Some of you act like we were up 21-0 due to offensive dominance, that somehow we pulled back the reins in the second half. Did you actually watch the first half? 14 of those points were pure gimmies from Tennessee and their 0 points was a combination of tough D and UT's ineptitude. The first and second half really weren't all that different.
Rocket Scientist Hudson "Curley" Hallman had a 4th quarter, 28-point lead against Auburn. He didn't sit on it. No, he had his quarterback throw the football and suffered four interceptions returned for touchdowns and lost the friggin' game! Subsequently, he lost his friggin job. Miles had a quarterback that didn't understand clock management, took four sacks because he doesn't know when to get rid of the ball, and just threw a costly interception. He was a damn sight smarter than Curley Hallman not to let Russell throw the game away for him. Not with the running backs LSU has. Anybody that knows football knows that you preserve a lead using a ball control offense designed to deny the opponent enough time with the ball to get back in it. LSU has fine running backs and this was exactly the time to use them. It didn't work because we failed to convert third-down plays. Ball control needs short complete passes, as well as effective rushing. It was JR that was not up to his job in this game. But he will get better. State and Vanderbilt are just what LSU needs right now.
I know nobody here cares about OM stats....but read this......according to the Jackson paper----------------------- "McSwain and Turner combined for 143 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries in the loss to Wyoming. The biggest criticism the coaching staff faced afterwards was that the two young backs didn't get enough touches. Coaches ACKNOWLEDGED the lack of consistent carries for McSwain and Turner may have been a MISTAKE. It's also one they vow not to make against the Vols." OLE MISS COACHES ADMIT THAT THEY MAY HAVE MADE A MISTAKE? Points for the honesty. Haven't seen a lot of admissions.
I understand where you're coming from and I feel the same way, but like Tigrinum stated, we don't have an offense capable of scoring 50 pts against a Tennessee defense. Take away the gimmee and the defensive touchdown and our offense scored one touchdown the first half--that's it--one!!!
Yup yup.... Guys, we didn't rack up 21 points in the first half and then sit on the lead. UT just figured out how to beat our defense in the second half and stopped making the mistakes they were making in the first half. Our offense played basically the same throughout. Let's not get it twisted.
We had 200 yards of offense in the 1st half. Not bad against a pretty stout defense. Something obviously changed in the 2nd half since we only had 56 yards. One coach made good adjustments at the half...
I forget the exact number, but something like the first 12 plays in the second half were runs... that is "ball-control" playcalling... conservative... trying to sit on a lead... I'm not saying LSU could have put up 50 on UT, but it was pretty damn obvious that Miles felt like 24 was enough to win with... and that he was willing to give up some points along the way to running out the clock...
