Is Saban holding back? Watching Oregon St & Ark St., it seems like we weren't running alot of the plays that could have given us better success. Is this bad play calling? Or is Saban holding back for our tough SEC schedule? I have a suspision that Saban & Jumbo have some things up there sleeves and are practicing alot of things that haven't been put on the field yet... Anybody else get this feeling?
I think they've been holding back. I haven't seen as many blitzes as last year. I noticed that you're from Mandeville/Baton Rouge...You must have a HUGE house to cover those 2 cities!
i'm not so sure that its accurate to call it "holding back". i wouldnt be surprised if saban is just gradually introducing the playbook as the season goes on. this is probably especially true with several inexperinced key players, and may be prolonged if JR gets more pt than MR. of course, there is a side benefit of this approach come sec time as you pointed out.
I agree, with many young players at key positions it's probably just a matter of not giving them more than they can handle at one time. I think by the end of the 3rd quarter of the OSU game Saban would have called any play that he thought would work and was worried about saving the game not a handfull of plays.
Could the LSU running game use a bit more deception? Compared to other teams it seems like we rely mostly on just trying to overpower the defense with slow-developing handoffs and pitches. Whatever happened to that great QB belly-option that Mauck ran so well? Why can't we have Skyer circling behind the QB every once in a while to decoy the defenders away from a smash up the middle? Where's the occasional fake to the FB and option around the end? The great Nebraska running teams used to be great because not only were they strong up front, you'd never know who would get the ball next, how, or where.
Green did not dress out for ASU. The field was very slopy for OSU and limited some of the play calling although I agree it could have been better. Why would you get fancy against ASU when keeping it simple gets you a 37-0 halftime lead and a 53-3 win. No reason for reverses and halfback passes in that one. When has LSU ever faked to the full back?
Please, please, let's not start with "our offense has no imagination." That's the most ridiculous thing that ever comes out of fans' pieholes.
LSU traditionally starts out very vanilla. Its all about putting in packages/schemes that the players can execute. As they gain confidence with execution, the schemes become more complex as we get into the meat of the SEC schedule. Its all part of the master plan.
