Is this a case of not wanting to beat a man or unit when it's down or is he just in denial? Here's what Miles had to say about his OL performance against Miss St. - Miles’ offensive line has been criticized this season and struggled against the Bulldogs, but the coach said the line isn’t the unit to blame. “I cannot say it’s the offensive line,” the coach said. “We need to make collective adjustments.” Miles said he watched film and that both tackles played “dominant” and that the center and guards had “good play.”
I'll collectively blame the coaches for this loss. It is after all their job to make sure each and every athlete that steps out onto Tiger Stadium is fully prepared. Saturday night they obviously weren't. Obviously this coming game is of consequence as we'll win, but what happens when the cupcakes are over? That's where we'll see what changes have been made if any.
What Miles was saying was .... it isn't just ONE THING that needs to be corrected. Our O is a mess and it's not 1 guys fault. Miles said it was a collective issue. Our problems vary from play to play. We line up with 7-8 blockers against 8-9 defenders and when 1 guy misses his block it looks like a jail break. State blitzed Saturday. Just about everyone on the field missed assignments at some point. Jennings missed some throws. Some badly. And our Offensive strategy isn't going to work. We can run power, but we need to run it from the spread. FROM THE SPREAD. On Defense, same thing. Yes the MLB isn't a beast and he's not making run-stuffing tackles. But the issues we had on defense weren't just on 1 player. Several guys made critical mistakes. Despite being whipped pretty good, there were several situations in the first 3 quarters where LSU had their chances ---- GO back and look at the drive/play charts listed on LSU's website. We had State in several 3rd down situations and we couldn't keep them from moving the chains. Look at the goal line stand. We punch it in there and maybe we don't fall behind so far. Maybe momentum changes in our direction and we get going. We were also in some 3rd down situations where we didn't convert. A lot of times our Soph QB was facing 3rd and long (due to lack-luster play-calling and missed assignments) and State blitzed. AJ got sacked HOW MANY TIMES? SO, to Miles credit, he admitted there needed to be some changes. The coaches need to do a better job of game-planning, play-calling and communicating technique and call to the players. The players have to do a better job of holding their assigments. Making blocks. Making tackles. Making throws. And catching the good ones.
The sloppy play drives me crazy. Looks like we don't know what we're doing, or we aren't prepared. State played a GREAT game Saturday night. Give them some credit. But it's the bonehead stuff we do (over and over) that ticks me off. We knew going into the season that we weren't going to Atlanta. At least most of us did. Too many holes and too many inexperienced players. Veterans are critical in this league. Look at our schedule and the division we play in. This will NOT be our only loss. So go ahead and prepare yourselves now. We may lose 3-5 more games and still be a good team. But we're in the SEC West folks. Everybody is tough.
Okay, but then you're forced to go back 5 years to find the one example. And isn't it funny, since so many people say JJ was Miles' favorite, that he's the one example of throwing a player under the bus by Miles? Of course, the way people speak of Jefferson, you would think he played for Alabama or Auburn, instead of the Tigers.
Red, I agree. BUT for Miles to come out and say the line was "Dominant" concerns me. This tends to make one think he is becoming delusional.
The unfortunate part of that statement is that for 1 game in 2012, JJ might as well have been playing for Bama... he was their defense player of the game.
