By CARL DUBOIS
[email protected]
Advocate sportswriter
During this decisive week for the BCS standings, LSU as an institution will continue to be under scrutiny because of its nonconference football schedule. As players, all the Tigers can do is play the opponents put in front of them.
On this count, LSU has emerged victorious 11 out of 12 times this season.
Repeatedly, the Tigers have knocked opposing players and teams from their lofty statistical perches and have shaken preconceived notions.
Georgia came to Baton Rouge with a 9-0 record in opposing teams' stadiums during coach Mark Richt's tenure. Georgia was on the verge of a Heisman Trophy campaign for quarterback David Greene. Billy Bennett was one of the most steady place-kickers in the nation. Defensive end David Pollack was the 2002 SEC Defensive Player of the Year.
LSU won 17-10 over a Georgia team that was, on that day, injured and unlucky. Right? Bennett's three missed field-goal attempts had nothing to do with the inside pressure from the Tigers. He just had a bad day.
LSU cornerback Corey Webster was named SEC defensive player of the week. Greene rolled up stats. LSU quarterback Matt Mauck made the game-winning touchdown pass on an ad-lib, turning a receiver's wrong pass route into what some call the SEC's play of the year.
South Carolina was ranked second in the SEC in rushing, 27th in the nation, and was supposed to give LSU its first test against the run. The Tigers won 33-7 and held the Gamecocks to zero rushing yards.
Auburn rolled into Baton Rouge with a ground game that was finally on track. This time, LSU would really get its first serious test against the run, against Cadillac Williams and a ground game ranked No. 14 in the country. Auburn, No. 4 in scoring defense, would test Mauck and the LSU offense.
LSU dominated, winning 31-7 and holding Auburn to 50 rushing yards.
So maybe LSU wasn't so bad after all, right? Or maybe Auburn was overrated.
Either way, Eli Manning and the Ole Miss offense would finally give the Tigers a character test defensively. With a possible Heisman and the SEC West at stake, Manning would show LSU the best passing game it would see all season.
Mauck threw a career-high three interceptions against a salty Ole Miss defense, LSU struggled on offense for much of the day, but the defense knocked the Rebels from their spot as the SEC leader in scoring and total offense, ended Manning's Heisman hopes and preserved a hard-fought 17-14 victory.
So Arkansas took Ole Miss' place as SEC leader in scoring and total offense. Razorbacks quarterback Matt Jones moved ahead of Mauck and Manning as the league's most efficient passer. Arkansas brought the nation's fifth-ranked rushing game into Tiger Stadium, where LSU's defense would finally be tested.
The Tigers won, 55-24, and it wasn't really that close after the first 20 minutes.
LSU played three of the nation's best quarterbacks -- Greene, Manning and Louisiana Tech's Luke McCown -- and held them to completion percentages of less than 50 percent and a combined three touchdown passes.
Teams line up against untested LSU and leave with a new appreciation of that adjective. The Tigers keep defeating teams that are overrated -- in hindsight, of course, once their games with LSU are finished.
Let's face it: LSU's schedule has been soft, right? Nothing but cupcakes and overrated teams.
Now it appears Georgia will get its rematch with LSU, this time in Atlanta for the SEC championship. It's a chance for the Bulldogs to prove they're the better team, one that simply had a bad day in Tiger Stadium nearly three months ago.
That's not a bad argument. You can find more than one LSU fan who will say LSU is better than Florida and simply had a bad day when it lost to Florida.
A second victory over Georgia, the defending SEC champion, would assert LSU's dominance in the conference this season. Or perhaps it would confirm Georgia as, um, overrated.
Then, if the Tigers were able to surpass Southern California in the BCS, they would earn a trip to New Orleans for a national championship matchup against top-ranked Oklahoma -- a powerhouse that would, no doubt, give LSU its first real test of the season. Right?
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