After watching the game and reading all of the posts, LSU's season so far and probably the rest of the year boil down to a few things. 1. LSU has had a target on its back since the day after the OU game lastyear 2. We have 1 quarterback that doesn't have the talent level to compete in the SEC but has the experience to at least be on the same level with two freshmen. We have two quarterbacks with a ton of talent but no experience in the SEC and also lacking the determination to make the big play when needed 3. We have a coach that is either a little arrogant or too stubborn to realize that it would be better to get a great talent like Russell game experience which would prepare him for later in the year and also the next 3 years. 4. We have a defense that has been playing soft the entire year. We were able to get away with this against 3 sub-par teams but it finally caught up to us when we played real competition. Our upperclassmen on defense have been leading the way. Corey Webster and Travis Daniels have played like little girls. Cameron Vaughn could very well be the biggest sissy playing linebacker in the SEC, and we've got safeties who seem scared to make a hard hit. I wanna see one of our players take somebody's head off. Forget the 15-yard penalty. I'm ready to see the Tigers start playing with a little pep in their step. 5. Finally, we just don't have the same "character" that we did last year. Saban talks about it every week on his little show. He "surrounds" himself with people that have "character". Sorry Nick, last year's team had character. Chad Lavalais, Michael Clayton, Devery Henderson, Matt Mauck, and the rest of our seniors had character. They played hard every down, no matter what. If it meant, Matt Mauck throwing a block on a linebacker, one of our o-linemen taking on Pollack the entire game, they looked like they were ready for a war. That's something that's not happening this year.....period.
i agree but this is not 2003, this is 2004 and we have an entirely different identity than 03, every saban team has had a different identity, unfortunately, its 5 games into the season and we still havent found one
I think it all comes down to a lack of leaders on the team. Just doesn't seem like anyone is stepping up to really lead the group like numerous guys did last year.
We will have a quarterback next year who knows he will have the starting postition and he will be able to step up and be the leader. Saban is the kind of coach that likes to take one game at a time. He is not going to just completely tank a game so next year will turn out well. Yea, I agree with that. My theory is that maybe these guys aren't confident being the big guys on the team now that the seniors of last year are gone.
I've noticed this myself. Where's the intensity, where's the guys flying to the ball making the big hits?? Vaughn got run over on that touchdown, period. Georgia was jacked up sky high, granted they were at home and hungry to beat us for smacking them around last year. I can remember watching the Auburn game last year with a buddy of mine, who's not really a huge LSU football fan and he made a comment about our defense and how they just didn't stop. I think his exact words where "Man, those guys are crazy, they don't stop coming after you". That was one of my favorite things to watch last year (I know different year, different team) when we were on Defense. You just knew we were bringing IT. Hopefully the team will take this game, correct a few mistakes and take it to Florida.
BASIC FOOTBALL FUNDAMENTALS IS THE PROBLEM. CAN'T TACKLE CAN'T BLOCK CAN'T CATCH CAN'T MAY BE A STRONG WORD, BUT THEY ARE "NOT" DOING THESE THINGS VERY WELL RIGHT NOW.
The main problem that I have with the last two games is the number of times we put the ball on the ground. Those two fumbles in the first half turned into 14 quick points. We HAVE to figure out how to protct the ball while fighting for yards. Anyone know how many fumbles JV has so far this year against not too many carries?!?
Last year, our defense was described as "swarming" time and time again. And that's what they looked like. We don't blitz nearly as much as we did last year. Have the new guys not learned the schemes yet, or what? Plus, teams seem to have learned how to beat us when we do blitz, but that's because we don't go at the QB as hard as we did last year.
We blitz, we just don't get there. No pressure up the middle and the qb has time to step up and make a play. No Lavalais to double team makes a huge difference. I'd like to see us play more zone and blitz less. If you aren't going to get to the qb, you have to sit back and put more people in coverage. Our corners just can't do it one-on-one. They didn't have to last year very much. There is a big difference having to only cover a guy for 10 - 15 yards and having to stay with him the length of the field. Not many corners in the country can against upper SEC caliber receivers. Add that to us not being able to protect our qb, and the biggest thing that bothers me is the lack of adjustments made by the coaching staff. Why not go to 2 TE and protect the qb? With our talent at receiver, a 2 man route with protection is a lot better than having 4 guys running routes with no time to throw. Plus, from what I've seen the past several years, we run the ball better out of a 2 TE 1 back set anyway. I can't say much about the players, the talent of last year just isn't there at this point, but I think it will be in the future once the young guys have time to mature. The lack of adjustments by the coaching staff is my complaint at this point.
