last drive of today was the entire season in a nutshell

jochexum — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 02:08:10 -0000

Honestly, I've been a supporter of LSU this entire season and throughout Miles' tenure. But heads should roll after coaching as poor as what was shown at the end of today's game. And that's not for my benefit - I just watch the game. The players are the ones who should decide the outcome of the game, and today the players got robbed by our coaching staf. Today they played a damn good game, and the clutch plays at the end by Lafell and Tolliver put them in a position to win the game. The poor coaching didn't allow them the chance though, and that's inexcusable.

And that's just today, ignoring the handcuffs that have been on our players all year long due to piss poor playcalling. We have way too much talent to perform so poorly on offense. It's time for a change, it's time to find someone who will let what the players do on the field dictate the outcome of the game. The coaching staff's primary job is to put the players in the best position they can to win the game. If there was any doubt as to the coaches' performance with this prior to today, there can't be now.

We get the ball to the thirty-one yard line on Lafell's clutch WR screen. We have two timeouts and are in field goal range of a damn good kicker. A kicker who just nailed an onside kick to get you in position to win and had all the confidence in the world. They showed him on the sideline and he was fired up. If he was ever gonna make that kick, it was today. We don't have to get any yards for him to have a makable kick. All we have to do to win the game, is NOT lose yards and NOT turn the ball over. With two timeouts, running plays right up the middle seem the way to go. At worse, we gain no yards and kick a 48 yard field goal. Chances are better we get a few yards though and kick a 40-45 yarder. Either way, we're not gonna turn the ball over (99.9999% sure) and we're not gonna lose yards.

Instead we come out in the shotgun and run a pass play. JJ almost gets sacked because he can't step up into the pocket, as has been the problem all year. Go back and watch this play - our RT had their left end deep in the backfield (which is what is supposed to happen to form a POCKET). Had JJ stepped up, he could have slipped off to the right (the blocking was about to open a huge hole as the end continued downfield) and gained at least 15 yards. There was NOBODY within 20 yards of the line of scrimmage on the right side of the field. Instead, JJ runs out of the pocket, barely avoiding getting sacked, and throws it away.

So the coaches have seen this first place almost end in disaster, and they know the only way we can lose this game is if we get sacked. What do they do? Come out in the same formation and run another pass. And this time, JJ runs out of the pocket again and gets sacked. The coaches watched it almost happen on first down, and then they watched it actually happen on second down. Third down, I don't mind the screen play - they had been blitzing and we just needed some yards for a more manageable fourth down. But why do we wait twenty seconds to call the timeout? There's no explanation, no excuse. We leave oursevles with nine seconds which means such fewer options and opportunities.

And then of course after Tolliver's catch. Why the field goal team wasn't ready is inexcusable. Even if the playcall was a hail mary and you expect the ball to be caught in the endzone. How do you not even entertain the possibility that the ball could go down within the field of play, prior to the goaline?

Like I said...heads should roll. The players deserve better. What are high school kids gonna think when they see coaching this bad? When they see an offense all year in which plays are not called to the offense's strengths? I can't see how recruiting doesn't suffer and the entire program suffers ultimately. I don't want to see this team get to that point.

SB Nation User Blog: jochexum

last drive of today was the entire season in a nutshell