While many people are still grinding out the second half of the LSU – Tennessee game in their heads, painstakingly reliving the biggest home collapse in the history of the program, I've been thinking about the 1st half.
Because truth be known, it wasn't that much better.
LSU's 21-0 lead at the half was fools gold, the product of a couple of fluke plays and one completely inept quarterback. Even at that, the Tigers could have been up more and put the game away by just simply holding on to the football, with some decent clock management thrown in near the end.
Take a closer look. Counting the two one-play touchdowns, LSU had 10 possessions in the first half. Only one of those produced more than two first downs (the one that ran out the clock). Two others got the chains moving exactly twice. Four times LSU went 3 and out.
The third touchdown drive was the result of a 4-play, 70-yard drive, of which 47 yards came on a flea flicker. A 21-yard run by Joe Addai got most of the rest.
That was the LSU offense in the first half—two good runs by Addai and a flea flicker.
Erik Ainge did the rest, giving the Tigers a pair of gifts that led to scores. Kenneth Hollis picked off maybe the ugliest pass ever thrown in Tiger Stadium, and an Ainge fumble in his own red-zone led to Addai's first good run.
The best drive of the half for LSU ended with the field goal team rushing out in vain to try to beat the clock. There seemed to be considerable confusion on the Tiger sideline after JaMarcus Russell came up short of the first down. Yes, Russell should have thrown it, but it certainly didn't seem like that was emphasized during the final timeout. When he went down, there was enough hesitation to doom any attempt.
Two of the deepest penetrations of the half for LSU resulted in fumbles. The Tiger defense and special teams (one of the few bright spots) gave LSU good field position before Russell fumbled at the Tennessee 30, and Addai coughed it up at the Vol 28. To make matters worse, though the Tiger offense was sputtering, Russell's fumble came on 1st down, and Addai's on 2nd and 5. Already on the edge of field goal range, LSU would have had more plays to burn if not for the turnovers.
On defense, the play was better, but it was dressed up by a quarterback that looked intimidated and played scared. Twice in the first quarter Ainge missed big plays by overthrowing wide open receivers. Three more balls were dropped; two of those on third down that would have kept drives alive. Plus the fumble on his own 19. Plus the horrific interception from his own endzone.
Jessie Daniels made a play on the fumble, and Cameron Vaughn applied big heat on the int., but the rest of it Ainge and the Vols did mostly to themselves. Convert half of the drops and overthrows and Tennessee is much closer at halftime. A veteran QB would have probably just taken the safety rather than put the ball up for grabs. LSU gets credit for more aggressive coverages and pressure, but the plays were there for Tennessee to make.
It's a wonder Rick Clausen wasn't in there earlier.
LSU went conservative on offense in the second half, running on 11 of the first 12 snaps. The thinking may have been that the offense was struggling so badly, that the thing to do was sit on the ball and bet that Clausen and the Vols couldn't come from down three touchdowns. After all, in 112 years of Tiger football, no team had ever done that in Baton Rouge.
It almost worked. Tennessee was forced to drive a little at a time except for one drive. The visitors needed one cheap score to come all the way back, and they got it on one of the few times in the second half that LSU tired to pass the ball down the field. The interception set them up inside the five and it didn't take long for Tennessee to cash in.
Not that I'm defending the strategy. LSU never once had a play they could hang their hats on offensively. Where the Volunteers converted 6 of 9 third downs in the second half, the Tigers could manage only 1 for 7. On one of Tennessee's three misses, the Vols kicked a field goal. On another, Clausen banged in for a short TD sneak on fourth down.
The Tigers mixed man and zone defenses better this week, with a wide array of blitzes, but none seemed to bother Clausen, who picked LSU apart on 21-32 passing. He had at least three balls dropped. On another, Bret Smith fell down lunging for a Clausen overthrow. He caught it for 25-yds.to convert a 3rd and 15, but a good throw and he scores. A mix-up among Tiger defensive backs left Smith uncovered, just as the Vol fullback was left unguarded later in the fourth quarter. He dropped a pass that would also have gone for a score.
There is no need to grade position by position this week. With 16 days to prepare, the entire coaching staff flunked the course, so the players, as a group, get an incomplete.
Defensively, LSU is lost right now. Man or zone, blitz or don't blitz, nickel, dime, or regular, the Tigers just don't seem to grasp the new system. They're substituting liberally, so there is not really a question of getting the best guys on the field (although I like Claude Wroten at end and Glen Dorsey at tackle better than the current starting lineup). It's getting them to understand and execute their assignments. There has been no problem with the effort.
Offensively, the Tigers have no identity. Trying to build on the success Russell had against Arizona State, it would have seemed best to test Tennessee's rebuilt secondary rather than try to run into the teeth of a very good front seven. However, the intermediate game never materialized, and LSU refused to try anything deep for some reason. Addai actually had some success running the football, but not enough. Every team strives for offensive balance, but there also has to be something to rely on, and outside of Addai, the Tigers have been inconsistent.
It was the first of ten games in 68 days. The severe cramping was a troubling first sign for a team that is going to have to be in peak physical condition to survive this trek. The coaching staff has to fix that in a hurry.
They don't have much time to fix the rest of what ails the Tigers either
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