QB = B Combined for 10-18, 183 yards, 2 TDs 0 Ints. A pretty decent stat line. Nothing special but no interceptions. The biggest play of the night was Jarrett Lee getting that passing TD at the end. He appeared really thrilled. RB = A+ Alfred Blue showed he can be the feature back on any team in the nation, unfortunately for him he is 3rd on the depth chart at LSU. I think it made a lot of sense to get him a lot of carries in the event we need to lean on him in any of our remaining games. 33 combined attempts for 238 yards and 4 TDs is simply an outstanding night by our running backs. WR = B+ Did well with the limited number of pass attempts. Randle continues to be a dominant threat with the deep ball. Excellent downfield blocking all night long helped in the running game as well. Also prevented an interception. TE = B+ Very good night by the tight ends. Dominated blocking on the edge and caught 2 passes for 34 yards combined. Clement is showing we can trust him in the passing game. Could pay big dividends down the road. O-line = B- Run blocking was dominant but pass protection left something to be desired. Overall Offense = B+ It was a good night overall, with just some lapses in pass protection preventing a near perfect night. D-line = C- Not their best showing as they seemed uninspired, but good enough to get the job done. Started to get pressure on the QB in the 2nd half, but a lot of that was caused by extra blitzers. Conversely, could not get any pressure in the first half without blitzing. Did a good job holding the run in check. LB = D+ Minter is playing better and better and is by far our best run defender. The mediocrity of this unit was highlighted by the whiff on a sack of the QB by Baker. Tight ends and running backs caught 9 receptions for 76 yards. Tahj Jones caught the deflection from Mathieu for an interception. DB = A Another great night of covering the wideouts. Limited to just 2 catches for a measly 21 yards, the Hilltoppers were never able to get the ball downfield in big chunks. When Chavis decided to start blitzing, both Brooks and Mathieu were terrorizing the quarterback and forcing bad throws, getting sacks, and caused an interception. Overall Defense = C+ Nothing inspiring until Chavis called for blitzes in the 2nd half, in which WKU was held to roughly 50 yards of total offense. Special Teams = D Disastrous night for the special teams. Fumbled a kick return and allowed a huge return as well that almost went the distance. These guys are going to be run pretty hard this week in practice. It won't be pretty. Highlight of the night was pinning WKU back near their 5 yard line. Coaching = B I questioned, as probably most did, as to why Lee was not in the game until the 4th quarter (or why he didn't start). We are now hearing it was punishment for missing classes this past week. If that's the case, then it was definitely the right move by Les Miles. The defense struggled in the first half with vanilla defenses that WKU was attacking with way too much success. That ended in the 2nd half when Chavis called in the dogs. They attacked and caused WKU all sorts of problems moving the ball. Lee got some passes in, got a touchdown and seemed pretty happy at the end. That was great to see. Jefferson got lots of reps passing the ball, and I think that was needed as we prepare for the stretch run.
Pretty much agree, except for the D-line. The goal line stand reminded me of the glory days of the "Chinese Bandits". I'd give them a solid C or maybe a C+
Grade seem very accurate to me. I think both coaches and team planned a vanilla game against WKU. They made the needed adjustments at half and won as they should have. It wasn't pretty but sufficient. A couple of points about the O. 1) Spencer Ware doesn't seem to be running with the reckless abandon he did before the suspension. He hasn't been hitting the hole as forcefully. Is he nicked? 2) Lee was very tentative till he started running the read option and option. His first passes were tentative and I believe the first was an interception waiting to happen. After he ran successfully his whole demeanor changed and his play picked up. That may be very important for Ark and the games that follow.
I noticed, and mentioned on another thread that CLM didn't seem himself, and seemed a little pissed. If Lee was being punished for cutting classes, could this have been something that happened at the last minute, leading to Les's disgust? Was it ever announced before the game that Jefferson would be the starter?
Of note, I believe on some of our WRs: Beckham short armed a sure first down. He would've taken a big hit, but you still got to catch the ball and shield the defender's blow with your shoulder. Turn away from the hit. He didn't really even try to make the catch. Gotta be tougher than that. Also, I'm very disappointed in the lack of growth out of RS from the WR position. After almost 3 years, he still never makes the tough catches downfield. I believe both can be helped by practice, practice and coaching. I think (in this one instance) Miles should take a page out of Chizik's book and use RS more like they use McCaleb at Auburn. Fly sweeps, screens, reverses. Also, like Sean Payton and Pete Carroll used Bush. Not to many fly patterns thrown his way. There's a reason for that and I believe it could help with RS. I believe both will get better, along with how the coaching staff uses them(particularly RS). They're both super-talented and young and inexperienced. Missing the 1st month of the season has really slowed down RS's progress. It looks to me like he's still playing catch up. I have seen both block well downfield, though.
That pass was poorly thrown I believe. He needs to learn to take a little off the ball. Beckham was clearly open yet JJ put it in there like it was triple coverage. Shepard needs to catch that long pass, although it would have been an amazing catch. Randle would have pulled it down most likely.
I'd say B- for the receivers for what was mentioned above. Not real impressed. I'd say B- for the QBs; intentional grounding in the end zone and a near interception by Lee... I'd also say B- for coaching; I'd give worse but am assuming JL was being punished for academics; liked the role reversal for JJ and JL, still think JL needs to be the primary QB.
There is no way the offense and coaching can get high grades for putting up only 14 in the first half aginst wku. The safety is inexcusable. They did tighten up later in the game but still it was wku. The entire first string shouldve been able to go to the beach and relax drinking cocktails with little umbrellas poking out the top and the scrubs put up 24 points before the half.
I wonder how much of the d-lines play was directly effected by how beat up they were after Bama. Overall I agree with your grades. No arguments with any. ImighT change the QB to B- due to the bad decision by JJ which lead to a safety but not a big issue.
