Official SEC Football Thread 2012

[rizzle]

Originally Posted by oooo35980

We won because of "iffy" play calling. That isn't the best our defense can do, we barely scraped by and I think it would have been a much cleaner win had we not been so predictable on third down the entire second half. LSU knew we were coming and acted accordingly. It's not that we played badly, and blitzing on 3rd isn't always lousy play calling, but being that predictable hurt us.

If not for that last offensive drive we would have lost, if Les Miles hadn't screwed up four plays we would have lost. We came within a hair of sending LSU to the SEC championship again and possibly excluding the SEC from the NC altogether. I don't think it would have happened if we had played a little more coverage, and a little less blitz, especially on 3rd down. I also think we gave it to AJ a bit too much, he was obviously rattled and having an off night, thank god for that last drive, but the rest of the second half was awful. I'm no expert though and it's easy to say that after the fact.

LSU had the right game plan put together and for some reason we weren't making the defensive adjustments we should have. They were rolling TE's out to the sideline and leaving the WR's in the slot. Our CB's rolled out with the TE's and that left our safeties to come up and cover the more skilled WR's. It was a mismatch all night and it shows you how much we miss Mark Barron from last year's D. Not like we've never seen that before, hell we used to do it with Julio all the time.

Anyway, great game. One that we should have lost, but somehow didn't. One that when Yeldon lost the fumble and LSU drove it down our throats to score, I said we're gonna lose this game.

Don't forget LSU had an extra week to prepare and rest. I know we could use some rest about now. We're all beat up. This was also the first game, other than WKU, that we were mostly in our "base defense" for the whole game all year. Now we'll have to go back to being a little more "unconventional." aTm will present challenges, but I think you'll see us play them about like LSU played them. Should be a similar time game. At least I hope.

Carry on...

[OLS]

Originally Posted by rizzle

Don't forget LSU had an extra week to prepare and rest. I know we could use some rest about now. We're all beat up. ...

Correct me if I am wrong, Rizz, didn't we get you guys in the same spot last year, or am I extrapolating
off of the Champ. game where you guys had a month of rest?? Duh, I guess I can look it up on the webster...
Yep, you guys were off for a week last time.

All homerism aside, this was a superb football game. Last year I liked it because we won, but was not
a fan of the game from almost any other standpoint. Sat nite the game was constantly up for grabs,
nearly from the opening kick. I know fans of young-man football could care less, but wow, what a football
game. If I wasn't so mad at Les Miles, I could enjoy it more, but I enjoyed so many aspects of the game.

One was the courtesy and sportsmanship of the tide. The Tide D could have re-arranged Mettenberger's DNA
on all those pass attempts where he hung in the pocket, but they gave him the bennie of the doubt that he
WAS going to throw and not pump and they never killed him once that I recall. They simply tackled him
and everyone lived to play another down. I DID NOT like the camera shot they got on number 6, giving 'kissy goodbye'
lips to the LSU fans in the stands after the big closing drive. I thought that was classless. but there are SO
many of those moments in every game, only a fraction get on camera. Like that moron Mettenberger playing
the 'cell phone-call me' move as if he had suddenly re-written the record books of college football by scoring a TD.
But of course its ALL just kids being kids. What ya gonna do.

Obviously I hope A&M beats the Tide, but you made your path to the big game clear, and I see no
way to stop the ball rolling downhill. Should be another egg for the elephants, hope they glue this one down.