SB Nation - Jarrett Lee

If College Football Had a Playoff: #13 LSU Tigers @ #4 TCU Horned Frogs

Jeremy Mauss — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:07:10 -0000

Before we get to game four the previous matchup of #12 Penn State @ #5 Florida came down to the very end with Penn State completing the first upset, and becomes the second lower seed, but first true upset in the "If College Football had a playoff." The vote was very close 93-87.

This matchup features TCU who is the top non-BCS seed and has dominated nearly every game and has played three teams that are currently ranked or were ranked in the top 25 during the season. This TCU team is top 10 in offense and defense, so LSU will have a difficult time trying to stop them or to moving the ball.

The LSU running game is balanced but nothing dynamic and unless LSU can have moderate success they will eventually become one-dimensional throwing the ball. However, LSU is 13th in total defense which would be the best defense to date that the Horned Frogs would face, and the fastest defense as well surpassing the Utes in that category.

To give some help to those who are not sure who would win I turned to What if Sports to simulate this game. The winner would be TCU in a minor blowout 2 6-3; LSU did have the game tied at 3-3 but then TCU ran off 23 straight points. The Horned Frogs rolled up 320 yards and had the edge in time of possession 38 minutes to 21 minutes.

What if Sports is not the decider in this game, you yes you! The readers of this site decide who moves onto the next round.

So gather your friends to stuff the ballot and check back daily at 12 PM eastern time to vote for the next matchup, and voting is only open for 24 hours. As they say in Chicago vote early and vote often.

TCU Stats

Passing

		Passing									Rushing					Sacks
	G	Rating	Comp	Att	Pct	Yds	Y/G	Y/A	TD	INT	Rush	Yds	Y/G	Avg	TD	Sack	YdsL
Andy Dalton	12	93.0	174	279	62.4	2484	207	8.9	22	5	107	522	43.5	4.9	3	-	-
Marcus Jackson	7	265.0	2	2	100	23	3.3	11.5	1	0	17	48	6.9	2.8	0	-	-

Rushing

		Rushing					Receiving
	G	Rush	Yds	Y/G	Avg	TD	Rec	Yds	Y/G	Avg	TD
Ryan Christian	11	14	66	6	4.7	0	19	244	22.2	12.8	3
Andy Dalton	12	107	522	43.5	4.9	3	0	0	0	0	0
Skye Dawson	7	13	111	15.9	8.5	0	0	0	0	0	0
Yogi Gallegos	1	1	4	4	4	0	0	0	0	0	0
Antoine Hicks	12	9	20	1.7	2.2	4	14	309	25.8	22.1	4
Marcus Jackson	7	17	48	6.9	2.8	0	0	0	0	0	0
Jeremy Kerley	12	14	50	4.2	3.6	3	37	457	38.1	12.4	2
Ed Wesley	11	93	605	55	6.5	4	7	142	12.9	20.3	2

Receiving

		Receiving
	G	Rec	Yds	Y/G	AVG	TD
Logan Brock	5	5	67	13.4	13.4	0
Ryan Christian	11	19	244	22.2	12.8	3
Curtis Clay	11	14	188	17.1	13.4	2
Evan Frosch	3	3	33	11	11	0
Antoine Hicks	12	14	309	25.8	22.1	4
Bart Johnson	12	26	350	29.2	13.5	0
Jonathan Jones	3	3	30	10	10	0
Jeremy Kerley	12	37	457	38.1	12.4	2
Billy Pizor	1	1	10	10	10	1
Ed Wesley	11	7	142	12.9	20.3	2
Jimmy Young	11	27	430	39.1	15.9	3

Kicking

		Field Goals								PAT
	G	0-19	20-29	30-39	40-49	50+	FGM	FGA	PCT	XPM	XPA	PCT	pts
Ross Evans	12	-	-	-	-	-	14	17	80.0%	60	62	100.0%	102

LSU Stats

Passing

		Passing									Rushing					Sacks
	G	Rating	Comp	Att	Pct	Yds	Y/G	Y/A	TD	INT	Rush	Yds	Y/G	Avg	TD	Sack	YdsL
Jordan Jefferson	11	93.0	169	272	62.1	1964	178.5	7.2	16	6	104	160	14.5	1.5	1	-	-
Jarrett Lee	6	73.0	16	40	40	197	32.8	4.9	2	1	3	-23	-3.8	-7.7	0	-	-
Russell Shepard	10	0.0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	45	277	27.7	6.2	2	-	-

Rushing

		Rushing					Receiving
	G	Rush	Yds	Y/G	Avg	TD	Rec	Yds	Y/G	Avg	TD
Trindon Holliday	12	23	116	9.7	5	1	3	36	3	12	0
Jordan Jefferson	11	104	160	14.5	1.5	1	0	0	0	0	0
Brandon LaFell	12	4	6	.500	1.5	0	52	705	58.8	13.6	10
Jarrett Lee	6	3	-23	-3.8	-7.7	0	0	0	0	0	0
Richard Murphy	2	2	10	5	5	0	1	4	2	4	0
Charles Scott	9	116	542	60.2	4.7	4	8	54	6	6.8	1
Russell Shepard	10	45	277	27.7	6.2	2	5	34	3.4	6.8	0
Keiland Williams	10	70	368	36.8	5.3	4	4	22	2.2	5.5	0

Receiving

		Receiving
	G	Rec	Yds	Y/G	AVG	TD
Richard Dickson	9	20	150	16.7	7.5	0
Trindon Holliday	12	3	36	3	12	0
R.J. Jackson	4	11	141	35.3	12.8	0
Mitch Joseph	2	2	18	9	9	0
Brandon LaFell	12	52	705	58.8	13.6	10
Chris Mitchell	7	10	65	9.3	6.5	0
Richard Murphy	2	1	4	2	4	0
Deangelo Peterson	4	5	82	20.5	16.4	2
Reuben Randle	7	10	146	20.9	14.6	2
Charles Scott	9	8	54	6	6.8	1
Terrance Toliver	10	47	654	65.4	13.9	3
John Williams	1	1	17	17	17	0
Keiland Williams	10	4	22	2.2	5.5	0

Kicking

		Field Goals								PAT
	G	0-19	20-29	30-39	40-49	50+	FGM	FGA	PCT	XPM	XPA	PCT	pts
Josh Jasper	12	-	-	-	-	-	16	19	80.0%	34	34	100.0%	82

Poll

Who wins?

TCU

475 votes

LSU

335 votes

810 votes | Poll has closed

Alabama & Florida Common Opponents: LSU

Year2 — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:20:01 -0000

As a part of SEC Championship Game week, we're taking a look at Alabama's and Florida's common opponents in alphabetical order. Now up: LSU.

	Alabama	Florida
Game Number	9	5
Score	24-15	13-3
Passing Yards	276	134
Rushing Yards	176	193
Total Yards	452	327
Passing All.	158	96
Rushing All.	95	66
Total Defense	253	162
3rd Downs	4-14	5-12
3rd Down Def.	5-14	1-9
Turnover Margin	Even	Even

Alabama went into its home tilt with LSU coming off of its near death experience with Tennessee. The Tigers were the first to score out of the gate, and though Bama would take a second quarter lead, LSU pulled ahead by five before the half. A Leigh Tiffin field goal pulled the Tide closer, but it wasn't until Julio Jones took a bubble screen 73 yards to the house with 10 minutes to go that Alabama would take the lead for good. A late field goal sealed the win. Alabama got some help thanks to injuries to LSU's Jordan Jefferson and Charles Scott during the game.

Florida went into its game with LSU off of a bye week, normally the best time to take on your toughest road task of the season. It was, however, Tim Tebow's first game back after sustaining a concussion against Kentucky. Tebow was sharp in what little passing he did, connecting on 11 of 16 throws. Of all the conservative game plans that Florida dialed up this year, this one was the most risk averse of all. Thanks to LSU having just one sustained drive and not looking good on offense whatsoever, Urban Meyer was content to let his defense win the game. The Gators' offense played its part by rushing for nearly 200 yards and gaining a 13 minute advantage in time of possession.

The game shouldn't have been as close for Alabama, as the Tide had a sizeable lead in yardage. You can see where some issues arose: third downs. Bama was just 4 or 14 on those, though the defense turned around and did about the same to LSU. Also, Greg McElroy didn't have one of his better days. He completed only about 55% of his throws, and absent the 73 yard touchdown from Jones that had nothing to do with the guy tossing the ball, he barely broke 200 yards on the day. Despite everything Bama had going for it, this one wasn't over until Jones' score. You somehow knew Jarrett Lee wasn't leading a comeback on that defense.

Florida's offense wasn't exactly at peak performance either. The Gators only punted once, but they also missed a field goal, turned it over on downs, and Tebow threw an interception. They went about as vanilla as possible, as this was the game where "dive play" became a dirty word to Gator fans. Meyer was just running clock all game, something that was frustrating to no end for those watching the game. LSU was never truly out of it until Florida's field goal with a little over seven minutes to go, but with consistently bad field position and no coherence on offense, LSU wasn't really in it for much of the game either.

It's tough to say who had the better performance. Alabama couldn't really take over until late. Florida led for most of its game, but the Gators were never more than a single defensive breakdown from getting tied up for most of it. UF probably could have tried to make the score a little prettier, but with a still recovering quarterback and a dominating defense, they never seemed to feel the need to. Alabama wasn't just running out the clock from the second quarter on because it was in control though, and that's the difference between the games. Plus, Bama was at home, Florida was on the road, and two key cogs for LSU went out injured during Alabama's game.

Better performance: Florida, but not by much.

See also: Arkansas, FIU, Kentucky.

Behind the Numbers: LSU v La Tech

Poseur — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:48:16 -0000

More photos » by Bill Haber - AP

What a beaten man looks like. (AP Photo/Bill Haber)

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Sorry for almost complete absence from the blog this past week and half. Real life has intervened, and it was just La. Tech. You understand. I was at yet another wedding on Saturday and didn't watch the game until last night, which was just as ugly as I had heard. So, without further excuse, here is this week's Behind the Numbers.

3/12 for 30 yards. With about 5:30 left in the first half, Jarrett Lee came this close to throwing a pick six. He had looked mediocre up until this point, but not exactly bad. From that pass on, he went from mediocre to spectacularly awful. He would only pass for 30 yards from that point on, and it was just as bad as the numbers make it sound. The kid is still psychically and emotionally beaten from last year. The fans have turned on him and they are unlikely to come back. I like Lee and wish him well, but I have to say, I do not believe he will ever be an effective quarterback for LSU. He absolutely needs to transfer. The damage is too severe.

27 for 164. Our running backs destroyed La. Tech. With only one longish run, a 25 yarder by Keiland Williams, the running backs dominated, averaging just over 6 yards a carry. OK, it's just La. Tech, I completely agree, but this was another encouraging sign of improvement for the offensive line.

0. The number of return yards by La. Tech. LSU's punt game has been terrific all year, and last night was no exception, averaging 41 yards per punt and pinning the Bulldogs inside the 20 twice. The one touchback was a 51 yard punt. The special teams have really been a bright spot all season.

3/4. La. Tech was three of four on fourth down. That's just a fluke, right? They were 5 of 18 on third downs, which is a good rate, but a horrible number of third downs to allow. The Bulldogs converted two fourth downs on their TD drive in the first half, one aided by a generous spot and the other on a gadget play. Hey, it counts, but it's not a long term concern.

0/3. By contrast, LSU went oh for three on third down in the first half (and 0/2 in the fourth quarter). LSU's offense has been terrible at sustaining drives, and really, if the Tigers convert a third down or two in the first half, this game is likely a blowout. Why? Glad you asked.

51.2%. The percentage of LSU's total yards in the whole game earned on the first two possessions. LSU only managed 246 yards of offense, 126 of them on the first two possessions. This had all the earmarks of a blowout win until LSU failed to earn a first down on two consecutive drives, one pinned deep in their own territory and the next the infamous Jarrett Lee almost-pick-six drive. LSU let La. Tech in the game, and they played their hearts out. As soon as the Bulldogs showed fire, LSU progressively went into the tank. If LSU converts some of those third downs, they probably score and go up 17-6, and the rout is on. Instead, they let the inferior team hang around and gain confidence. Bad idea.

19-170. The combined penalty yards. Seriously, guys. That was out of control.

BlogPoll later today. I promise.

Saturday Lessons: November 14

Year2 — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:00:32 -0000

More photos » by Brett Flashnick - AP

Not pretty, but effective: your 2009 Florida Gators.

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Florida and Alabama just keep doing their thing.

This was probably the last realistic chance for Florida to lose prior to the showdown with Alabama, given that its game was on the road and South Carolina isn't a bad team. It would have been the irony to end all ironies for Steve Spurrier to spoil the Gators' attempt at an undefeated season, but UF just won the way its been winning all year: adequate offense and (mostly) stifling defense. Florida completed its third perfect SEC record ever, after 1995 and 1996, and they have just FIU and FSU (who plays less defense than Georgia does most days) to go before heading up to Atlanta.

Meanwhile, the Crimson Tide made sure there would be no cowbell magic for Mississippi State. Mark Ingram was his usual great self (149 yards on just 19 carries), and Greg McElroy found his early season form once again as he was efficient and didn't turn it over. The defense was brilliant as usual, holding the Bulldogs to just a field goal and snaring three interceptions in the process. A pit stop with Chattanooga and the Iron Bowl remain for the Tide before they pack for Peachtree City.

No one dominates without help, and USC's help is about gone.

I've said this before: no team dominates a conference without the teams around it being subpar. FSU dominated in the 1990s in part because the ACC was terrible during that time. Miami had a great run in the early part of this decade thanks to the Big East not being very good. Florida and Alabama now are dominating the SEC (a combined 30-1 the last two years) thanks in part to regimes getting stale and/or falling apart in at Auburn, Tennessee, and Georgia. There is no exception to this rule. You can't dominate without weakness around you.

USC dominated the Pac-10 for much of this decade thanks to a lot of lousy coaching elsewhere. The conference didn't have a lot of coaches that could stare down the titan on a consistent basis. Jeff Tedford and Mike Bellotti did occasionally, but without any consistent threat, USC ran roughshod over the league. UCLA went nowhere with Karl Dorrell, as did Arizona State with Dirk Koetter. Oregon State took some time to get going under Mike Riley. The Washington schools fell apart after Rick Neuheisel and Mike Price left. Stanford went through several bad coaches. Arizona has only recently done anything under Mike Stoops.

Teams are upgrading now though. Oregon with Chip Kelly is 2-1 against USC. Stanford under Jim Harbaugh is 2-1 with two wins in L.A. Oregon State is hitting its stride under Mike Riley and is 2-2 since the Pac-10 went to the round robin format. Washington at least hired someone who knew all the secrets in Steve Sarkisian, and UW is 1-0 under him. Sure this was going to be a down year for USC, but this big of a crash was not inevitable. The rest of the conference is catching up, and it's because it's getting smarter about coaching hires.

LSU is not the same without Jordan Jefferson.

An eight point win over Louisiana Tech is not impressive in any way this season, and Jarrett Lee completed just 7 of 22 passes for 105 yards and a 4.8 yards per completion average. Keiland Williams had a good day in relief of the injured Charles Scott, but really, without a functional passing game, LSU's offense is seriously hampered. The Tigers didn't put up as many points on LA Tech as Auburn (36), Navy (32), Nevada (37), Idaho (35), and Boise State (45) did. For a home game where they didn't turn it over, that's not good.

Regrouping is not part of Lane Kiffin's master plan, apparently.

I will grant pretty much any team a distraction-fueled mulligan the week that three players get arrested for armed robbery. However the Vols practically didn't make the trip to Oxford, mailing in a pathetic 42-17 loss to Ole Miss. Some slippage would be expected without starting safety Janzen Jackson, but they allowed Dexter McCluster to serially kill them for 282 yards on the ground. Tennessee normally doesn't give up that much yardage to entire teams, much less single players. UT is still without a sixth bowl-clinching win, but fortunately for the Vols' postseason hopes, they still have Vandy left to play.

Good luck figuring out the Rebels. Again.

Ole Miss, meanwhile, played like we would have thought they would in the preseason. I'm not about to get all that excited over it since I said the same thing after the Rebels' win over Arkansas, and they lost to Auburn the very next week. A win over LSU would give them the tiebreaker for second in the SEC West, something that seemed out of the question not that long ago. That does assume though that they don't find a way to lose the Egg Bowl, which given the inconsistency from the team this year is not 100% out of the question.

TCU may have a point.

A lot of folks assume that if a major player from a major conference played in a non-BCS conference, they'd win pretty much all the games by blowouts. Well, that's exactly what TCU has been doing, with its only close wins being at Clemson (who's not so bad) and at Air Force (who's going bowling). The Horned Frogs are basically doing what we might expect any other titan might do with the same schedule, and two close wins over decent or better teams can be excused. It's hard to give too many more reasons for keeping TCU out of the national title game with their three wins over ranked teams, even with Texas (one win over a ranked team) undefeated.

Georgia won't finish under .500 in the SEC.

I'm not sure how much more we can gather about UGA after its win over Auburn since few elements of it have been repeatable for the Bulldogs throughout the season. If you're wondering if this game saved Willie Martinez's job, your answer is a hearty laugh and a "no." The 17 offensive points that Auburn scored was more than Kentucky gave up to the Tigers, and you still have to look at the bigger picture. Georgia has allowed as a total team 30+ points nine times since the start of the 2008 season. That's more times than than Florida, Alabama, Penn State, Ohio State, and TCU have allowed 30+ in the same span (seven times). Not all of that is on the defense, what with special teams and defensive scores, but it's still a bad relfection on that unit.

Auburn's position as the high variance team of the conference remains unchallenged.

I am not really sure what to make of Auburn. The Tigers can beat Tennessee and Ole Miss, but they find a way to lose to Kentucky and Arkansas too. Now, they can't beat Georgia either, though UGA is the fourth best team in the conference by record. There's no consistency there from week to week, which I supposed could be expected since they are in the first year of a system that requires extreme levels of conditioning.

Kentucky is going bowling.

It's hard to think about football among the bluegrass this time of year, but the Wildcats defeated Vanderbilt to score their sixth win of the season. Like last year, UK is sitting on six wins and just two of them in-conference, but the Wildcats can put a nicer record up with an upsets over Georgia and/or Tennessee in their final two games. Given that Kentucky has already defeated Auburn, Georgia's been wildly inconsistent, and that Tennessee might be going into a late season tailspin, it could happen.

Few teams can torch cupcakes like Arkansas can.

Missouri State: 48-10 win

Eastern Michigan: 63-27 win

Troy: 56-20 win

It's too bad the Hogs couldn't play in the Sun Belt or MAC. Throw out their SEC record, add a few more scores like that, and keep their 47-19 win over Texas A&M, and they might be looking like Boise State is right now. Okay, not quite as good since Oregon's much better than TAMU, but you get the picture.

Minnesota should stop playing teams from the Dakotas.

The Golden Gophers needed a field goal late in the fourth quarter to hold off South Dakota State 16-13 on Senior Day (!). They only outgained the Jackrabbits 231-229. In 2006 Minnesota escaped North Dakota State 10-9, but the very next year the Bison beat the Gophers 27-21. It may be time to find a new area to scout for I-AA opponents, don't you think?

LSU 24 - Louisiana Tech 16: Snap Judgments

Richard Pittman — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 04:02:47 -0000

More photos » by Bill Haber - AP

about 1 month ago: Louisiana Tech coach Derek Dooley calls to his team in action against LSU in the first half of an NCAA college football game in Baton Rouge, La., Saturday, Nov. 14, 2009. (AP Photo/Bill Haber)

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Escape. Sweet, sweet, escape. What an absolute dud of a football game. here are teh snap judgments:

The team as a whole was flat. The defense would play well for a couple of plays at a time, but could never sustain it. They'd lose focus for a play and give up 10 or 15 yards on a screen or a misdirection. Other plays, we would dominate their line and make a tackle for a loss or no gain. It was quite frustrating how we would beat them badly two plays in a row only to see them get a first down to keep a drive going on the third. Hat tip to uberschuck in the comment thread for pointing that out.
Derek Dooley brought a good game plan to Baton Rouge. He didn't have much in the way of players, as much of his lineup was out due to injury, but he made the most of what he had, getting his little backs out into space and taking advantage of our aggressiveness with draws, misdirection, screens, etc.
Defensively, Louisiana Tech just let us beat ourselves. Jarrett Lee got the start and did not play well. He was 7 of 22 for 104 yards and a touchdown. There were no interceptions, but Louisiana Tech was close on about 3. This Lee was not the same as the Jarrett Lee of last year. The 2008 version of Jarrett Lee struggled with interceptions, but also made plays. He tried hard to get the ball to the receivers and ran into trouble when he'd try too hard or would lock in too much. This version of Jarrett Lee seemed scared to put the ball anywhere near a defender and shied away from taking hits. It wasn't the same quarterback, and it wasn't a quarterback showing growth. It was a quarterback who, much like our entire offense earlier in the season, seemed so scared of making a catastrophic error that he wouldn't try to make a play. He wouldn't try to squeeze a ball through a hole to a receiver. He wouldn't try to wait for a play. While we've complained about Jefferson not throwing the ball away, Lee would give up on a play too quickly. It was frustrating and painful to watch.
While Gary Crowton was busy trying to get an ineffective Jarrett Lee into the game, he was overlooking Keiland Williams, who finished the game with 116 yards on 15 carries, and he scored both of our touchdowns on short runs. He had a great game, and needed to get probaby 6 or 7 more touches than he got.
At one point, with LSU holding onto a lead, Crowton called 6 consecutive passing plays, resulting in two consecutive 3-and-out possessions.
This was probably as good of a game as our defensive line has played this season. They made play after play, both in the passing game and in the running game. A large percentage of La Tech plays went for 0 or negative yards. And a large percentage went for big yardage. C'est la vie.
Brandon Lafell continues to be a great player.
This is a team that really needs Jordan Jefferson back. I am surprised to find myself saying that, as I was seriously wondering earlier this year if we wouldn't be better off with Lee under center.
Russell Shepard continues to look like a star in the making.
We did not get an interception (there were no turnovers in the game for either team as a matter of fact), ending our streak of games with an interception, going back to last season.
La Tech's running backs were similar to what we're going to see with Dexter McCluster next week. We will have to figure out how to catch and tackle a small, shifty back.
Let's not forget, the game was a win. Our 8th of the season, in fact, beating our regular season total for last year, with two more winnable games remaining. Now we just have to win them.

Saturday Lessons: November 7

Year2 — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:08:13 -0000

by Skip Martin - AP

A win's a win, right coach?

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Voters will be voters (read: idiots).

Pick a poll. Any poll. In it, today you'll find Iowa behind USC.

Iowa has one loss to 6-3 Northwestern. USC has two losses, one of them to 3-6 Washington. That alone would be enough to put the Hawkeyes ahead of the Trojans, but USC also has the evisceration at the hands of Oregon on its resume. I know it's popular to rag on Iowa for all the close wins, but in the end, they're all wins and the two schools have similar schedules played so far. There's no way to justify having USC above Iowa, and yet there's up to a four spot gap (AP poll) between the two. It's nonsense.

Alabama gets to face the tin hatters this week.

I don't think anyone really believes Jarrett Lee was going to lead any sort of dramatic comeback against Alabama's defense. It's also LSU's job to keep Bama from driving within field goal range. Even so, Patrick Peterson did get that interception late in the game because he had possession and a foot down. The second foot is irrelevant because this is not the NFL where you do need both feet in bounds.

If you guessed from the first two sentences that I don't think that blown call gave Alabama the game, you're right. Alabama was the better team and with a few less mistakes from Greg McElroy, the Tide would have been a larger margin of victory. It's no different than any other ref-fueled tempest in a teapot that we've seen this year in that way though. As a Florida fan, I'm just glad it's someone else's turn.

Florida hit the snooze button.

Mark Jones and Bob Davie incessantly talked about how low key it was in the Swamp on Saturday night, and that's exactly what the program needed. They beat Vandy by the same margin they beat Georgia by. There was no drama. There was no controversy. There was never a doubt of the outcome of the game. It's the perfect breather before embarking on the final road trip of the year to Columbia this weekend.

You could nitpick the offense, as it didn't get up to the buzzsaw gear again. That had more to do with Vandy's defense though, which put up a valiant fight. The Commodores also saw fit to pressure the quarterback in obvious passing downs, something that has worked fairly well for everyone who's tried it. We know who this Florida team is by now, and we saw exactly that: a pretty good but not dominant offense that sees no need to take chances thanks to a ferocious defense backing it up.

LSU now must avoid a letdown.

It's hard to beat a team as good as Alabama. It's even harder when you lose your starting running back and quarterback in the process. They fought the good fight on Saturday, but they're still about a year away from competing on the highest level. The danger now is if, with the division title out of reach, they start feeling bad for themselves. Louisiana Tech is no threat, but with both Houston Nutt and Arkansas still left on the slate, there's still potential for chaotic upsets. That's what those two have delivered off and on in recent years, and any more Tiger losses would put a damper on an otherwise good year.

The MWC is above the Big East for now.

With Iowa dropping off, there's one less undefeated team to look out for. We know the Florida-Texas-Alabama trio is pretty much unbreakable without a loss for one of them, so the interesting stuff comes after them. We can see in the Coaches' and Harris Polls that TCU is a pretty clear No. 4 over the No. 5 Cincinnati Bearcats, which both relates to how they've been playing and the level of respect their conferences are getting. TCU, with the exception of a close scrape with Air Force, has been blowing out its MWC competition whereas UC has had more tight games.

Given how Pittsburgh has climbed in the rankings and how UC is above TCU in the computers, I would think it unlikely that an undefeated Cincinnati would be behind an undefeated TCU in the final BCS rankings. However, it's just interesting to note that a non-Big Six team is the first in line at the table if the preseason script (SEC Champ versus Texas) somehow fails us. And people said there's no progress being made.

South Carolina's descent continued.

If you chalk the upcoming Florida game as a loss for the Gamecocks, they will end up 3-5 in the conference. After the hot start and given the general down-ish state of the SEC at the moment, that has to be a huge disappointment. They looked all right for the first half of the game, battling to a 10-10 halftime tie before unloading a 80 yard Stephen Garcia to Alshon Jeffery bomb to begin the second half. The floodgates opened from there though, with Arkansas pouring on 23 unanswered points to win the game. The Chicken Curse seems to be in full effect.

Arkansas finally broke through on a good defense.

Here's what kind of year it was for Arkansas before Saturday. Against Alabama, Ole Miss, and Florida, they averaged about 15 points per game; against everyone else, they averaged 48.6 points a game and never were held below 40. The Hogs were great at putting up points on lousy defenses, but they were silenced against the best ones.

South Carolina's defense isn't quite in the same league as Florida's or Alabama's, but it's not Georgia's defense either. This was an important sign that the Razorbacks can succeed against an upper-half-of-the-SEC defense, and it builds momentum for the rest of the stretch run. They've got two winnable games (Troy, Mississippi State) before going to Baton Rouge to try to pull off yet another improbable upset of LSU. If Jordan Jefferson is still gimpy and this breakthrough is a real sign of progress, that one could easily happen.

It's good to have homecoming.

Georgia's defense got to get a shutout and hold someone to 55 total yards. Kentucky got to give QB Morgan Newton some easy reps. Auburn got to pad its season stats. Jonathan Crompton got to know what it felt like to be Tim Tebow circa 2007, as he accounted for six touchdowns in one game. Ole Miss got to give Dexter McCluster a much-deserved break. Ain't November cupcakes great? Just wait 'til November 21, when both Florida and Alabama get down to snacking.

Well, That Sucked

Poseur — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 17:07:42 -0000

via media.2theadvocate.com Photo by: Bill Feig. This ain't tennis. You can't show the official the mark left.

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I returned home from the wedding a little drunk and on a positive vibe. I had listened to the LSU-Alabama game in the car and as far as I knew, the game was 15-10 LSU late in the third and I was pretty excited to watch an epic fourth quarter.

Yeah, not so much.

Watching just the fourth quarter of the game was a bitter, bitter experience. Alabama had three drives which went FG, TD, FG while LSU's offense sputtered and failed to even gain a first down. I want to bitch about The Call, which was awful but entirely expected given the SEC's track record this season, but it looks like people already beat me to the punch.

But when you just watch the fourth quarter, it's impossible to blame this on one call. LSU went into the tank when the game mattered most. No first downs in the fourth quarter. The officials didn't do that, LSU's offense did. Julio Jones getting a long TD catch off a screen pass untouched, that wasn't the officials doing, that was the LSU defense.

Patrick Peterson's non-interception was a key play, but not nearly as big as LSU's failure to get two yards on 3rd and 2 up 15-13. If LSU converts there, maybe they can put together a drive, or at least give the defense a much needed breather. Instead, LSU punted and then Julio Jones made his big catch. With Peterson sitting on the bench, still trying to recover from injury.

There is the key to the game. LSU just suffered too many injuries in the course of the game to recover. Charles Scott has a broken collarbone and is likely out for the rest of the season. Jordan Jefferson went down with a hurt ankle and Jarrett Lee was not exactly stellar coming in relief. Peterson missed a lot of the second half with cramps but kept gamely trying to compete. Patrick Peterson is an absolute stud and this game was his national coming out party. If he's not already the best cornerback in the country, I'd hate to see the guy who is better. Ciron Black, Al Woods, and Perry Riley also all missed time due to injury. That's not just six starters, it's six of our most irreplaceable players.

This sucks, because I don't feel that Alabama is a better team. They didn't beat us like Florida did. For the first time all year, our offensive line looked pretty good. I want to blame the officials but I can't. It was just too many injuries, and too much to overcome. If only, if only, if only. But if doesn't matter. LSU lost. Scott is out for the year. And Alabama is the SEC West champs.

And we're still waiting for our first first down of the fourth quarter. 3rd and 2. 15-13. One yard. We didn't know it at the time, but we lost the game on that play.

Bama 24 - LSU 15: Snap Judgments

Richard Pittman — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 02:32:50 -0000

More photos » by Dave Martin - AP

about 1 month ago: LSU quarterback Jordan Jefferson (9) reacts near the end of a 24-15 loss to Alabama in an NCAA college football game at Bryant Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Ala., Saturday, Nov. 7, 2009. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

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i had a good time at the game, and yes, my family is still intact. We're pretty good at this "not aggravating each other after a sporting event" thing. Anyway, here are my Snap Judgments, not at all influenced by television or camera angles or replays, because I have not seen any yet:

Patrick Peterson is an absolute stud. He tied up Julio Jones the whole game, whenever they were matched up on each other. If there's a better corner in the country, I'd like to see him, but not in a game in which we're playing against him.
His cramping problems could well have made the difference in the game. The touchdown pass to Julio Jones came when Peterson was sitting out recovering from the cramps. If he's in the game, that play is probably very different. Heck, they may not have even called that play if Peterson was in the game.
Speaking of injuries, the injury to Jordan Jefferson (I do not know the nature of the injury or how serious it was) was another huge factor in this game. I like Jarrett Lee, but he was not sharp in this game, and we had no passing game once Jefferson went out.
In the stadium, people were saying the "interception" by Patrick Peterson really was an interception and that replay got it wrong. Heading out of the stadium, we got an LSU feed and Jordy Hultberg was saying the same thing, suggesting the league office would probably deal with the replay official later. I got home, and Mrs. ATVS told me there was no replay that showed it. I don't know what to believe. I know if we got that interception, we had the ball down by 6 with enough time on the clock to mix in runs and passes. Again, maybe it's a different game.
How many people got hurt for us in that game? Peterson 3 times, Al Woods, Ciron Black, Charles Scott, Jordan Jefferson. Anyone else? Richard Dickson did not even play a down.
We really played well for most of the game. I cannot fault the effort our team put into that game. I could tell before the opening kickoff that they were charged up and ready to play. It showed throughout the game.
Who would have thought we'd score two touchdowns, and they would be scored by Deangelo Peterson and Stevan Ridley.
Bama really abandoned the run early in the game, and I have no idea why. I thought Mark Ingram was hurt for a while, they were doing so little to get him involved in the game. Then they came out running in the 2nd half and they were getting us on play after play. I don't know why they didn't do that all game.
I really think our offensive line played its best game all season. For the most part, except on the play where Jefferson took an intentional grounding penalty, our quarterbacks had time. The running game was able to do a lot of positive things as well.
I have not even looked at a box score yet, but I figure they outgained us by quite a bit. They had a few drives that got yards without getting points, whereas we did not have a lot of medium-length drives that did not produce points.
I did not like the decision to go for 2 at the time. My rule of thumb is that you don't look at the chart until the 4th quarter, and there were still 3 minutes left in the 3rd when we got the touchdown. It's hard to say the 1 point would have made a difference, but if we got for one then Bama probably goes for 1 on its touchdown to put them up by 4. Then the final field goal would have kept it a 7 point game instead of a 9 point game.
I don't think Alabama was any more talented than we were, and I don't think we got outcoached. I think we had some costly injuried during the course of the game that converted it from a game between two evenly matched teams to a mismatch. When we needed to pass, we just couldn't.
There's still a lot to play for here. The SEC Championship is out of reach, obviously, but we will be favored in every game we play, and if we win out we are a shoe-in for the Cap One Bowl with a shot at an 11-win season. That's nothing to be ashamed of.

LSU 42 - Tulane 0: Snap Judgments

Richard Pittman — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 13:47:09 -0000

More photos » by Bill Haber - AP

about 1 month ago: LSU running back Stevan Ridley (34) backs into the endzone over Tulane defensive back Jordan Garrett as linebacker Darryl Farley comes from the left in the second half of an NCAA college football game in Baton Rouge, La., Saturday, Oct. 31, 2009. LSU defeated Tulane 42-0. (AP Photo/Bill Haber)

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I just isn't the same when the game is not on regular television. ESPN360 just doesn't give you the options that television gives you, and the picture is not as clear. That's not even getting into the whole problem of the connection to ESPN360 crashing and not being able to get a picture, missing several plays throughout the game, including Russell Shepard's touchdown run.

Anyway, here are some snap judgments:

I would like to take us back to what Poseur said in the Roundtable discussion:

Billy:

What would you like to see this Saturday versus Tulane?

Poseur:

A win. That's it.

I don't need to see fireworks and I don't need to see new wrinkles. I just want a quiet and uneventful win that serves as a nice appetizer for Bama.

Well, that's exactly what you got. The game was uncompetitive, uneventful, lacking in fireworks, and generally quite dull. Not that there's anything wrong with that. We came out and scored early and Tulane, though they put up a couple nice drives, never did anything that even resembled getting into the game.

I can't say we didn't see any new wrinkles though. After LSU had struggled to get good support from the fullback position from James Stampley and Richard Dugas early in the season, and inserting freshman Dominique Allen into the rotation last week met with mised results, Les Miles and Gary Crowton took a different approach and moved reserve scholarship offensive lineman Thomas Parsons to the fullback position. This experiment seemed to work well, as Parsons was effective getting to the defenders and blocking them.
We also had our most effective power running game yet. It's hard to know if that's because Parsons was added to the I-formation roster or if it's just because we were playing overmatched competition. However, I think it's worth pointing out that we rushed more than 100 yards more against Tulane than we did against UL-Lafayette, with a higher yard per attempt average as well.
By the numbers, LSU had 267 yards rushing, though Stevan Ridley's 73 rushing yards on the final drive of the game perhaps skews that number a little. Then again, Charles Scott had his most effective game of the season, rushing for 112 yards and 2 touchdowns. All together, LSU had 455 total yards, plus a ton of punt return yards.
Jordan Jefferson also had a pretty nice game, averaging over 9 yards per attempt and throwing two nice touchdown passes to Brandon Lafell, who had 85 yards receiving on 4 catches. Things didn't look good for him early, as he took a quick sack and then threw an interception, but he rebounded to have a very productive day.
And what to say about the defense? It was LSU's first shutout since beating Middle Tennessee State 44-0 on September 15, 2007.
At first blush, it was not exactly a dominating performance. Tulane had 216 total yards, including two substantially long drives, one of which ended in a missed field goal and the other of which ended in an interception. Tulane got nothing going on the ground, however, getting credit for only 26 rushing yards on 20 attempts, helped along by 3 sacks of Ryan Griffin for -22 yards.
Tulane's passing game was a little better, averaging just over 5 yards per attempt. It's not surprising that senior wide receiver Jeremy Williams was Tulane's most effective offensive player, with 78 yards receiving and 21 yards rushing. He probably has an NFL future. Andre Anderson led Tulane in rushing with 27 yards, but averaged only 2.5 yards per attempt.
Tulane was able to have some of its most successful plays when they exploited our aggressiveness with screens or dump-offs. LSU will sometimes have problems chasing down a running back, particularly when they flare out to the left side of our defensive line. The left-side defensive end triumvirate of Pep Levingston, Lavar Edwards, and Chancey Aghayere just don't seem to be quick enough to keep up with a running back who gets a release to the outside, and those plays sometimes get big yards. It's been going on since the Washington game.
Kelvin Sheppard had another outstanding game. It's hard to say that there's a "great" linebacker out there for us, but Kelvin Sheppard, Harry Coleman, and Perry Riley sure seem to work very well together as a group, and they are productive as all get out. We may not have one Rolando McClain or Brandon Spikes out there, but we have 3 very good linebackers who do a lot of good for us.
Special teams did not get much action against Tulane, but we did get a nice blocked punt by Daniel Graff and a couple nice returns on punts from Trindon Holliday. Trindon sometimes struggles to be productive in the SEC, but when we face a weaker team, Holliday usually gashes them. He has been a useful and productive player for us over the years, but he could have become a legend in the Sun Belt or another conference.
It was great to see the second team get some time in the game. I think this was the first time all season the 2nd team offensive line got a chance. They got in the game with the ball on the 2 yard line and they opened rushing lanes for Stevan Ridley all the way down the field, for one of the most impressive touchdown drives in recent LSU history. Jarrett Lee completed 2 passes along the way on that drive, one to Reuben Randle and the other to John Williams, who I think was seeing his first game action of his career. Another pass was in the direction of Chris Tolliver, who was well-covered.
Defensively, we saw a lot of 2nd team cornerback Morris Claiborne, who is definitely the most surprising member of the freshman class. He got into the game in place of Patrick Peterson long before other starters were subbed out. They are clearly grooming him for important playing time next year, perhaps as Chris Hawkins' replacement on the other side of Peterson.
Richard Dickson went down with a scary-looking injury in the first half, but returned later in the game. As far as I can tell, we escaped the with no significant injury to any player. That satisfies me.
Obviously, things ramp up a bit this week.

Jordan Jefferson Then and Now

Richard Pittman — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:02:25 -0000

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Jordan Jefferson is a guy I really wish would have had the opportunity to redshirt last year and be a backup QB this year, learning from the comfort and safety of the clip board. He is still so very young and came to LSU as a relatively inexperienced project. He had missed the bulk of his junior year of high school due to injury and had not been part of the standard full-time-quarterbacking-school carousel that quarterbacks like Mitch Mustain, Tim Tebow, Ryan Mallett and others have come from. Unfortunately for us, circumstances dictated he had to play last year, and circumstances thrust him into the full time starting quarterback position this year, a job for which I hope we can all agree he has proven not to be quite ready yet.

But for better or worse he is our guy right now. We can talk about Jarrett Lee getting another shot if Jefferson continues to struggle, but Les Miles' public pronouncements have been to the effect that if Jefferson stays healthy he will keep the job. We could have a good, healthy debate over whether that is a good policy. Some of us would come down on the side of sticking with one guy to avoid the sort of musical quarterback situation that can wreck a season. I tend to follow my mantra of pragmatism: "If things are working, try something. If that doesn't work, try something else."

Anyway, before the season, LSU fans and outside observers were hopeful that Jordan Jefferson would emerge as one of the better quarterbacks in the conference. That has not happened at this point, though I suppose it still could. Currently though, his ATVSQBPI of 5.7 puts him 9th in the league, and firmly in the category of "not really helping his team".

(Incidentally, defenses are taking over again, and quarterback numbers are coming down. Ryan Mallett leads the conference with an ATVSQBPI of 8.7, and the median is about 6.2. If Jefferson improves his numbers just a little, he could easily reach "average" and turn things around for himself.)

One of the problems we are seeing is that Jefferson is completing a very high percentage of his passes. "What?" you ask? How is it a problem that he is completing so many passes? Well, he is completing passes, but not getting yards. When you're completing 63% of your passes, but only averaging 7.0 yards per attempt, either you are having a lot of plays designed to get yards-after-catch and you're not getting them, or you're taking too many safe throws that aren't getting yards.

In Jefferson's case I think it's a combination of the two. Earlier in the season, I was constantly amazed at how many completed passes ended up going for zero yards or even negative yardage. Part of the problem was that he sometimes gave receivers the ball in positions where they could not effectively run with it. Another part of the problem was that these sorts of plays were called too frequently when defenses were looking for them. He also has an artificially inflated completion percentage because he does not throw the ball away to avoid sacks enough. It shows in his rushing statistics, where he has the 3rd highest number of rushes in the conference, but is averaging less than 2 yards per rush, despite being a "mobile quarterback". He has taken 18 sacks already this season, which is only partially the fault of the offensive line.

People point to his game against Georgia Tech last year and wonder, "Why isn't Jefferson playing like that now?" Here's a surprising thing though. His ATVSQBPI that day was 5.3. What's that? Well, it was a tale of 2 halfs for Jefferson. He was outstanding in the first half, then tapered off in the second, a trend that has continued this year. He also completed a high percentage of passes, over 60%, with a low yards per attempt. He took 2 sacks, and rushed 8 other times, averaging 2.5 yards per rush.

In other words, Jefferson is playing pretty much exactly like he played against Georgia Tech. People just tend to forget the flaws he showed against Georgia Tech because no one remembers the second half of that game. He's still showing them, and perhaps we were not being realistic as fans to expect otherwise. After all, Jordan Jefferson entered this season with 2 starts to his credit, only 73 pass attempts, and one Sprint Practice. He's certainly not a finished product yet. He will be a better quarterback in year than he is now. I just hope he starts making that big leap in development starting this week.