QB = C- Lee had trouble pin pointing his passes most of the night. He also had trouble handing the ball off on the quick hitters to the fullback as well as a mishandle of the snap on one occurrence. He seemed to gain confidence and played pretty well from the middle of the 2nd quarter on. He played within himself which is most important and never really threw into coverage the entire night. He will need to play much better however, if LSU is to have a real shot at a national championship. RB = A Ware wore down the opposition, especially in the 2nd half. He is a true workhorse running back. Ford gives us burst and speed on the edge and looked just as effective last night. This is a perfectly complemented duo. Stampley did a great job leading the way at FB. We did have the one fumble which didn't cost us luckily. WR = D It was not a good night for our receivers. Passes were not perfectly thrown for the most part, but they were still catchable. Beckham appears to be the real deal, it's too bad his great catch was nullified by an atrocious holding call. Shepard out Beckham in, by all appearances. To quote a Journey song, the wheel in the sky keeps on turning. TE = A- Peterson was a beast last night and could have had an even bigger night had Lee connected on a quick hitter over the middle. Peterson appears to have learned how to block downfield as he was instrumental in Ford gaining extra yardage on one particular play. Clement did drop a very catchable ball. O-line = A Run blocking was pretty phenomenal most of the night, even when Oregon knew it was coming. Gutsiest call of the night came with LSU 3rd and goal at the 5 having run the ball the 2 previous downs. LSU runs it a 3rd straight time and blows out a hole that anybody could have run through for an easy touchdown. Stud is going to favor the running game this season, and not surprisingly. The guys up front are very physical at the point of attack and will dominate many of the D-lines we face this season. Pass blocking was solid for the most part as Lee was only sacked once. If he gets that kind of protection all year, we should see the passing game become a more significant part of the overall offense. D-line = A+ Wow, what a job these guys did all night long. Getting pressure on the QB making him uncomfortable in his throws more often than not. Most importantly, they stayed disciplined in their assignments against what is truly a vaunted running attack by Oregon. I can only recall one play in which Mingo got overly aggressive and fell into the trap of going for the QB instead of staying home to guard the edge and James had his best run of the night. To understand the complexity of this Oregon offense and how difficult it is to defend makes you truly appreciate how well this unit played. Overall Offense = B- The passing game was obviously lacking but LSU's O-line dominated the day. Opponents will have a very difficult time stopping our run game. LB = B Solid job all around. Great in run support and worked in perfect harmony with what the D-line was doing up front. Baker was very effective in his blitzes forcing the Oregon QB to throw earlier than he wanted to. About the only weakness to this entire defense is the backup LBs. Minter was a bit shaky at times and Barrow looked a little loss out there. DB = B+ Great night overall for our entire secondary. No big plays for the Oregon offense in the passing game. Everything was kept underneath. When the pass rush wasn't effective, the secondary came through with great coverage resulting in errant passes. A couple of missed tackles that need to be cleaned up, but nothing significant. Overall Defense = A- Oregon had less than 200 yards early in the 4th quarter and got a lot of junk yardage when our game plan obviously changed to prevent big plays. Not sure if Oregon would have scored more than 13 points, had it mattered. Special Teams = B+ Punt coverage was stupendous and we had the one huge turnover for the touchdown. Wing was pretty amazing all night long. Kick coverage was ok but can be better. Our kicks were rather short, maybe intentionally however to allow the kick coverage to get further down the field. Alleman looked solid on his field goals and his 44 yarder was good from over 50 yards it appeared. The missed XP was a bit disconcerting but every other kick was true and down the middle so probably no issues there. Our return game was good and I can see Claiborne running back one or two punts back for touchdowns before the year is done. Coaching = A The only mistake Les seemed to make all night long was running towards the wrong sideline coming out from the tunnel. It was classic Leslie. But the real joke was on Chip Kelly as he was easily out coached in this encounter. Les showed why he is the best coach in the nation when given more than a week to prepare. Given the events of the past 2 weeks, I don't know if there is another coach in the country that would not only have his team ready to play, but to just simply dominate it's Las Vegas favored opponent. This one ranks up there with the all time great victories in Les Miles' tenure at LSU.
Lee deserves far better than a C-. He was poised and managed the offense well. The bad snap wasn't on him and his receivers dropped about 60 yards of passes that were well thrown. I give him a solid B. Likewise I think and A for the tight ends is high, seeing that Chase Clement dropped two passes. I give them a B also.
I totally agree, Lee was pretty accurate last night other than a few throws. Lots of drops, and and an offensive game plan that was so vanilla i heard the people from Blue Bell are thinking of filing a lawsuit. It starts again though, another victory for LSU when the quarterback throws for less than 100 yards.
Those passes were not that well thrown. They were a little high most times. Watch it over. There were definitely some drops out there. Chase did have one of the worst ones of the night. I did forget about that and will amend my grade slightly. C- is not a bad grade for Lee. It's slightly below average. I agree not all of it is on Lee, as is evident by my grade of D by the receiving corps. You could argue the grade for receivers is maybe even a bit high. I would have to watch the botched snap again. Was the pulling guard the problem?
Receivers got their hands on the balls though and defenders didn't. That's accurate enough for me. Gotta bring those in, we don't exactly have Joe Montana throwing the ball to these guys, so when you get an opportunity to bring one in, do it. Odell sure as hell did.
I'm with Red. Lee was off on a few passes early in the game, but as the game went on, he was putting the ball in good locations. His WR's just weren't helping him. The snap is NOT Lee's fault. He was making adjustment's to the line when Lonergan snapped it too soon. Lee, Miles and PJ himself, will all tell you it was PJ's fault.
oh no I'm talking about the fumbled snap when we had a guard pulling, not sure if the guard just knocked the ball out of Lee's hands or not. It just looked like Lee pulled away too quickly and never had the ball. That other play was not on Lee, that's for sure.
