I had a question for the faithful here that might make for interesting discussion. Specifically, who should we be yelling at when LSU players commit boneheaded penalties that stall or kill promising drives? A lot of people seem to think it ultimately goes back to coaching, but the coaches can't hold the players' hands on the field and make them not hold or jump offsides or whatever. I think it's the players' responsibility. And while the Tigers did shoot themselves in the feet a bit, they were much better last night; committed only 6, I think. Florida had 11 (should have been 12 when their CB mauled Tolliver on that first fade to the end zone) and that made a difference.
Yes, the penalties were about as good as we could have hoped for last night in the swamp. I was very happy about it. One bogus holding call on Clement. One bogus interference call on us in the endzone (ball was not catchable). The inadvertent facemask on Nevis in the endzone. The late hit on the QB (aggressive penalty but still gotta pull up on that one). I don't think we had any of the silly penalties (procedure, motion, delay of game, substitution, false start) and that was huge. That to me is where good coaching enters. You practice and get on these guys to pay attention to detail and you avoid these type penalties. The coaching staff did an excellent job this week. Period.
I forgot about the PI in the endzone. It's true, if you take those 3 calls out, LSU was pretty clean through the game. Definitely improved. And if I remember right, only 1 procedure penalty (OL jumped after DT moved) that's another that could be wiped. Also, why'd they ever take incidental facemask away? Nevis was a textbook 5 yard penalty. His hand touched the side of the helmet while the QB was falling down for a safety. I thought that was a very homer call.
Not to belittle the coaches efforts; I do believe that also has to do with the players stepping up and being more focussed with all the adversities : national criticisms and redicule of the coaching , the ugly/lucky way they won against Tennessee, and going into the Swamp. What impressed me about the Tigers as a team yesterday: the moment they stepped onto the field, you can feel that they were not confused and played very solidly despite the intimidation of the Swamp, and all the fans noise.The offense played as a unit. The players meeting on Sunday has a lot to do with it. The way this team responded after the Tenn game is reminiscent of the 2003 team after the loss to the Gators.
There is no excuse for the kind of cheap personal foul that Brooks committed. It's entirely on the player.
And one of those was the Nevis facemask, which was really just kind of a happenstance occurrance; certainly didn't go after his facemask. I think it all starts with coaching, and then you have to take the entire game performance into context. You look at the Tennessee game, with the number and types of penalties we committed, and you have to question the overall discipline of the team; that's coaching. Fast forward to last night, and it would seem problems were addressed and the team overall played smarter. So you look at what did happen and question the players on their individual mistakes.
Don't put too much stock into penalties. The year we won our last NC Title we were THE most penalized team. The year before when Florida won it, THEY were THE most penalized team.
I guess yes and no. But in a competitive situation, you wouldn't want to give your opponents an easy time to score or kill your offensive drives, unless you are really DAMN good and can overcome the penalties. Danger is that the other team can always potentially squeak by to steal the win.
I agree but aggressive defenses sometimes do, unfortunately. Marginal "late hits" etc. Guess what it yields outweighs what we give up occasionally.
