Momma!! Make the Bad Man Stop!!!

Leonard Fournette will not win the Heisman, but to my purple and gold tinted glasses, he is the best player in the country. Look no further than Saturday night's record setting performance, 284 yards on 16 carries with three touchdowns. Fournette's scores came from 78, 76 and 59 yards. He was a beast showing that rare combination of power and elite level top end speed. Savor it LSU's fans. It will be a looooong time before we see anyone in his class again.

After a tight first half, the Tigers dominated the final thirty minutes. That's a trend that has yielded a 73-7 second half scoring advantage for the Tigers since Coach O took over. A few observations:

• Etling continued his nice play. He finished the game 19 of 28 for 204 yards with 1 TD and 1 INT. He did have one fumble but that was a vicious hit from an unblocked Ole Miss defender.
• Speaking of the fumble, I think LSU was a bit too aggressive there. On it's own 17 with only a minute left, LSU looked to start a drive with a play action pass that ended up with Etling fumbling. Ole Miss got the ball at LSU's nine and scored with a few seconds left to go into the half.
• I thought the play calling in the first quarter was too clever. I'm happy the offense is mixing it up, but against a team as weak in run defense as Ole Miss, I was willing to line up and play a little smash mouth mixing in the play action pass. The play calling eventually settled down and Fournette began romping to a historic night.
• Since Coach O took over, LSU is averaging 8.6 yards per play. In the previous four games, the Tigers averaged 5.8.
• LSU's second half was an example of the type of killer instinct Miles never engaged in. The Tigers locked down on defense AND kept up the pressure offensively culminating in an 11 play TD drive that took six minutes off the clock and effectively sealed the game.
• After going down 10-0, the defense really clamped down on Ole Miss. If not for the fumble late in the first half, the Rebs would have been held to under 20 points.
• Beckwith was a laser guided missile all night. He was the embodiment of Mike the Tiger hunting and killing his prey.

Playoffs Week 8:

A little shake up this week! Ohio State fell at Penn State this weekend so Washington jumps in there with Alabama, Clemson and Michigan.