There's nothing wrong with a conservative game plan; especially if we have the lead. What happened in the Auburn game is that we stayed conservative until about 2 minutes left in the game at it costs us. I'm pretty sure Miles learned a lesson from that and if we get behind early, he will take some chances.
I agree FishHd. Running doesn't mean conservative if you can do it. But running because you are scared to throw the ball on 1st down is conservative. Running would definitely be our strength since we have the stable we have, but if the O-line can't provide holes or help the RB's make the corner then it is not our strength. looking at the MSU game, the running game was not our strength and running on 1st and 2nd down even though it is somewhat ineffective is rather predictable and not effective if the O-line can't make it work. I went back and watched some of the 1st half and the O-line was absolutely terrible. Worse than I was thinking it was while watching the game. Currently the running game is not a strength IMO so we shouldn't be running 2 out of 3 downs. I think it needs to be a little more mixed up.
The running game IS our strength, but I totally see where you are coming from. The first half was UGLY on offense, but they got better in the second half. I truly believe they will improve even more this week on the ground, and on the O-line. Again, my only bone of contention is that Flynn is the second leading rusher on the team...and that's after a couple of sacks! LSU will be a running team, and that's OK. Passing teams make for nice highlight reels, but the team that runs the ball well and plays good defense wins the big one, most of the time. Like I said, though...the passing game will come along as the running game improves...due to teams having to respect the run. Here's some stats from MSU...I know it didn't LOOK great, but we had nearly 200 yds rushing...really had more that 200, except sacks take away from the total. Sacks, as I'm sure you know, occur when a team is trying to PASS the ball.:hihi: The O-line wasn't great, but they were better in run blocking than they were in pass blocking.:thumb: NET YARDS RUSHING............. 198 10 Rushing Attempts............ 50 26 Average Per Rush............ 4.0 0.4 Rushing Touchdowns.......... 3 0 Yards Gained Rushing........ 231 57 Yards Lost Rushing.......... 33 47 NET YARDS PASSING............. 149 136 Completions-Attempts-Int.... 14-22-0 14-33-6 Average Per Attempt......... 6.8 4.1 Average Per Completion...... 10.6 9.7 Passing Touchdowns.......... 3 0 -------------------------------------------- Jacob Hester 14 72 4 68 0 17 4.9 Matt Flynn 11 63 21 42 0 21 3.8 Richard Murphy 6 36 1 35 0 21 5.8 T. Holliday 6 22 3 19 0 11 3.2 K. Williams 7 21 3 18 2 13 2.6 Ryan Perrilloux 3 12 0 12 1 8 4.0 Charles Scott 3 5 1 4 0 5 1.3 Totals... 50 231 33 198 3 21 4.0
OK, my thoughts are pretty much that we ran the base offense in the first game because it is the BASE OFFENSE. The theory that CLM has seemed to have in his first years here is that LSU should not start trying to run tricky plays and throwing the ball all over the place until the coaches are satisfied that the players have the basic plays under their belts. It might work better in the first game or two, but it will bite you down the road. The players need the experience running those basic plays and nailing them down. It is about execution and having an offense that runs like a well oiled machine. The season is a building process. I expect that Miles laid this out to Crowton the first minute that they met because this seems to be a fundamental philosophy of Miles and I am sure that he bought into it. I really don't think that LSU was "hiding" anything from future opponents and I don't expect things radically different from last week this week or for the two games after that. I don't even expect much different in the UF game.
Thanks for the stats. After watching the 1st half last night again, I was thinking the pass blocking was a lot better than the run blocking. I think OL will get better in the run blocking. To me I think the running game has to be strong to win the SEC and then this opens up the passing game and some good QB spread option plays. If we could run the ball very well then calling run plays isn't conservative at all. But running when the running game struggles is conservative. I hope we don't see the AU and UF games repeated in that we struggle running but continue to do it anyway. It will be a real shame if we have these stable of running backs but can't get an OL that can block for them. The OL must improve or our SEC title hopes may be gone. I think they will get better though and have confidence that they will.:geauxtige
finally a football thread! with a dominant D, conservative O is the way to go. worst thing to do is give the stuggling opponent O field position. but everything in moderation, cant be too conservative or it makes what youre trying to do too hard (they see it coming) and you wont score. (atleast the O wont). running a simple, conservative (ha, thats not the only time those two words should be used together) O against MissSt may have been to not show VaTech much, but there are other reasons. ----may have been thought to be the most effective plan against MSU ----may need time for team to learn the more complicated stuff ----coaches felt like the basics werent executed at a satisfactory level i dont know much about football xs and os, but i expect to see ----designed rollouts (to black) too lessen the effect of the speed rush from stewarts side ----as much or more rushes (by rbs, not flynn) between tackles to negate the strength of their DL, the speed rushing ends. ----a few deep shots off playaction.
I don't believe that GC was brought here to just run the ball. If that's the case the could have gotten a highschool OC to come run the offense at a fraction of the cost. Why would they be trying to recruit a pro style quarter back to come here and hand the ball off and run the option. There is no need to recruit the top wide recievers in the nation to come and catch short passes and block. I think when the coaches feel like Matt is ready they will turn him loose. I like a running QB in college I think it helps you in the big games to get those extra big plays you might not normally get.
