QB = A Lee has now officially taken control of this offense and what was once a run heavy offense is multi dimensional. He should have had 4 TDs tonight and I can't remember the last LSU QB to throw for 4 TDs in one game. The play action fakes were outstanding and even had me fooled on the 3rd and 1 play call. RB = A Ware was in beast mode yet again. Impressive doesn't really describe it. Have not seen many RBs with more determination than he. Ford is the home run hitter and the perfect complement to Ware. Blue even got in on the action. FB play was excellent and the Stampley double block made me chuckle just a bit. WR = B It was a another good night for our receivers. Randle and Beckham were formidable once again and even Shepard had a big catch. The drop by Randle was inexcusable, he needs to do like all great receivers and learn to catch the ball with his hands. TE = B- Peterson was nowhere to be found in this offense again but Clement had the huge catch in the endzone, and what a great catch that was. Blocking was once again effective in the run game as well as protection. O-line = A Pass protection was excellent as Lee was hardly harassed the entire night. Run blocking was effective as well. Overall Offense = A- Best balance of run and pass all year long and this will go a long way for LSU when entering the heart of SEC play. The 3rd and 1 play action fake was the real eye opener and a sign of things to come with this offense. D-line = D+ There was absolutely no push from the D-line and WVU's offensive line certainly won the battle in the trenches tonight. They did a good job bottling up the running game, although they weren't called upon to do that much tonight. LB = F This unit got exposed tonight as obviously our weak link in the defense. Our linebackers could not create havoc in either rushing the QB or disrupting passing lanes in coverage. Hatcher got burned for the biggest play of the night by WVU. DB = C+ WVU threw the ball 65 times and barely averaged 7 yards per attempt. From that standpoint, the DB play wasn't nearly as bad as what it may have appeared watching it live. They made the plays that gave us a big lead at the half and held on when the game was in the balance late in the 3rd and early 4th. Overall Defense = C- WVU came in averaging over 350 yards passing per game, and being down by so much against LSU, they had to air it out the entire game. Throwing it 65 times will get you a lot of yards, I don't care who you are. The main thing was shutting them down when it counted. LSU did just that. Special Teams = A Kick coverage was really solid as well as kicking the ball much deeper than we had seen so far this season. We had a few good punt returns as well as the game changing kick return for a TD by Claiborne. The botched XP and missed FG were the only blemishes on an otherwise superb night for this unit. Coaching = B Offensively our best gameplan so far this season. The mix of play action pass was so effective and allowed Lee to have maybe his best night ever as a tiger, throwing for what should have been 4 touchdowns. Defensively, it was a bit disconcerting to see us get picked apart like that, but all in all we forced WVU to take some long drives to score on us and made the stops when we needed to have them.
5 turnovers. Defense has to be better than c-. But we did look a little week at times. B- in my opinion.
Defensive line got no pressure for most of the night, but I though WVU's O-Line was outstanding as well. They also had the right quick play passing scheme which didn't help.
The DBs played a great game in terms of creating turnovers, therefore they got a better grade of C+. Even so, they got burned for over 30 pass completions and could not get off the field on 3 long drives. The rest of the defense was pretty poor.
Interesting take, not saying I disagree with it, I consider Islstl a football God! I thought that when we drove the field the beginning of the second half with no points changed the momentum of the game. It gave WV the confidence they needed to think they could hang with us. I also think the conservative, same formation offensively played right into their hands. They were able to establish rhythm offensively and our defense wore down a bit. I think our offense didn't do enough in the beginning after the first drive to keep our defense off the field. Was rather discouraged that we never got to the QB but only giving up 21 points while giving up that many yardage a good thing. I gotta go watch the game again now, I am very happy with the WIN and the final score and I think we will play better against the rest of the schedule defensively.
I think a valid argument could be made that all of those grades are correct. I think I'd rate the OL grade as a B however. I was surprised they couldn't get any movement up front until the 4th.
Their WR's did a pretty good job of catching the ball. The OL definitely gave the QB all day to throw the ball when needed and the QB did a good job hitting the WR's. WVU is a good ball club and their offensive scheme works for the talent they have.
