Les and Jimbo's Conservatism

At his post-Bama press conference, Les was asked by a reporter if the offensive play-calling in the second half was affected by how well Jackson was punting and how well the D was playing.

Les said that those two factors did make him and Jimbo more hesitant to "force" the ball downfield, or to run "risky" plays. I think this philosophy nearly cost LSU the game! As well as Jamarcus was throwing the ball, and as well as the O Line was protecting him, and as good a field position as the Tigers had the whole second half, they should have flung it around more. Certainly they shouldn't have played for a 49 yard field goal at the end of regulation. That was frustrating to me.

This makes me recall the Arkansas game in BR in 2001. It was a shootout, and Rohan and Josh Reed were hot as firecrackers. But Arkansas was hanging right with us and had cut the Tiger lead to less than a TD with under two minutes left.

Trying to run out the clock in our own territory, Jimbo called a 1st down run up the middle (stuffed), a 2nd down run up the middle (stuffed), and on 3rd and 13 a run up the middle (overruled by Nick Saban, changed to a pass downfield, and a long completion for a 1st down, securing the victory and the SEC West.)

Bottom line: I'm proud of the Tigers, and proud of the coaching staff this year. But in crunch time, when a lot is on the line, THEY NEED TO STOP PLAYING NOT TO LOSE. One of these days, such a philosophy will come back to haunt the Tigers.:lsup:

 

You want him to "force" the ball downfield, or to run "risky" plays?

 

Where did you get hold of that sort of info?

 

Sometimes, this philosophy will lose you games. Often times, this philosophy will win you games.

You take the bad with the good.

Miles didn't want to go conservative in the second half versus Tennessee. Early in the half, the play was called for JaMarcus Russell to make a fairly deep throw, which ended up being intercepted & turned into 7 points for Tennessee. Without that interception, there's no way that Tennessee brings us to OT & eventually wins. If we had played conservatively from the beginning of the 2nd half, we'd be undefeated.

Then there's games like Bama where we played conservative, & although we ended up winning, Bama took us to OT. Where if we had made some "riskier" throws we might have been able to win in regulation - or maybe JaMarcus throws another interception & Bama beats us in regulation...

 

I was at the game. Then Nick's overruling of Jimbo's 3rd and 13 call was widely reported in The Advocate and the Times Picayune the next day.

:wink:

 

Just kidding... I know what your point is. Some people do not like conservative play calling. Those people never liked Saban's play calling in Mauck's first year either. I think Jimbo is a very good OC. I think next year you will see more of a Rohan to Reed type of offense. This year, the offense just needs to manage the game, not turn the ball over and seal victory. As Jamarcus gets more experience and confidence, the playbook will open up.

 

that last pass to Bowe looked JUST LIKE ROHAN to REED.... WEIRD...

 

Same feeling here. I think they both mentally connect with each other.:yelwink2:

 

I am not sure that I quite understand. Let's see... We are a 50 yard FG away and it is 3rd down and long with about a minute to play. Hmmm, a conservative coach would have run it up the middle to try to make it a 48 yard FG attempt. Yet I seem to remember Miles chucking the ball downfield and me YELLING AT THE SCREEN about how big of an idiot he was for not forcing Bummer to take one of their last two TOs. With a little decent clock management by Bummer, they would have had a shot at winning the game because of that pass attempt! You do realize that we almost threw that game away because of NOT being conservative?

What more do you folks want? Isn't that enough to satisfy your desire for risk? Do you really want UAB all over again? How about Jamie Howard and the AU game? NO THANK YOU!!! I would rather win. Run the damn ball and force their TO.

But you know what? I completely forgave Miles for that decision because it is HIS decision and he is paid the big bucks to make it. There may have been many reasons for that decision that I am not privy to. I think we couch QBs need to chill out a bit and let him do his thing.