Not to mention we didn't put pressure on Geno, we only rushed 4, and 3 at times. And....... John Chavis since he has gotten here at times has coached a defense that often bends, but rarely breaks. Good points though Red, last time I checked you don't get any points for yardage, this ain't fantasy football. The 1 thing that bothers me going into this game is this. LSU has trailed this season for a grand total of something like 6 minutes. How will this team respond if they find themselves trailing by 2 or more touchdowns early? I think the most important part of this game before the game even starts, is the coin toss. If we win, we defer, and our defense gets to set the tone of the game. Could be huge, but then again, it could be nothing.
Tennessee went for it on fourth with almost no time left last week and then Alabama ran out the clock in the redzone. Tennessee also will sport a negative on their fourth down conversions when it didnt mean anything. With that being said, LSU is a much better redzone team and that is the reason i believe they win this weekend.
This is an interesting point. Another thing this indicates is that Bama thrives on the big play. Alabama has scored 27 total rushing TDs, but only 19 in the red zone. So they have scored 8 TDs on rushes of 20 yards or more. Also, 5 of Alabama's 10 passing TDs came on passes of 20 yards or more. On the other hand, 20 of LSUs 21 rushing TDs came in the red zone, and 11 of 16 passing TDs. Only 6 TDs have come on plays of 20 yards or more. Alabama is much more reliant on the big play. Alabama has scored 13 of their 37 offensive TDs on big plays (35.1%). LSU has scored only 6 of their 37 offensive TDs on big plays (16.2%).
I think this is a direct result of the way Ware runs the ball. He is an absolute load. He doesn't have long distance speed but he sure will run you over! I'm not sure Bama has a guy like this as I have not watched them enough to know.
My thoughts are Alabama has played a softer schedule and our special teams could be the difference. I think our punter will give them a long field all day long.
You would be correct on all counts. The difference in our overall schedule is we played Oregon and they played Kent State. WVU equates to Penn State, essentially. Western Kentucky is better than North Texas (same conference). We both embarrassingly scheduled a Div II School. Vandy is better than Kentucky, otherwise we played the exact same SEC schedule. Put Kent State on our schedule and remove Oregon and we're probably averaging 400 yards of offense vs just the 372 we average now. And instead of allowing 251 yards of offense, we're probably giving up only 230 and instead of 11.5 ppg we'd be giving up about 8 ppg. LSU playing WVU and Bama playing Penn State offensively was a huge swing as well. Replace those teams and we're giving up under 200 yards per game just like Bama and about 7 ppg just like Bama.
Yep, the reason Bama has such a decided advantage offensively in total yardage per game are those big plays (typically running plays by Richardson or Lacy).
Last year cam broke big runs aginst us late in the game. I know that au's offense last year and bama's offense are night and day. What I am saying is that big running plays cost us last year aginst au in our biggest game of the year. We must stop the long rushing plays. If we can do that we will win. Do you think lsu plays their standard defense or plays the nickle?
This is what I noted in the #3 is a beast thread. One of the biggest play makers for Bama is the screen to Richardson. LSU shuts down that screen, and it will seriously damage Bama's big play making ability. In BOTH of the last two Bama games, it was that screen that produced the big moment that sparked the Bama Offense into action. No big play off the screen .. no spark.
I disagree RW ... What cost us last year was an offense incapable of putting points on the board. If we would have had the offensive play of this year, last year, we would have won both the AU and AR games.
