Sorry if already posted. LSU is better with Flynn than Russell E-MAIL Print Comment 32 Posted: September 12, 2007 Wouldn't you know it, the guy with everything to prove couldn't say "I told you so" if he had wanted to. Matt Flynn was holed up in the training room, a bum ankle the only glitch in his magnificent night. Outside the locker room, while LSU celebrated a victory over Virginia Tech in the first meaningful, poll-reverberating heavyweight match of the season, offensive coordinator Gary Crowton tried to explain an overwhelming, undeserved preseason assessment of his quarterback: Flynn is this team's only weakness. "I can tell you this," Crowton says. "He's not going to lose it out there when things get tough." Which is to say he's not going to be JaMarcus Russell. Look, I know this is sacrilegious to all those NFL personnel guys who drool over Russell's freakish frame and his ability to throw a ball 70 yards on one knee and his 1-point-whatever-second release. But this LSU team is better with Matt Flynn at quarterback. You want some numbers? In 11 games the previous two seasons against ranked teams, LSU was 7-4 with Russell -- and he threw nearly as many interceptions (11) as touchdown passes (13). Those four big-game meltdowns -- against Tennessee, Florida, Georgia and Auburn -- prevented the most talented team in the most talented conference from winning anything other than a couple of meaningless bowl games. Never have 22 wins in two years felt so unfulfilling. "You would think with all those wins," says wideout Brandon LaFell, "we'd have a championship." And you would think, after a 48-7 wipeout of Virginia Tech in the season's most anticipated nonconference game, the questions would end. Let's not undersell what happened. Tech led the nation in total defense the past two seasons and has nine starters -- five of whom will be first-day NFL draft picks -- returning from last year's unit. And there was Flynn, the fifth-year senior/first-year starter playing flawlessly in a big game, something they haven't seen in Red Stick since Matt Mauck guided the Tigers in that magical 2003 national championship season. The popular theory this offseason was that Flynn would follow in the footsteps of Mauck, the serviceable quarterback who did what he was told and stayed out of the way. Flynn even hinted in July that such a comparison might be accurate, saying, "My job is to guide this offense and keep us out of trouble." Look, with all due respect to Mauck, he's no Matt Flynn. And Flynn is no JaMarcus Russell -- which brings us back to my original point: This team will not beat itself as it did in previous seasons. The quarterback position isn't about who has the strongest arm or who looks the best in game-day silks. It's about making decisions, about the ability to stand firm and not crumble under the enormous pressure. In the Tigers' two most important games the past two seasons -- losses to Georgia in the 2005 SEC championship game and Florida last season -- the offense committed seven turnovers and scored a measly 24 points. In Flynn's two career starts against top 10 teams -- blowout wins over Miami in the 2005 Peach Bowl and Virginia Tech last week -- the Tigers had no turnovers and 88 points. That's not skewing numbers to make a point. Those are cold, hard facts. LSU relied too much on Russell's strong right arm when things got edgy or games got dicey. And no matter how hard you throw a ball against a wall, it's not going through. Besides, it's not like Flynn is some noodlearmed overachiever. He doesn't have the best touch on deep balls, but he's extremely accurate on short and intermediate throws and he allows LSU to expand its dangerous running game with his ability to execute the read option play. "With Matty back there," says LSU running back Jacob Hester, "we're a different offense." They're a different team. No longer will big games from a stout defense be nullified by poor decisions from the most important position on the field. No longer will a team full of stars rely so heavily on one to do the work of many. "Don't make too much of this," says LSU coach Les Miles. How could we not? For the first time in Miles' three seasons in Baton Rouge, this is a team that looks like it can navigate the brutal SEC roadmap and do something it should have done already: win a national
Re: Great Srticle on LSU with Flynn vs JR Dude, screw this article. I'll take these "meltdowns" point-by-point. Tennessee (05) -- Our highly-ranked defense made Clausen look like John Elway in the 2nd half. How is this JR's fault? *interlude* LSU wins all of their remaining regular season games and wins the SEC West only months after Katrina. JR throws a touchdown pass in overtime to beat an undefeated Bama team on the road. UGA (05) -- JR does not even finish this game. Georgia is very much the better team. Auburn (06) -- Bad calls and dropped passes are probably the difference here. Perhaps an over-reliance on running the football. Florida (06) -- Turnovers, muffed punts, just a badly-played game. Can't blame the QB here. Note: Florida would go on to humiliate the #1 OSU Buckeyes and win the championship. I've never heard a QB criticized so much for not winning every single game he started. Jeez. Oh, and to call the Sugar and Peach Bowls meaningless is to call every bowl other than the BCS title meaningless. Yea, the Sugar Bowl is meaningless to the tune of $10+ million for LSU and beating Notre Dame so bad in that meaningless game is the biggest reason we started out #2. What an ass.
Re: Great Srticle on LSU with Flynn vs JR I can only imagine how successful we would have been last year with the offense I saw Saturday night. I think this writer misses the boat by not mentioning Jimbo Fisher and Gary Crowton. But mentioning the OC change wouldn't have helped his point of LSU being better off with Flynn.
Re: Great Srticle on LSU with Flynn vs JR This is a cold, hard small sample size. And wasn't the Peach Bowl a meaningless bowl game a few paragraphs ago? I want to punch this guy (not really). Who is he?
Re: Great Srticle on LSU with Flynn vs JR That's a little harsh. The only thing I disagree with, is him bashing JR to make his point. Are we a better team with Flynn than we were with JR? That remains to be seen, but Flynn is off to a great start. Even the players are saying the offense is "different" than it was with JR, due to the different styles of QB's they are. I think the guy could have hyped up Flynn without bringing JR down.
Re: Great Srticle on LSU with Flynn vs JR If this is your opinion of a great article, I respectfully disagree. So much so that I suspect you have the reading comprehension of breadmold.:grin: To add to what was already stated, comparing 2 STARTS! to 26 is about as poor a use of "cold, hard facts" as I have seen in a while. Saying Matt Flynn is a good (soon to be great) QB is not "sacrilegious", but saying the coaches the who work with these young men every day are a poor judge of which QB is better suited for the team is a discredit to everyone. They competed for the position every year, there were no favorites. Having two QB with different styles, strengths, and natural talent is not mutually exclusive. Believing the opposite is what leads to team meltdowns and media controversy. It is possible to give MF credit for being the best he can be without trying to outdo a long-since departed teamate. Reread the quotes from Tiger players and staff objectively and you will see just that. Later, Fur
I do not think Flynn is nearly as gifted as JR. The point is that JR, did at sometimes make some bad decisions because he had such a cannon for an arm. There were times that helped, but times that hurt us. Trust me I am a huge JR fan. I guess my problem was saying it was a "great article" How is this "Its a nice article about Flynn" As for wanting to hit someone for anything written on this or anyother board.....simply get over yourself...ass&*^*&!
*Deep breath* Do you also take it literally if a friend says he's hungry enough to eat a horse? I don't really want to punch this guy. I do want to take his keyboard and donate it to charity.
The article was a little harsh. Here is my take on take, for what its worth. I remember several fumbles by JR in close games. I remember quite a few pics by JR in close games. We lost 4 with him the last two years and in all but the 05 tennessee game, he really made some poor decisions. Bad throws, missing receivers open and in stride. Like i also mentioned, fumbles when he was running up the middle or while trying to scramble. Fortunately, after those bad plays, which happened in most games, he did some pretty unbelievable sh*t to make up the deficit and win the game. So while I think he always has and still does have a tremendous amount of ability (probably the most I have ever seen) I still would rather someone like Mauck. Now, will Flynn be more like Mauck or JR? That we won't know untill the season is over and the championship is played. But in the 3 games now he has started and played, He has been very good at protecting the ball and not throwing pics. His passing has also been fairly good. The season is long and we still have alot of good competition to play. I for one just feel better about the decision making of Flynn. Anyway, I am not an expert; I am just a fan and so it really doesnt matter. Geaux Tigers
It's not a bad article...maybe a little too early....if Flynn keeps going like he is right now after games with south carolina, florida and auburn then yes the guy who wrote this article will seem like a genius.
