Well hell Penn ..... using that metric .. very few of the really "good" teams have been tested. .. they are too busy kicking everyone's butt. This LSU team will rarely if ever have to put up with a "crunch time". I'm sure we'll have some stiff competition against Bama ... but then Bama will have some pretty stiff competition against LSU. I only see two games where we would remotely find ourselves in a "crunch" .. Bama and AR .. and really, not so much AR [but they for some reason always give LSU fits]. But on that note .. .we trailed for all of 6 min. in the Oregon Game ... does that count?? When has Bama ever trailed?? [Goes back to the SOS].
We have not played aginst a power running game yet. Uo was spread moo state was spread option wvu was pass happy fl was spread/speed running Tennessee ran for over 100 yards rushing between the tackles. No other team has attacked the center of our line with power rushing. Tennessee had negative rushing yards the week before we played them. Our run defense aginst a power I rushing attack has not been tested. Our lack of big physical linebackers are exploited when teams pound the ball. Bama runs the same pound your teeth out power running game as we do. We let tenn show bama our weakness and they will exploit it. Bet your arse that bama will run straight at the heart of our tiger defense. If our linebackers don't step up we will be gashed up the middle. Remember last year au ran the ball straight down our throats. The problem with a speed defense is they get beat up the middle. Lsu beats teams this way. If lsu loses it will be because we were beat at our own game.
Don't worry so much. Yes, Tennessee ran on us in the first half. We adjusted, and they ran for 33 yards (I think) in the 2nd half. And you listed the spread teams that we've dominated, when before the season started, many folks were worrried that our defense couldn't stop spread offenses. We'll be fine. But Trent Richardson will still get his in the game. It's going to be a containment issue, like we did with WVU and their passing attack.
We beat Auburn and I think we are about as tested as you can get in prep for the Gumps. They are going to run on us, no matter how tested we are, and we are going to run on them. We have got to stop Richardson and crew from getting the big gains though. I trust Chavis has been working on and will have a Gump defense plan from hell ready. :thumb:
I can't believe this is seriously being asked. I opened thinking it was some kind of rhetorical question.
More battle tested than any other team in CFB. Just because we have not had to play from behind does not mean we are not battle tested.
I agree that TR will get his in the game and we will have to contain him. I didn't check the stats, but was Tennessee's 33 rushing yards in the second half more about our ball control leaving them in a position of having to pass instead of run? The Bama gameplan has to be to stack the box to contain TR and force McCarron to beat us with the pass. All that said, let's hang 40 on Auburn first! :geaux:
Yeah, it's hard to fault a team for not playing close games. But we have gone into some pretty hostile environments and conquered. That said, most of the major contributors on this team were around when playing close games was our thing, so I think the character and ability is definitely there. 11/5 will be the first close game this year for LSU and bama.
