done things differently from day 1, I’m sure you would get a few heads nodding. Miles stated it clearly in his post game comments:
“We kind of know what we’re doing with our quarterbacks, LSU coach Les Miles said. “We kind of think we don’t want to put him [Jefferson] in a tough situation just yet. He’s coming. We like him, and we talked about it several times in the game. There’s a lot to it. There’s a lot to that spot … to put a guy in there who may not be ready…”
I have total faith in Miles that he DOES know what he is doing with his quarterbacks. Jefferson will be an excellent player down the road, just not this season. Lee is LSU’s quarterback. He’s unconscious and fits the gunslinger mode. He’s also been an interception machine. Miles put it best when he said:
“I can tell you that when you’re a young quarterback and a dropped ball here and a dropped ball there and a ball that maybe should have been caught is a pick, and just everything that could possibly go wrong does, it’s hard to rebound. It’s hard for him to continue to fight, but he does. He comes back onto the field with the opportunity to win the game, and again, it’s a throw that he does not need to make. His view was, ‘I hit this one, we win it.’ What a great view. I’ve just got to coach him some more, love him and support him and make him better.”
It’s all about the love.
LSU ran the ball for over 200 yards against the #2 rush defense in the country. Bama was giving up only 65 yards a game on the ground before Saturday. Props go out to Scott, Williams and the O-Line. I am looking for that productivity to continue as the season closes out.
I’ve heard a little talk on the radio from fans and some talking heads that Miles is not a good coach, he won with Saban’s players, LSU is going into the tank…blah, blah, blah. This sort of stupidity infuriates me. But I guess you must look at the source and ask, who calls into a radio show after a game? Is your life so devoid of meaning that you are willing to sit on hold on a Saturday night so you can make some asinine comments over the public airways?Everyone needs to get a grip.
That’s not to say that Jarrett Lee did not stink Saturday night. He did. That’s not to say that he did not cost LSU the game Saturday night. He did. But step back a moment and look at the game. The player at the most important position on LSU’s team looked like crap all afternoon and LSU was still able to push the #1 team in the country, led by a 5th year senior and coached by one of the top guys in the business, to overtime. In my mind, LSU is close to being a very good team. Obviously the QB position is what is holding the Tigers back.
I think LSU fans need to get a little perspective on what the program is going thru this season. Looking back at the previous 16 years, I don’t think one freshman has ever led his team to the SEC Title game. I think many fans felt like anything less than a division championship would be a disappointment. The problem is, that was never going to happen once Perriloux was booted off the team. You want to be pissed at someone, be pissed at that clown. Once he committed to LSU in 2005, a number of other guys stopped looking at the Tigers. In 2006, the Tigers were loaded with Russell, Flynn and Perriloux. What elite QB wants to come into that situation? Even in 2007, LSU had Flynn and Perriloux, which most recruits viewed as a situation where the earliest they would see the field would be the 2010 season.
You want more perspective, look at the records of these SEC teams following their championship seasons and subsequent loss of their starting QB.
2008 LSU – 6-3 (losses to Florida, Bama and Georgia)
2007 Florida – 9-4 (losses to Auburn, Georgia, LSU and Michigan)
2006 Georgia – 9-4 (losses to Tennessee, Vandy, Florida and Kentucky)
2005 Auburn – 9-3 (losses to Georgia Tech, LSU, Wisconsin)
2004 LSU – 9-3 (losses to Auburn, Georgia and Iowa)
2002 LSU – 8-5 (losses to Virginia Tech, Auburn, Bama, Arkansas and Texas)
I present this not to justify or excuse Lee’s poor play, but rather to provide perspective and a comparison to other SEC teams in the past that have faced a similar situation to LSU. Not only did those teams lose a few games, none of them were even able to win their division. By the way, lest you forgot, the 2002 and 2004 Tigers were coached by God…er…Nick Saban. The 2008 Tigers look right in line with recent history.
Surely if America can overcome it’s past racial history and put a black man in the Whitehouse, Lee can overcome his tendency to throw back breaking pick sixes, right?
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