1. Clock management 2. Stubborness of coaching staff 3. Wasting talent on offense 4. Inability to consistently develop players 5. LSU "fans"
1. An over-exuberant fan base with a certain sense of entitlement. 2. A recruiting strategy that is "star-gazed".... if you're gonna recruit dual threat QB's, you might wanna run a dual threat offense. If you're gonna run the pro-set or power I, you might want a guy with great passing skills. (It was much easier for me to see what Ole Miss was trying to do Saturday, then it was for me to figure out what LSU was trying to do...) 3. Perhaps too many stars for only one ball. 4. A very young QB in a very tough league. 5. See # 1.
1. Les Miles loses his mind at the end of close games 2. Offensive play calling 3. Dropped passes -- especially LaFell 4. Jefferson can't handle the blitz. 5. A strange reluctance to use some of our best skill players: (Shepard, Keiland, etc.)
1. Head Coach - He's been lethargic the last two seasons and has shown that once everything is his, he can no longer coast on talent alone. The NC of 2007 was a result of the planets and stars aligning, West Virginia blowing it to Pitt, Miles' retarded argument of "we never lost in regulation" catching fire and LSU getting in through the back door, thus giving Miles the only NC he'll ever have. That is the only way he can get it. And he's never had any clue on how to tell time since he's been here. We've won in spite of him so many times that the "luck" has finally run out. 2. Offensive Line - Just horrible. Once again, Miles stated that this could be the most talented line he's ever coached. Fail. These guys could barely block an infant if it wanted to get to the QB or RB. I'd be surprised if Ciron Black gets drafted this season. Watching that guy has been absolutely painful. If you watch him, he hops backwards when protecting JJ and is almost always caught off guard. 3. Defense - You know it's sad when this years defense, by so many of us, has been called "good," especially when you consider all the yards we give up and who we've been playing. Chavis is past his prime and his inability to find a way to stop the run and 3rd down conversions goes to show how right the Tennessee fans were in warning us about him. I guess when you have a defense as bad as last year's, anything is better, but I read somewhere that we gave up fewer yards last year. Pfff. 4. Quarterback - This is obvious. Two quarterbacks digressing as the season progresses over the last two seasons. JJ is better than Lee, but he freaks out so much, especially when inside his own 40, which leads to the next one. 5. Offensive Coordinator - Gary Crowton was touted as a genius by so many around here that I began to believe it. If he were so smart, he would find ways to accommodate somewhat for the lack of talent at QB, and he certainly wouldn't throw it when there is :32 left in the game when in FG range. I also remember during the game this week that McCluster alone had almost as many total yards as the entire LSU offense. That's sad, and of course goes back to the defense as well. Where is Shepard's HB pass?
Your eval of chavis is basically what i've thought and been told from others about crowton since he got here.
great analysis hawker...i'm often amused when our fanbase has the attitude that somehow they are "owed" a victory. insofar as crowton is concerned his production over time indicates that he'll be leaving LSU sometime after the bowl game.
I'll go with just four... 1. Team Management on Offense This includes time management, personnel choices and play-calling. I don't think there's any question that this (along with penalties) has been the biggest, most consistent offensive issue throughout Miles' tenure at LSU. We're losing yards through penalties (delay of game/illegal procedure/false starts). We're losing timeouts through bad play clock management. We're hurting execution because the players seems rushed and/or confused at the line of scrimmage. This issue has been absolutely KILLING us all season long. 2. Complete Lack of an Offensive Identity We have no consistency on offense because we don't do anything particularly well. There are far too many formations and styles of play trying to be used. The offense can only be counted on for 2 or 3 solid, sustained drives, but twice as many 3-and-out's. Because of this, our defense is spending far too much time on the field. 3. Average-to-Poor Line Play on Both Sides of the Ball What may have gotten lost in all of the Saban's players vs. Miles' players talk was that LSU has lost a ton of multi-year starters over the last 2 years, especially on the lines. There were a lot of guys in that 2004-2008 period that were 2 and 3-year starters. Many of their replacements haven't matched their level of play. For all of Miles' success in recruiting skill players, our recent classes of line players haven't produced many standout starters and very little depth. 4. Jefferson's Slow Decision-Making in the Pocket He's just too slow at this right now. He takes way too many sacks because he's not confident in his throws...and many of these sacks are 8+ yarders, which kill drives. Even when he decides to run, it's often too late to get any significant yardage...and he's just as likely to run out of bounds for a loss than he is to move toward a first down. I don't think that the defense has been that much of a problem, other the less-than-average play of the defensive line. Our opponents have been able to run so many more plays than us because of our anemic offense. They rank in the 20s in most major categories, which is pretty good considering the imbalance in plays per game.
:rofl: Good one Hawker, and good luck to Iowa. I always enjoy watching them, except when they beat us
The 2nd point is excellent. It's something I've thought about as this season has gone on and watching how bad the offense has been and how we can't seem to get touches for people like Shep. Like most of us I've been dazzled by our recruiting classes apparent talent but maybe there is a flaw in it. It seems that other teams like Florida & Bama have an identity and they recruit kids that fit that mold. Like Bama likes to run a lot and it's pretty much a power game. So they don't particularly go after a 195 lb scat back even if he is 5* but maybe go after a 215 lb 4*. Florida wants to spread you out with fast elusive people so they go for the scatback figuring that Tebow is the power up the middle. On the other hand we seem like we aren't too sure what we want to be so we try a little bit of everything and we aren't particularly good at any of them. A lot of times this year when the fans were screaming for Shep all we got was a brief appearance of 3 or 4 touches. I don't think Miles/Crowton really wanted to be a spread/wildcat type of team so it was almost as if they stuck Shep in for just a few plays to please the fans and that's all. It's like they recruited him because he was such a highly rated athlete and then had no clue what to do with him. Due to the injuries to CS & KW we may see a lot more of Shep this week. It's going to be real interesting to see how they use him.
