THE GOOD Fournette. 1,000 yards in only 5 games, Alexander's 40-year-old season rushing record is in clear danger. After the game he announced that he would be breaking an NCAA rule. So the NCAA said, "Uhhhh, OK." 624 yards of balanced offense. Most yardage in a SEC game since 1987. Harris passed for 64% and 228 yards, despite a miserable 1st quarter. Guice averaged 10 yards a carry for 161 yards passing Fournette's total. Williams had two TD's. Three different running backs scored four rushing touchdowns. Seven receivers caught passes, 2 for touchdowns. It's not just the Fournette show. Play calling was effective. Even against the loaded box. The Tigers got stronger and more focused as the game progressed. Dural and Dupree lost their starting jobs, but responded by stepping up their game and not dropping passes. Career-high 6 receptions for Dupre. Run blocking was excellent as usual despite 8- and 9-man boxes. Pass blocking was better. Zero turnovers. Yes. THE BAD Starting receivers Quinn and Diarse got zero receptions, mostly because they saw no catchable passes. Our linebackers cannot cover receivers. We continue to get beat short over the middle. Continuing penalty issues. This crap is going to lose us a winnable game soon. Loss of excellent fullback Moore with knee injury. I hope it is not too bad. Second-string defense continues to give up big plays and TD's. Lack of depth here will hurt us later this season. Another sleepwalking first quarter. LSU must find a way to hit the ground running. No effective pass rush. We must fix this soon. THE UGLY Special teams needs a complete overhaul. I have never seen it so bad since Curley Hallman. Skykicking didn't solve a damn thing. We have had bad field position all year long because of allowing long returns and not getting enough long ones ourself. We don't have a kicker who can get it into the end zone and our punter is underperforming game after game. Peveto has to fix this instantly or we don't need him next year.
I think Quinn had a nice re eption but it was called back for a penalty. I saw stats that Fournette, lining up on the I-formation, rushed 14 times for 37 yds (2.6 ypc) but from the shotgun rushed 6 times for 121yds (20.2 ypc). Take away the 87 yard run and he still avg 5.6 ypc out of the shotgun.
Please add to the ugly: a nearly empty Tiger Stadium during an SEC game. Spare me the details about short notice, etc. It was, in fact, ugly.
I agree with you on this. It is fixable and BDP has had good special teams before. It reminds me of the "Fire Grimes" thread. It does have to get fixed this week. Shaking it up with some starters might help.
Great write up. Although the defensive breakdowns were bad. There is no reason to allow a team with a third string QB that many yards. Granted the D isn't as good as first thought. The DL is not what LSU has come to know. However a big issue is personnel groupings and schemes. Early on in the game Thomas, our worst cover guy was often covering Cooper, their best WR. The team does much better when Jackson is covering the slot. LSU certainly has to do a better job recruiting LB's it's a serious weak spot. Beckwith and Debo are the only two who deserve to see the field. Jamal Adams has not had a good season. He has made a few plays but he is pressing too much to be spectacular. Jefferson is solid overall. White and Toliver are as good as their is as a pair. They just shut down who ever they guard. The PI on Toliver was bogus or should have been negating penalties due to a face mask by the SC player.
Beckwith must add effective pass coverage to his game or it will cost him 2 or 3 rounds in the NFL draft.
He definitely could use another year at LSU. I'd rather see Debo taking more of the coverage assignments. I also forgot to mention a great job of play calling and mixing up the plays. LSU showed versatility in the play calling, which Harris and receivers responded with by far their best performance. Still things to work on. I think it was smart to start out early with the pass, which gave Harris confidence. I also loved watching him run the two minute drill, he looked in total control. Great job by the coaches. Special teams must step it up big time. Not acceptable. LSU has always been a special teams stallworth, not sure what is going on here.
