LSU threw the football on almost 50% of it's first down plays. LSU got the TE involved in the offense as a receiver and he wasn't even our "receiving" tight end! LSU ran the football well against a very talented (if depleted) DL and LB corps. North Carolina's 3rd down conversion percentage was very low (4/17). So much for 3rd and Chavis, I guess.
Some real (non-sarcastic) positives -I thought Jefferson was improved. Seriously. His long ball looked better. He made better decisions overall. Looked in greater offensive command overall. -I thought Ridley, when he could hold on to the football, ran good and hard, and got decent yardage, looked impressive actually. -The offensive line held their own, although admittedly was far from dominant. Was much better in pass blocking over last season and marginally better at run blocking. Hebert came in for Blackwell and, while he did get beat a few times, also held his own and did not get totally owned by his man. -Shepard and Randle were explosive and amazing to watch. -Patrick Peterson may be the best defensive player in the country. Now, some things to work on -Jefferson still doesn't always make the right decision, and doesn't always make it fast enough. The throw off his back foot right before the half was groan-worthy. The intentional grounding penalty, same. Guys, he is what he is at this point. He can still be good enough to win us a ton of football games. But he will never be a Heisman Trophy candidate. -Ridley needs to hold onto the football, and maybe sit on the bench until he learns that vital skill. - I don't think tight end is going to be a vital part of our offense this year. Hopefully we can get by without needing one terribly bad. - I will state the obvious; we got careless and lackadaisacal in the 2nd half. We lacked killer instinct. We let a team hang around when multiple oppurtunities to nail the coffin shut presented themselves. We made horrible gaffes at inoppurtune times. Hopefully this was a learning experience for our team going forward. We must keep focus and intensity for 60 minutes. Nothing happened out there on that field that cannot be corrected, or portends doom for this season. We will be okay. Looking forward to blowing out Vandy (I'm hoping for something on the order of 31-3 or something like that).
I'm positive LSU will not be doing anymore victory laps in the middle of a race this year. I've heard it said a team makes it's greatest strides between the first and second game. And keep that positive attitude. As the adage goes "it may not solve every problem, but it will certainly annoy enough people, to make it well worth the effort."
