SB Nation - Patrick Peterson

SEC Refs Continue to Suck It Up

aramnath — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:51:00 -0000

Saturday I was watching a close matchup between SEC powers Alabama and LSU. Alabama was driving during the fourth quarter and already up 21-15 when LSU's Patrick Peterson made a phenomenal sideline interception. This was the kind of play that would have completely changed the momentum of the game and given LSU the ball with more than enough time to drive down the field to go for the win.

Unfortunately it was ruled an incomplete pass on the field. No worries, I thought to myself at the time, because they'll check this out on replay (which CBS had already shown 3 times) and reverse the call.

Ok so after watching that replay and the added commentary of the creepy guy who posted it, how do you not overturn that call? He has possession, clearly lands his left foot in and there's a good chance he even got his right foot in.

This string of sucky SEC officiating has continued even after the debacle during the Georgia-LSU game and also in the Florida-Arkansas matchup at the Swamp. The SEC has even gone as far as to suspend the officiating crew responsible for those two games, but it doesn't seem to have had the desired affect.

As much as the SEC refs and officals suck, what sucks more is that Florida most likely would have lost that game against Arkansas without the referees' help and Alabama may well have lost after such a momentum changing interception.

The teams that are really getting screwed here will be TCU and Cincinatti who most likely will finish undefeated but will have to watch the national championship game at home like everybody else as Texas plays the winner of the SEC championship game between Alabama and Florida. Here's to hoping that whoever wins the national championship this year, it's not Florida. Even Jim Rome thinks Tebow's act is getting ridiculous and I hate myself for ever agreeing with Jim Rome. Somebody please end my self-loathing.

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.

Initial Impressions from the LSU Game

outsidethesidelines — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:03:58 -0000

Almost 24 hours removed, a few initial impressions from the LSU game:

First and foremost, it was obviously a huge win for the Tide yesterday. We came in absolutely needing to get the job done, and with LSU giving us their best shot we answered the bell. We played the best we've played since late September, and truth be told there was absolutely what was required. Credit goes to LSU for playing well in their own right, and they made us take our game to the next level to get the win.
Mark Ingram logged another unreal performance yesterday. LSU was highly physical on the defensive side of the ball, and Ingram racked up 177 total yards. He averaged 6.5 yards per run and the way he powered the opening drive of the second half really changed the game. As I mentioned in a fanshot earlier, the Heisman is an "award" for tools... it's based more on glamor than anything else, and it's given by a collection of idiots. Ingram will probably never win it, but I wouldn't trade him for any other player in the country, and we just need to enjoy him while we have him. He's a three-year player, and someone will be paying him big bucks to do this come 2011.
Julio Jones had his best performance of the year, and it was very interesting how things were discussed in the post-game. Based on what everyone is saying, it's clear that only in the past week or so has Julio gotten back to near 100%, and he looked very different yesterday than he had the rest of the year. His explosiveness was back, and he was a difference-maker in this game. Even aside from the long touchdown run off the screen, he had a huge first down on the final drive, had a couple of other nice grabs, and the pass interference on Peterson was yet another big play. And, of course, that's not counting the throw in the first half that should have been a touchdown. Nice to have you back, Julio.
Greg McElroy played the best game in at least a month, and was clearly improved over the course of the past few weeks. We needed every bit of what he did, and we could not have won had he played anything like he had the past three weeks. Unfortunately, McElroy still has a long ways to go, and he left a lot of points on the board today. He did some good things, but he did a lot of bad things too. He missed Julio on an easy touchdown throw, costing us four points, and the dumb interception before halftime cost us at least a field goal. He held onto the football too long on the safety, and he missed an open Smelley on the trick pass out of the Wildcat that could have been a touchdown, and of course that is to say nothing of the terrible decision to try to force the ball to Julio late on the controversial incompletion. Bottom line, McElroy played pretty well and he clearly showed some progress, but he still did some things to cost us a lot of points and he clearly still needs to play better.
Speaking of passes out of the Wildcat, remember the first Wildcat snap we had that resulted in a fumble? Did you happen to notice who was coming in motion at the time of the snap? It was none other than Earl Alexander, and that was one of the few snaps he saw in the game. And if you will recall correctly, Alexander was a quarterback in high school, and Ingram was very upset after the fumble. I'd about bet the farm that we had a trick play called in that situation with Alexander getting the ball looking to throw a pass.
The offensive line played an incredible game today. Both James Carpenter and Drew Davis were nothing short of outstanding protecting the edge in pass protection, and we beat up LSU in the trenches in the running game. It was a complete effort by the big uglies, and I don't have any doubt that we played better along the offensive line yesterday than we have at any point in the year. Joe Pendry deserves a lot of credit for what he has done with this group. We don't have any real dominant players out there, but we consistently play good, solid technique and just get the job done.

Bamagrad had it right in the fanpost... we're throwing the football to set up the run. That was clearly the plan offensively, and it worked very well.

All in all, it was certainly nice to see us moving the football again. McElroy's mistakes and the illegal substitution penalty kept some points off the board, so it wasn't exactly a perfect day, but again it was clearly an improvement over the past month. LSU has a good defense, and any time you average almost 6.5 yards per play against a defense of that caliber, you're certainly doing something right. Hopefully we can just continue to build off of this effort.

Marcel Dareus, for all intents and purposes, is unstoppable when we move him inside in pass rushing situations. He consistently takes the manhood of every guard they line up over him, and he did the same thing on Saturday with senior right guard Lyle Hitt. I can guarantee you this much... come April of 2011, that young man will be getting a lot of money from an NFL team. Enjoy him while we have him.

Defensively, we really had some struggles at time stopping the option. We had things set up defensively pretty well most of the time, but the execution looked ugly a good bit of the time. In particular, Jefferson made Justin Woodall look pretty bad on one option play. That's something we're going to have to fix before we leave for Atlanta.

Jordan Jefferson played a fine game yesterday, and that young man has a great upside. He has all the physical tools you would ever want, and he is a legitimate dual threat to boot. He clearly still needs to progress, but if he ever puts it all together then he is going to be a legitimate superstar.

And speaking of Jefferson, what in the world was the deal with him not going back in the game? The CBS broadcast reported that word had came from the LSU sideline that he could have gone back in, and he looked okay on the sideline. I have no clue what the deal was there, but Lee was clearly a drop-off. And here's the thing on Lee... he has great physical tools, and he can throw the football down the field with the best of them. But in terms of having to hit receivers over the middle on crossing routes, he cannot hit the broad side of a barn. If he could ever gain some accuracy on crossing patterns, he'd be one hell of a quarterback.

LSU really does have some unreal talent at the skill positions. For whatever criticism you can make of Miles, this is certainly not one of them. Even with Florida, there is probably not another team in the country that has the kind of athleticism at the skill positions like LSU does.

Colin Peek misses the game for 'Bama, and Richard Dickson didn't play either. Pretty much a balancing effect, really.

The more I watch of the LSU offense, the more I think that it is really just too complicated for its own good. It can certainly create some issues for defenses, mind you, but it certainly does create a lot issues for the offense, too, and that was the big catalyst behind all of the false starts, the illegal formations, and the wasted timeouts. With all of the talent that those guys have, I really just cannot help but think that they would be better served just by simplifying the offense and letting all of the raw talent just go to work for them.

Chad Jones didn't have much of an impact yesterday, and his mobility wasn't particularly impressive. On both the long pass to Maze out of the end zone, and the drop by Julio out of the end zone in the third quarter, Jones was tracking the ball the entire way and at first sight I was almost convinced that he was going to snag an easy pick. In both cases, though, he never really got close enough to make the play. I don't know if he was hurt or perhaps just a tad bit overrated, but either way he didn't exactly blow me away yesterday.

The LSU linebacker corps is a very underrated group. Those guys played a fine game, and Kelvin Sheppard in particular really looked good. I tell you, he's probably not quite in the same league yet as Rolando McClain and Brandon Spikes, but he's not far behind. Outside of those two and Hightower, he might be the best linebacker I've seen in the SEC this year.

Patrick Peterson is an incredible player, and he played a great game yesterday. Unfortunately, he really shot himself in the foot by never being properly hydrated in the first place, always a tell-tale sign when you're cramping up by halftime in a game where the temperature never rises above 70 degrees. I know he had some flu-like symptoms earlier in the week, but that had cleared up by mid-week and at that point you just have to make sure you get plenty of fluids. Once the game started, of course, it was entirely too late and you simply lose entirely too much fluids to get them back to where they need to be. Peterson played great when he was in the game, but really he was his own worst enemy.

Charles Scott deserves a lot of credit for playing a fine game. His drop on the busted pass play was a big one, but he ran the ball really well and played a physical game. It was a shame to see his collegiate career likely ended on such a fine run, but such is life sometimes. Best wishes on the recovery, Mr. Scott, and we'll see you on Sunday next year.

DeAngelo Peterson was huge on LSU's first touchdown drive, and their coaching staff really got us there defensively. He's a wide receiver, regardless of what you call him, but when they lined him up at tight end we covered him with a safety (Barron) and then a linebacker (Reamer), and he ate our lunch both times.

Are any of you guys familar with ROBO-PUNTER, the theoretical punter whose punts are downed at the opposing team's one-yard line every time? Well, that was pretty much LSU yesterday. I swear, those guys did an unbelievable job punting the football. If they weren't pinning it against our goal line, they were kicking it a mile and eliminating any chance of return for Arenas. Ill be perfectly honest, it was the most impressive display of punting that I've seen in many years.

Look at it this way... LSU punted the football eight times yesterday, and Javier Arenas ended up with 11 return yards. And that is not counting the penalty on Smelley, and when you take that into consideration we ended up getting a grand total of one return yard on eight punts. And if that's not getting the job done, I don't know what is.

And speaking of punt returns, why in the hell is Brad Smelley in the game? He has to lead the conference in penalties committed in the return game, and his penalty yesterday was one of the dumbest I've seen in a while.

The punt that LSU rolled inside the one-yard line was touched at around the four. Refs missed that one, I believe. And it had a big impact on playcalling, too, no doubt about that.

All of this hoopla over the interception is ridiculous, and it's mainly just a bunch of homer fans looking for an excuse for a guy that they otherwise got their asses beat. It was a close play that could have legitimately gone either way, to be sure, but the ruling on the field was an incomplete pass and there was no indisputable evidence on the replay that would command the play be overturned. And I'll be frank, even if you give him the interception, it doesn't matter. LSU would have been 61 yards away from the end zone, and those guys ended up with 17 total yards on three possessions in the fourth quarter. The end result would have been the same regardless. The only difference would have been that 'Bama might not have covered the spread had it been called an interception.

Two huge plays in the fourth quarter have been overlooked in the wake of all of the talk of the incomplete pass, and they were the stop by our defense on 3rd and short early in the fourth quarter, and the running into the punter penalty. We scored on the screen to Julio immediately after the defensive stop, and the running into the penalty not only gave us three points but also took another three minutes or so off the clock. The incompletion is getting all of the attention, but those two plays are really the ones that broke LSU's back.

And speaking of the running into the punter penalty, that was one gutsy call on the fourth down after that. We're literally three inches from a first down and we decide to motion McElroy out wide and snap it five yards behind the line of scrimmage to Ingram in the shotgun, when we fumbled a snap in the Wildcat earlier in the game? Hell, that might be more than gutsy, it might even be stupid, but fortunately it worked out for us in the end.

Leigh Tiffin is a fine young man, a wonderful kicker, and we should all feel fortunate to have such a valuable asset on our team. And, again, I'm just going to shut up about him.

The way we dominated this game physically was nothing short of amazing. We were much more physical than LSU, and their players were dropping like flies. Moreover, we absolutely dominated this game in the fourth quarter, and that was ultimately the difference. In many ways, we didn't so much win this game yesterday afternoon as much as we won it last summer in the S&C program. We were clearly the more physical team and better conditioned to boot. If there is an unsung hero of this team, it's strength and conditioning coach Scott Cochran. That man clearly deserves a raise.

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.

The LSU Preview

outsidethesidelines — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:16:56 -0000

No smoke and mirrors needed this week. No clever turn of phrase needed to build drama and intrigue with this game. Nope. To paraphrase what they say in the sales business, this is simply a game that sells itself. It's 'Bama v. LSU. Saban Bowl III. National championship implications clearly on the line. The entire country turning its eyes towards Tuscaloosa to play close attention at this contest. Again, this one sells itself. Let's look closer at the match-ups:

Alabama Offense v. LSU Defense

After putting up points and yards by the bushel in the first month of the season, the once prolific Alabama offense has slowly ground to a virtual halt over the course of the past five weeks. The vertical element of the passing game went into the Witness Protection Program in early October, and we still haven't seen any signs of it returning as of this writing. Mark Ingram has been nothing short of phenomenal -- sans the fumble against Tennessee -- but the lack of a vertical element to the passing game, combined with untimely penalties, questionable playcalling, and struggles in the red zone have kept the Tide offensive attack at bay and off the scoreboard.

Admittedly, the level of competition has been high the past several weeks. Kentucky has a good defense, and Ole Miss, South Carolina, and Tennessee rank in the top 25 nationally of more statistical categories than not. But such is life in the SEC... it's a brutal gauntlet of quality opponent after quality opponent, and there will be no rest for the weary this weekend when the Bayou Bengals come to town. Alas, when LSU arrives in Tuscaloosa, they will bring with them a defense that is as good as those we saw in October, if not better.

And unfortunately, injuries continue to take a toll on the Tide. Colin Peek looks to either miss this game or play nowhere near 100%, and that's a very big loss for the Tide. Michael Williams will likely play better than he did two weeks ago against Tennessee because he will be more prepared, but Peek is a critical element of our offense, and unfortunately Williams is an imperfect substitute.

Defensively, the weakness for LSU starts up front at the line of scrimmage. Shocking as though that may be -- I imagine I need remind no one that LSU's defensive line ate us for dinner from 2003-2007 -- it is nevertheless true. To be sure, it's certainly not a bad group, but it isn't a dominating one and it is not up to the level that we have come to expect the past several years out of LSU. Inside, seniors Al Woods and Charles Alexander are good players that any team would love to have, but they probably aren't to the level that we saw the past several years out of LSU with Kyle Williams and Glenn Dorsey. Likewise, the rotation isn't what it has been in previous years in terms of quality depth.

The real weakness for LSU on the defensive line largely comes outside at end. Senior Rahim Alem has been a bit of a disappointment this year. He was always a liability against the run -- which is why, despite leading the SEC in sacks in 2008, he wasn't a starter -- but he hasn't rushed the passer as well this year, generating only three sacks in the first eight games (only one of which came in conference play, and that was against Vandy). Opposite Alem, Lazarius Levingston hasn't exactly played poorly, but he hasn't really made an impact either. He has yet to generate a sack, and only has ten tackles on the year. Making matters worse, they are somewhat undersized, and mixed with their lack of a consistent pass rush, that generally explains why LSU's run defense has been somewhat middling, and also explains why they are at the bottom of the SEC in sacks.

Unfortunately, the rest of the LSU defense is significantly better. The linebacker corps struggled greatly in 2008, but they have made tremendous strides in 2009 under new defensive coordinator John Chavis. There is not one standout at linebacker like Alabama has with someone like Rolando McClain -- or had with Dont'a Hightower -- but it's a good group that gets the job done. Perry Riley, Kelvin Sheppard, Harry Coleman, and Jacob Cutrera are all good football players, and they are in many ways unique players that give Chavis a lot of options. Riley is a big, physical player who excels against against the run, and Coleman's past as a former safety makes him a very versatile player, particularly in passing situations. Kelvin Sheppard is probably the best all-around player of the bunch, and while Cutrera isn't a standout, he's a senior who can really play whatever position they need off the bench. Again, it's not a group that has the one rockstar standout like you find with a guy like Rolando McClain or Brandon Spikes, but it's a good group of players that have produced at a high level for John Chavis.

The real strength of the LSU defense, however, comes in the defensive backfield, where the Bayou Bengals have an absolutely ridiculous collection of talent. Just look at the names and their recruiting hype... Chad Jones, #1 safety prospect in the country in 2007. Jai Eugene, #1 cornerback prospect in the country in 2006. Patrick Peterson, #1 cornerback prospect in the country in 2007. And guys like Chris Hawkins, Brandon Taylor, Karnell Hatcher, Ron Brooks, and Danny McCray? Yeah, they were generally "only" four-star recruits who could have had pretty much their pick of any school in the country.

Not surprising given that collection of talent, LSU's defensive backfield has led the way. Patrick Peterson is the best cornerback in the conference now that Kentucky's Trevard Lindley is slowed by an ankle injury, and Chad Jones is every bit as good of a safety as Eric Berry. And, obviously, the rest aren't too shabby. These guys have been the key for the LSU defense this year. The defensive line has struggled and frankly been very bad in terms of rushing the passer, but the back end has covered so well that LSU still fields one of the best pass defenses in the country.

Coach Saban and company have talked about stretching the field vertically this weekend, and that is almost certainly something that we will have to do in order to breathe life back into our deceased offense. LSU does not have the great run defense that they have sported in years past, but it's far from a bad unit, and you can rest assured that they will be able to limit Alabama's running game well enough to force the Tide to do something in the passing game in order to score a lot of points. Keep in mind that, as I mentioned in the Radio Hour, if you are unable to throw the football, then defensively you don't need to stop the run, you only need to somewhat limit the run. In other words, you just have to make sure that the opposing offense doesn't run it down your throats to the tune of 250+ rushing yards. Rest assured, LSU is likely more than good enough to do that up front.

Offensively, Alabama faces the same dilemma that it largely faced against Tennessee. Greg McElroy and the passing attack have struggled to move the football, and the opposing defense will look to limit Ingram and company and force McElroy and the wide receiver corps to beat them. Unless we can be more consistent and explosive in the passing game, the end result looks to be very similar to what it was against Tennessee.

Alabama Defense v. LSU Offense

For all of the strength of the LSU defense, the LSU offense hasn't been anywhere near as good, and if you look closely this is a group that ranks near the bottom of the country in most statistical categories.

At the skill positions, at least, this is an extremely dangerous offense. Without doubt the LSU wide receiver corps is easily the most talented that the Tide will face all season, and literally every single LSU wide receiver that will touch the football this Saturday will be a truly elite athlete in every sense of the phrase. Brandon LaFell will be a first-day draft pick next April, and both Terrance Toliver and Reuben Randle are physically impressive players who were the #1 wide receiver prospects in the country when they came out of high school. Richard Dickson is a good tight end in his own right, and he too will probably play on Sunday. Furthermore, Charles Scott is also a future NFL player, and while Keiland Williams never really lived up to his five-star status when he signed with the Tigers in 2006, he's still a fine player in his own right. And finally, while Russell Shepard and Trindon Holliday are somewhat of one-trick ponies, both have such ungodly speed and athleticism that they can present major challenges to a defense once they get the ball in their hands. Bottom line, struggles or not, if you look at the quality at talent at the skill positions for LSU, you would swear this is an elite offense.

The real problem with LSU offensively has been in the trenches and, perhaps not surprisingly, at the quarterback position. Struggles in those two areas have largely grounded the LSU offensive attack, and have turned an offense that should be high-powered based solely on its skill position talent into a unit that has greatly struggled to move the football and score points.

Ciron Black at left tackle for the Bayou Bengals is a four-year starter who will likely be a first round NFL draft choice next April, and at right tackle Joseph Barksdale -- a five-star recruit in 2007 -- is one of the best right tackles in the SEC. Unfortunately for the Tigers, however, the performance of the centers and guards has dipped significantly. The loss of starting left guard Herman Johnson and starting center Brett Helms have been felt all season, and the replacements just aren't in the same league right now. Josh Dworaczyk took over for Johnson, and the replacement starter for the gargantuan comes in at barely 280 pounds. Likewise, sophomore T-Bob Hebert hasn't necessarily been bad, but again he's just not in the same league as Helms right now. Right guard Lyle Hitt looked solid enough when sandwiched between Helms and Barksdale, but he too has seen his performance dip by having to take on greater responsibilities with Hebert alongside him. As a whole, the performance of the center and the guards just hasn't been anywhere what it was a year ago.

The struggles on the interior offensive line have effectively proven fatal to the LSU rushing attack. I've long said that the biggest impact on your rushing attack comes from the play of your center and your guards, and 2009 Tigers would prove to be a fine case study in that regard. The tackles are there, as are the backs, but LSU has struggled on the interior in the running game, and that has largely killed their rushing attack. The once potent Scott and Williams are averaging only about 4.8 yards per carry now, and prior to facing Tulane and their god awful run defense they were barely averaging 4.0 yards per carry.

The other problem for LSU offensively is quarterback Jordan Jefferson. While clearly an intriguing prospect with a great upside -- Jefferson has a good frame, a big arm, and is a legitimate dual-threat -- Jefferson is really playing out of necessity right now, and it shows. Truth be told, if the LSU coaching staff really had their druthers, Jefferson would probably be riding the pine this year while watching fifth-year senior Ryan Perrilloux run the Tiger offense, but alas the Football Gods would not cooperate. As a result, Jefferson has been forced to make the best of a bad situation, and he has clearly had his growing pains. He holds onto the ball entirely too long which creates a lot of sacks -- which explains why LSU is near the bottom of the conference in sacks allowed despite having the best tackle combo in the league -- often struggles to work through his progression, and does struggle at times to get the ball to his talented wide receivers. Combined, this has largely grounded what should otherwise be an explosive passing attack.

In all fairness, though, what Jefferson has done is manage the game and not get his Tigers beat. For all of the criticisms that you can make regarding his performance to date, he has protected the football, which is clearly priority number one for the LSU coaching staff. Jefferson has thrown a mere four interceptions this year on roughly 200 passing attempts, and has allowed the LSU defense to lead them to victory in close games. If nothing else, that is far more than could ever be said for the man that Jefferson replaced.

Defensively, Alabama brings the attack that you all know so well, and there will probably be little changes this week. Charles Scott and Keiland Williams had great success running the football against us a year ago, but with a healthy Terrence Cody this time around, plus Herman Johnson and Brett Helms playing on Sunday, the Tide ought to shut down the LSU rushing attack. If Charles Scott and company have a good deal of success come Saturday, it will legitimately come as a bit of a surprise.

The real key for the Alabama defense will be containing big plays in the passing game. For lack of a better way of putting it, the skill position players for LSU are unreal good, and they will stretch us to the absolute maximum this weekend. Our defensive backfield, collectively, will have to play the game of their lives this weekend, and to make matters even more worrisome we will also have to make sure that Russell Shepard or Trindon Holliday also don't beat us with a long run out of the backfield. Given the way we have struggled offensively the past several weeks, even giving up only one or two really long plays can easily be the difference between victory and defeat, and unless the offense improve, our defense has effectively zero margin of error.

Going a long way towards preventing those big plays to the skill position players will be effectively rushing the passer. Jefferson isn't a world-beater at quarterback, but his receivers sure as hell are, and he has the arm to make all of the throws. If Jefferson consistently has time to throw the football, we're in big trouble defensively. The LSU skill position players are simply too good to expect any defensive backfield to keep covered for any real length of time.

Putting It All Together

All in all, these two teams match up closely. If the Alabama offense were producing like it did earlier in the year, the Tide could be reasonably expected to win this game with relative ease, but with our offensive struggles of the past month and no definite sign of improvement, this game figures to be a close one that goes right down to the wire. Unless we can significantly improve offensively, the LSU defense is good enough to keep our offensive attack at bay, and while the LSU offense probably won't score a lot of points against our defense, they clearly have another skill position talent on the outside to make a few big plays to squeak out a close victory in a low-scoring game

And do look for this game to be a close, low-scoring game, no two ways about that. Neither team looks to score that many points, and expect the coaching staffs of the respective teams to play accordingly. LSU almost lost to the Tide in 2007 when they chose to kick to Javier Arenas late, and their loss last year was fueled by a slew of costly turnovers. Expect Les Miles and company to avoid both this weekend with a struggling Alabama offense. LSU will kick the football away from Arenas, and play safe on offense so that -- even if they don't score a lot of points in their own right -- they won't take the risks that could result in several costly turnovers. We're struggling greatly on the offensive side of the ball, and when facing a team of that nature you make sure that you do not allow cheap points. Expect LSU to force the Tide's offense to consistently move the ball 60+ yards to get points.

For Alabama, the path to victory is clearly in the trenches. We hold a fairly significant advantage in both match-ups at the line of scrimmage, and there is where we must win this football game. We must stop the run defensively and rush Jefferson, and offensively establish the running game and make like easy for McElroy and the Alabama passing attack. If we can do that, we win this football game. On the other hand, if LSU can fight us to an effective draw in the trenches, then this game will be decided by the skill position players, and that's a losing proposition for us. That's not to say we absolutely cannot win a game of that nature, but LSU does have more raw talent at the skill positions than we do, and that is a game that will clearly favor the Bayou Bengals. Again, our path to victory lies in the trenches. We have to dominate this game at the line of scrimmage. Period.

One way or the other, look for this to be an absolutely brutal game. The stakes are extremely high for both LSU and Alabama, and their respective players will perform accordingly. Les Miles, regardless of whether or not it is fair, will forever be judged relative to Nick Saban, something that is clearly not lost on Miles or his team. This is their biggest game of the year, and clearly the biggest game of the year for their fan base as well. Truth be told, they have been preparing for this game for two weeks now. Making matters more interesting, this game determines the SEC West, LSU is still technically alive in the national championship race, and they are clearly looking to make a definitive showing that they are still at their 2003-2007 form. On the other sideline, Alabama has been staring this one down for two weeks. We control our own destiny in the national championship race, and we know full well that this is now effectively a one-game season. If we want to get to where we want to go, we all realize that we must directly go through LSU. And, also, don't think for one second that it is lost on our team that they need to win this game in the trenches. Expect these two teams to line up and wage absolute war. There will be blood.

Hope for the best.

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.

LSU 20 - Georgia 13: Snap Judgments

Richard Pittman — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 23:52:34 -0000

More photos » by John Bazemore - AP

2 months ago: LSU receiver Terrance Toliver (80) is stopped by Georgia's Bacarri Rambo during the second quarter of an NCAA college football game in Athens, Ga., Saturday, Oct. 3, 2009. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

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Well well well. That was about the strangest game I've ever seen. We completely dominated the 1st half but didn't have a big lead to show for it because we kept stalling out when we got close to the end zone. We developed a power running game, spotty as it was, but the offense still struggled. Here are my snap judgments:

You just can't say enough about how good A.J. Green is. We did a good job of holding him down, and he still had 5 catches for 99 yards and 1 spectacular touchdown catch that could have been a game-winner. He is obviously the best wide receiver in the conference. It's not even close. I think the world of Brandon Lafell, and Julio Jones is outstanding as well, but A.J. Green is the best of them all. He is probably the best offensive player in the conference right now. Tim Tebow is bigger because he touches the ball every play, but I don't think Tebow is a better quarterback than Green is a wide receiver.
On Green's touchdown, Hawkins had perfect coverage. To do any better, he would have needed to be bigger and stronger. I just can't fault a guy who does everything right and gets victimized by someone who is just too good of an athlete.
Jordan Jefferson is still not quite there as a quarterback. He got baited into his interception, and he went through one of his big lulls in the second half. Georgia got a lot of sacks that half, but it really wasn't entirely the line's fault. Jefferson just would not get rid of the ball. He'd hold it too long and the rush would get to him.
The defense really played well all night. Sure, it wasn't nearly as dominant in the second half, and we gave up that big 18 play drive, but other than that drive and the 2-minute drill that ended with Green's great catch, they were fantastic.
So LSU showed a power running game and Georgia only had one turnover. Who could have predicted that? Peterson was close to one or two interceptions but had the ball batted away at the last moment.
Patrick Peterson did a really good job on A.J. Green. He got beat a couple times, but also made a big play a couple times to beat Green. And on one of the occasions when Green got the best of Peterson, Cox failed to make an accurate throw and so it went for nothing.
Overall, I thought the playcalling was better in this game than in previous games. We changed them up a little by running Scott on options, which was effective except when Jefferson failed to properly execute them.
Speaking of, Jordan Jefferson is still uncomfortable running the option. He is just not a natural at it, and appears to not want to set himself up for the hit from the contain man, but he HAS to make that man commit to tackling him or the play cannot have success. That means taking a hit. The strange thing is that Jefferson has been so averse to sliding and is willing to take hits in other situations, situations in which he should not take the hits.
Our receiver corps had a drop or two tonight, but they are really good. Terrance Toliver has emerged as a real playmaker, and he made a good football move at one point to turn a 3rd down catch into a first down, despite making the catch and getting hit short of the first down yardage.
I liked the decision to go for it on 4th and inches at the 9 yard line. I know it didn't work, but it was a good gamble. Our power running game had generally been working up to that point, and you had to anticipate we could get one foot. It was a good calculated risk, and when Les Miles is at his best, he makes good calculated risks. The thing is, sometimes when you make a calculated risk, you come out on the wrong end of it. It's hard to criticize the play choice of going with a QB sneak. Those usually get you a yard reliably.
Then again, the sequence showed why it is good to go for it on 4th down and short near the goal line. We ended up giving the ball to Georgia, but they were in bad field position, couldn't do anything with it, and gave it back to us with an opportunity to get more points.
Which brings us to the last possession of the 1st half. Things were going well. We ended up with 3rd and 1 around the 40 with the clock around 30 seconds. I liked calling a running play, but I would have went with a draw from the spread instead of a power run at that point. I think it would have worked, but we'll never know. The big problem was that the coaches had NO PLAN for if it didn't work. They could not stop the clock, and they took entirely too long to decide to bring the FG unit out, which was futile anyway. The only choice at that point was to snap the ball with a second or 2 on the clock and heave it to the end zone on 4th down. Rushing the FG unit on the field after talking about it for a while revealed a complete lack of plan on that play. It was a coaching error that was on display for all to see, and I don't like it.
The offense was on the field for 6 plays in the 3rd quarter. 4 of those 6 plays went for a loss or for no gain. We had -11 yards of offense that quarter.
The celebration penalty on A.J. Green was completely bogus. The celebration penalty on Charles Scott was within the parameters of what we know they call. The thing is, Green's penalty had a much bigger impact on the game. It gave us the ball in such good field position that we did not have to pass, which would not have been the case if we had been 15 yards further back. The 5 yards we got for the illegal procedure penalty also helped.
Speaking of field position on that last drive, that was a very nice return by Trindon Holliday, who had a couple of those on the night.
The defensive line was really quiet all night, and did not get much pressure on Joe Cox for most of the game, but the linebackers were everywhere. I have to single out Kelvin Sheppard for having a very nice game. In general, our tackling was much better tonight than it had been previously.
I said before that any win here is a good win, and I mean that. This was a huge win for us. It makes the Florida game virtually a no-lose situation. No matter what happens against Florida, we control our destiny. A win lifts us, and a loss doesn't really hurt us. Of course, there will be more on that game in the coming week.
That's all for now. I'll watch the game again tomorrow morning.

Gamecock Man's Week Five SEC Picks

Gamecock Man — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 23:40:00 -0000

Finally, a week with many exciting, significant games. Our features this week will be two big SEC games between LSU-Georgia and Auburn-Tennessee and two good non-conference games between Texas A&M-Arkansas and Georgia Tech-Mississippi State. The two SEC games are especially interesting, as Georgia and Tennessee need to win to keep a leg up in the Eastern Division race. (That means we want them to lose.) Meanwhile, Auburn will be looking for a statement win that would get them into the top 25, while LSU will look for some validation after a series of close games against ostensibly lesser teams. LSU might be looking for a little revenge, as well, after Georgia whalloped them last week.

Here are my picks.

Alabama Crimson Tide at Kentucky Wildcats

'Bama won't be up on Kentucky 31-0 after the first. However, don't be surprised if it's getting close to that by the half and exceeds 42-7 by the end.

LSU Tigers at Georgia Bulldogs

The Tigers are ripe for a loss after an underwhelming performance last week. Is Georgia, though, the team to give it to them? The big story in this game will be the matchup between LSU corner Patrick Peterson and Georgia receiver A.J. Green. While I doubt Peterson will shut down Green, I do think he can slow Green down, and that should spell problems for the 'Dawgs. I'm picking LSU to get it together and look like a real football team this week.

Mississippi Rebels at Vanderbilt Commodores

The Rebels suffered the classic "Vandy loss" last year, falling to the 'Dores seemingly through every fault of their own. (We know how it is, Rebels fans.) Jevan Snead played horribly, throwing four interceptions. Expect a different outcome this year. This year's Ole Miss will be looking for blood, and this year's Vandy doesn't appear to be quite as opportunistic. Look for the Rebels to win in an ugly rout.

Texas A&M Aggies at Arkansas Razorbacks

This former SWC rivalry revives featuring two high-powered offenses. However, unlike the Aggies, the Hogs have proved they can move the ball against good teams not named Alabama. Moreover, they have homefield advantage. Look for a high-scoring, close game early, but watch for the Razorbacks to pull away late.

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets at Mississippi St. Bulldogs

The Bulldogs left it all on the field in a close loss to LSU last week. Can they do it again, this time with the win? I don't think so. This one will be closer than last year, but the Bulldogs will make a couple of mistakes against Paul Johnson's option and allow the Jackets to win.

Auburn Tigers at Tennessee Volunteers

This game matches two teams with new coaches looking to get past last year's disappointing seasons. So far, the Tigers have been more impressive. Auburn has surprisingly shown off a good offense, albeit against average competition. Tennessee, on the other hand, looks much the same team they were last year: great defense, crappy offense, unbelievably crappy quarterback. While I'm interested to see if Auburn will be up to their first big test of the year, I think they're playing better ball than Tennessee right now and expect they'll win a close game.

Miles On Miss State

Poseur — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:50:36 -0000

Once again, to serve you, the ATVS reader, I try and cut through the BS and translate Les Miles' weekly lunch from Coachspeak to English.

WHAT HE SAID: "Certainly our football team met this morning and reviewed the fact that we've played four games, and we have four victories. That's certainly where we want to be. Certainly we want to improve and play better along the way. I thought that there were some really good things there at the game. First of all, we had a four-hour delay in leaving town, and the weather certainly didn't cooperate to start the game. I felt like our guys did what they had to do to get a victory."

WHAT HE MEANT: "We needed a frickin' goal line stand to beat Moo State. The only good thing about the trip was the four hour delay because that was four hours I didn't have to spend in Starkville. The offensive line has been running gassers since we got back home."

WHAT HE SAID: "I think defensively we played a very good game. I still think that there were three plays or so in that game where we can play smarter. We missed a tackle on one that led to a big gain, a broken play and one that should well have been tackled in the backfield that nets out again in another big play and a mistimed interception that personally could've been a big turnaround and gone the other way. Yet, our defense is playing with great effort, and in my opinion, if it continues to play with that style of effort and corrects those mistakes, it can be a very strong defense as we go forward."

WHAT HE MEANT: "The defense played well if you don't count the first three and half quarters."

WHAT HE SAID: "Chad Jones was recognized not only for his play on defense but that great 93-yard punt return as the National Defensive Player of the Week. Certainly he was recognized by his teammates this morning as he was the MVP (of the game)"

WHAT HE MEANT: Chad saved my job. Is there a booster here who can buy him a car or something? CHAD JONES! WOOOOO!!!"

WHAT HE SAID: "We still want to run the football. It's too fundamental to me not to be important, and I want that. I want it for Charles Scott and that offensive line and Keiland Williams, and I want to be able to come off the football. But again, the defense can choose to play everybody inside, and that makes it a much more difficult position to run the football, and I wanted them to throw it. I wanted our guys to throw the football against that gaming front of Mississippi State's."

WHAT HE MEANT: "Wow, does our run game suck or what? Screw it. I'm out of ideas. Let's just throw it to LaFell on every play."

WHATE HE SAID: "If you look at special teams, the return that Chad Jones puts on is a great decision on a bouncing ball that he picks up and cleaning fields and then returns with great personal effort. We looked at that again several times this morning, and you look at Charles Alexander at about the midfield stripe at about 50 yards, driving a defender away from Chad Jones who's returning the punt. You see Patrick Peterson directing traffic, and it was truly a great effort. There were guys who had great blocks like Brandon Taylor, who really had the first block that sprung the return, and Perry Riley got one on about the midfield stripe. Again, it was a great personal effort by Chad Jones, and certainly it was timely."

WHAT HE MEANT: "See? See? Team effort! I can get these individuals to play as a team. Stick that in your piehole. Well, uh... yeah, it still was a pretty great individual effort. CHAD JONES! WOOOO!!!!"

WHAT HE SAID: "We had 11 points given to our opponent on special teams miscues, and virtually all three were snaps. What has to happen is we have to execute the snap extremely well, and we cannot go into a big game with the opportunity to make big plays and have something so fundamental to us break down. We feel like we can address that, and it's a very correctable mistake, so if you go forward from there, improve that offensive running game, enjoy the fact that someone puts a lot of guys in the box so we can throw it, take away the special teams miscues and play smarter on defense, that's where we need to be.

WHAT HE MEANT: "We left Alex Russian on the side of the highway in Mississippi."

WHAT HE SAID: "At this point, the focus has to turn to the very next game. We're fortunate to be 4-0; we'd like to be 5-0, and only the next opponent stands between us and that goal. Everybody talks about rankings. Rankings have never made any difference to me and not to our football team. We understand we earn where we finish. The No. 4 ranking is certainly a spot, and that's it. It's close enough to be where you want to be in the end, but there's no position except for the final ballot. When we get to the end of the season, that's where we want to be ranked highly."

WHAT HE MEANT: "Rankings mean everything to me. Are you kidding? People in this town flip out even when we're in the top five. I have "For Sale" signs in my front lawn. And we're 4-0! What does it take? You people are insane. Seriously. If I beat Georgia, will you then believe I can coach? They're the only SEC school I haven't beaten. Is that what y'all are waiting for?"

WHAT HE SAID: "I think we're developing that position (fullback). It's not come along fast enough necessarily, but I don't know that we can make it come along any faster. I don't know that we've given it enough snaps in games to develop it, and it's not something that we can enforce. It has to come naturally, and I think those guys are doing a good job. Frankly, we're opting for other personnel groups at times over our normal two-back set."

WHAT HE MEANT: "We have no fullback. Deal."

WHAT HE SAID: "They are the best players, and I can tell you that I'm critical. There are certainly ways that we can improve on the offensive line, but I think their play has probably been with the exception of pass protection in several instances pretty good. When we throw it, we have to throw it efficiently. We have to catch it and move the chains. We have to make big plays, so those teams that choose to load the box and allow us to throw it will have to pay a terrible price. I think Brandon LaFell is in that position. I think Terrance Toliver is in that position just for those days, and we have to continue there. I think that our line is performing. Are they performing at the level they want? No. Are they performing at the level I want? No, but I think that they are giving us an opportunity to win and should continue to develop along those lines."

WHAT HE MEANT: "The offensive line? What do you want to know about the line? HEY! What's that thing over there?! ... How about those receivers?"

WHAT HE SAID: "Jacob Cutrera was nicked, and Baker came in. On his first two plays, you could tell that he just did not exactly feel comfortable with where he was at. On the fourth-down play, he makes an instinctive hit down low, and Chad Jones follows it up. I can only tell you that it was a big play. It was one that he'll remember for a long time."

WHAT HE MEANT: "CHAD JONES! WOOOO!!!!!"

WHAT HE SAID: "Depending on the down and distance, third and long is where your defense has to get off the field, and you have to have an advantage when you're in third and long. If you're third and five or greater, you'd like 35 to 45 percent to be their offense's success. On third down and short, you'd like it to be 50/50."

WHAT HE MEANT: "Third and Chavis. I get it. Shut up. The Washington game was a month ago. Get a new cliché."

WHAT HE SAID (on running to the short side): "One of the things that their defense did was that they overloaded, in my opinion, and played some of their best personnel to the field, so the opportunity to go and take advantage of some guys that we felt we had some mismatches against were to the boundary. Some of our calls were put just that way."

WHAT HE MEANT: "Whoops. My bad."

WHAT HE SAID: "Baker would work in. We don't anticipate Cutrera will have an issue with going. We think that he'll be fine. There are a number of guys there like Ace Foyil that will work in there."

WHAT HE MEANT: "Cutrera will be healthy, right? Right?"

WHAT HE SAID: "They are a very talented team. Their quarterback has stepped in. He has a strong arm. He makes great decisions with the ball. Of course, A.J. Green is making big plays for them on the perimeters, and the tailbacks can all run the football, so I don't know if I'm surprised. They are certainly a very capable offense."

WHAT HE MEANT: "You're asking me if I'm surprised Georgia is good? Are you an idiot?"