THE GOOD LSU won a classic trap game where they sleepwalked through the first half coming off two emotional SEC West victories. Fournette is Superman. 9.4 yards a carry. Career day. Harris averaged 19 yards a pass for 155 yards. Only 50% completed, but he threw a TD and had no interceptions. Steady but still a bit hesitant. White had a tremendous punt return. A 48-yard broken play. If Fournette can just learn the cutback move instead of lowering his shoulder downfield, he will turn more long runs into TD runs. Dupree made a fabulous over-the-shouder 42-yard reception. Four receptions and a TD. Three games--zero turnovers. THE BAD The defensive line got pushed around. The offensive line was not dominant, either. Special teams were dreadful in the first half. Average the rest of the game. Field position was poor. Pass protection was poor. Our quarterback got sacked three times. Teheuma just whiffed badly on one of them. The defensive backfield left men open all day. A walk-on quarterback was able to throw on them including a TD bomb with a safety out of position. Three second-half TD passes allowed. The team was just lethargic the whole game. A noon game, a strange field, a long trip, and the Tigers never really got untracked. Tolliver had a horrible day. He was flagged for pass interference, beaten deep and hurdled by a punter on the fake field goal. A lot of leg cramping again, why can't these players stay hydrated? Fournette did not need to be in the game on those last couple of drives. That 87-yard run called back took a lot out of him. We are deep at the position. Let him have a rest, he seemed tired. We need to find a kicker that can kick it out of the end zone. Three of 10 on third down won't cut it. THE UGLY 14 penalties for 120 yards. This is fixable and it better get fixed quickly. A touchdown and an interception taken away and it cost Fournette a 350-yard record-breaking game. Some calls were cheap, but most were stupid penalties.
I think you can rank two versions of the D. The 1st half and the second half. Jeckle and hide there. I also think Tolliver was not bad at all. That PI was a terrible call. He was in front of the WR and his HEAD WAS TURNED. You are allowed to make a play on the ball. If anything, the WR was pulling him down. As far as him tackling the punter, he is 18 and pretty small. He was also covering a guy the punter could have thrown a TD to.
Great analysis as always, Red. Since there's already a thread regarding the illegal formation call, I won't touch on it here. The penalties I have a beef with are as follows: 1. The call on Neal when he lost his helmet. I haven't gone back to look, but I thought he was held. Plus, while I understand the spirit of the rule of not wanting guys to continue play w/o a helmet, 15 yards seems excessive to me. Why not 5 yards. How do you get a guy to all of sudden stop playing/pursuit when the helmet comes off? That play gave SU life and they scored on that drive. 2. The non PF call on Harris when he ran OOB. He was clearly OOB and the SU defender wrapped up and slammed him to the turf. No call. That would have given LSU 1st and goal, and I believe this was the drive where we got the FG. 3. The PF call on LSU late in the game when the SU QB was still CLEARLY in bounds. They later scored their garbage-time TD.
Red is getting really good at this good bad and ugly stuff. Why isn't the super strong leg Gamble kicking? He really boomed some last year when they let him kick.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't he give him a shove when he was OOB. Nothing flagrant, but since the zebras were in a flag throwing mood, they obviously threw it.
Yeah I agree Red. The offensive line is outstanding run blocking but they need to get better protecting the quarterback.
Ritter and his crew are beyond abysmal. It's an embarrassment that the SEC is the best conference with, hands-down, the worst officiating. I promise that we'd have fared better with an ACC crew.
What sucks is Brandon Harris was body slammed while he was out of bound and had been for a second or 2. Call it both ways if you are gonna call it.
