THE GOOD Harris passed for 78%. He can't maintain those numbers against SEC competition, but it surely must encourage our receivers. True freshmen shined on offense--Harris, Fournette, Quinn, Dupre, Williams. As they earn it, each may end the season as a starter. 2015 is looking very special. Only three punts in the game. Three very long punts. Kragthorp got into the game at QB and Cam let him toss one. Fournette is starting to get untracked. He ran hard and much smarter following his blocks. Some impressive downfield blocking at times by our big offensive linemen. We have two kickers who can kickoff deep into the end zone. Dural continues to look like an All-American. Jennings didn't pout on the sidelines. When Kragthorp came in, Jennings put on the headset and signaled in plays for him. I've never seen so many walk-ons get into a game. THE BAD Another slow start for the Tigers. This team takes too long to get going. Porter is still having issues at center. The tight ends still aren't catching many passes or blocking particularly well. Hilliard got benched for almost 3 quarters after his fumble. The defensive line still can't plug the middle when the linebackers and defensive backs are spread out by the offense. Chief may have to keep a safety back. Mike the Tiger still hasn't attended a game. Bad juju. More injured defensive tackles. This spot will be a weakness all season. We still haven't busted open a big punt or kickoff return. THE UGLY Our first four possessions ended in three Jennings turnovers and a punt. Booing from the students. It was mostly directed at Miles' decisions, but it wasn't pretty for Jennings. We have FOUR remaining opponents ranked in the top-10. That won't be pretty either.
Solid writeup. Although I didn't quite get the "Chief may have to keep a safety back". Did you mean he needs to bring a safety in the box to help out in run defense? And on a hilarious note, for the first time ever, when I clicked "Like", it popped up a window asking me if I was sure I wanted to like this post. That's rich.
He's gotten spoiled living in his palatial surroundings. Someone needs to light a fire under his ass and remind him he has responsibilities a dozen or less times a year. He's one spoiled cat.
It seems like when the offense spreads receivers out widely, the five defensive backs come up close to the line and the two linebackers have to spread wide to cover their potential receivers, leaving them in poor position to make an inside play when the defensive line lets a man through. There is no safety left far enough behind the line to have an angle on a back that gets through the middle. Last week Beckwith couldn't get to the middle to make the play and gave up a long TD. This week Welter couldn't get there on almost the same big play. Doug Moreau said that we will see a lot of spread teams do that in the SEC until Chief finds a way to fix it. Nick Marshall scares the hell out of me right now.
It is almost like Jennings has developed the yips. He looked like he has lost all confidence. When Harris went in the machine began to run. The tempo picked up and it looked like LSU was going downhill for the rest of the game.
I don't understand his keepers. They say they don't want to force him into the trailer and that is altogether proper. Why not lure him into the trailer? Don't feed him for a day and put a big bloody steak in the trailer on Saturday afternoon. Or feed him in the trailer every day all year long until he never knows when he's going to be detained for a couple of hours. It's not like riding around in a trailer at 5 mph is Tiger abuse or something.
Right now I don't see how Auburn runs for less than 250 yards on this defense. Harris better get ready to lead us to 6 straight TDs in this game as well.
As Brett pointed out, part of his success so instantly may have been the difference in play calling, too. It seemed marked to me. No doubt Harris played much better, and AJ poorly, esp. w/the TOs. But, the play calling seemed more aggressive, and allowed more running success, and thus support. The pass seemed to open up the run.
Also glad Jennings didn't pout. Our defense needs to get its sht together because when our offense figures things out, a stout D would be a one way ticket to NC. If we had a D last year we'd probably have a NC. If our D would have shown up in our last NC appearance Miles would have had his second NC.