Road Woes

As a rule, with a loss such as the Tigers suffered Saturday night, I like to give myself time to digest the game. While I am extremely disappointed, as the game wore on I realized that this team is just not good enough to accomplish the lofty feats of other LSU teams over the past 12 years. Bottom line: the offensive line is good but not great, the defense is a shadow of what LSU fans have become accustomed to and Miles still has no clue how to properly manage the game clock.

OFFENSE

* Z Mett was horrible in the first half. All 3 INT’s were thrown poorly and into double coverage. I’m not sure if he was unfocused, greedy or worried about his productivity slumping after only getting 152 yards and zero TD’s against Florida. Whatever it was, he killed the Tigers in the first half. To his credit, he played much better in the second half leading LSU to 24 points, but the Tigers dug too big of a hole going down 17-0.

* Z Mett was sacked 3 times and the ground game didn’t generate any big plays with the longest run being 12 yards. Some of this lies at the feet of the offensive line while some also goes to LSU’s philosophy of running the ball. Too often Miles and Co. want to run plays inside a phone booth which neutralizes Hill’s ability to run over people. More runs out of spread formations would help LSU.

* After utilizing the backs heavily in the pass game at Georgia, we haven’t seen nearly as much of that. Need to mix it up a bit.

* I would be OK with giving Coach Studrawa his walking papers. The offensive line has be average for years now.

DEFENSE

* Where to begin? We will start up front where the pass rush has been hit or miss. The Tigers did get 3 sacks, but that came on blitzes, not with just the front four. Anthony Johnson has been really disappointing this season. Against Ole Miss he recorded one solo and one assisted tackle.

* Too often running backs are breaking through and I’m asking, “Where are the LB’s?”

* At this point, the secondary just can’t cover anyone. Wallace was 30 for 39 with 346 yards. On multiple occasions, Tre’Davious White was holding onto Donte Moncrief for dear life.

* The back breaker was LSU’s inability to get off the field on third down. Ole Miss was 11 of 18 on third down conversions. The Rebs had drives of 17, 14, 11 and 9 plays. Furthermore, Ole Miss did not punt once in the second half.

OTHER FAILINGS

* Once again Miles went to Ole Miss and mismanaged the clock. Instead of calling a timeout with 26 seconds left in the game, he called one with 6. Highly unlikely LSU would have been able to score with 26 seconds left, but to eliminate the chance is just TYPICAL HORRIBLE CLOCK MANAGEMENT by Miles. Had LSU not burned 2 timeouts earlier, the Tigers could have gotten the ball back with over a minute and a half left to go.

After the game Miles took blame for not having the players ready. A good PR move, but I’m not buying it. I have criticized Miles many times on this site over the years, but this one is on the players. Did Chavis all the sudden for get how to coach? All season we have talked about the job Cameron has done with Z Mett and the offense. While I think the coaches share the blame, this was a loss by the players. Z Mett killed LSU with his poor first half play. Those 3 INT’s were NOT from poor coaching, that was poor execution. In the first half, RT Jerald Hawkins was getting abused by Ole Miss’ DE. Coaching at fault? Probably some, but that is also an execution issue. Giving up third down conversions on 3 and 15? COVER SOMEONE. This defense is young with few leaders and no real playmakers. On a positive note, LSU will get back NINE starters on defense next year. It’s a down year, it happens after losing so many guys early to the NFL.

Fans have a tendency to overreact to the most recent game. This loss is no different. Ole Miss is a decent team; they should win 8-9 games this season. Fans need to accept the fact that LSU is very young on the defensive side of the ball. Mettenberger had an awful half and LSU is just not good enough to overcome three first half turnovers.

LSU v. Furman

I don’t know much about Furman except that they are an FCS team from South Carolina. Look for LSU to flop around until getting focused and putting away the Paladins.

LSU 42 – Furman 41