QB = B- Lee was more than good enough again today. He continues to take care of the ball but was definitely off target today, much like he was against Oregon. The pass to Beckham at the 5 yard line should have been a walk in touchdown but Lee managed to badly underthrow it. So in that sense, his performance today was a bit of a disappointment. Jefferson looked fantastic on the read options as well as the short goal line play, giving LSU an added dimension that will be called upon down the road. Jefferson's play bumped this grade from a C+ to a B-, even as little as he played. RB = B Ware and Ford struggled mightily for much of the first half as Kentucky constantly had 8 in the box (occasionally 9). Blue looked exceptional and gave us a spark in the 2nd half. Magee also did a good job. WR = C- Back to the dropsies unfortunately for this unit. Somehow, some way this problem will have to be resolved and starting this week against a very good defense in Florida. TE = B- Peterson had a couple of good catches. Nothing great or bad to say about this unit. O-line = B Pass protection was good once again but run blocking was abysmal for much of the first half. It got a lot better in the 2nd half. Overall Offense = B- Good balance run and pass once again. Too many drops and poor run blocking early on hampered this offense. D-line = A Good pressure on the QB most of the day and bottled up the run once again. LB = C- Continues to be weak point for this defense. I am not sure why Hatcher is even on the field anymore, as all he does is run into his blocker and can't shed him and usually gets deked to start moving in the wrong direction and takes himself out before the play even develops. Francois may have actually made a tackle today. Baker continues to be this unit's only saving grace. DB = A+ Kentucky had 0 yards passing with just a minute left in the half. Wasn't much to defend, but they did their job as they should have. No passing game was mounted by Kentucky until the game was already decided (midway in the 4th). Tyrann Mathieu should now be in everyone's top 5 Heisman list. If you don't see it, then ignore it, the list is not meant to get your respect. Overall Defense = A Kentucky would have been held to under 100 yards and no points had it mattered. Special Teams = B- Wing was off his game as his first couple of punts were uncharacteristically short and then when he had a chance to pin Kentucky deep, he boomed it all the way to the endzone line and Mathieu could do nothing about it. Coaching = B Play calling offensively in the first half was not effective, as we constantly put Lee in 3rd and long after running the ball twice. We must be more inventive than that going forward, but it's very possible we didn't want to show anything for Florida to defend next week, so I'll give it a pass. Defensively solid game plan as has been the case all year.
South Carolina has a defensive lineman with 3 picks, over 4 sacks and three touchdowns. Pretty damn impressive.
I won't comment on each of your assessments, other than to give our QB's a B on the day. While Lee didn't look particularly sharp, the WR's (your C- is more than fair) really had the dropsies today -- I recall at one point it was 7, not sure if there were more. Even if 3 or 4 of those are caught, it improves Lee's numbers on the day significantly. Overall, the play calling seemed pretty typical for this type of game, especially before we hit the meat of the SEC schedule. :geauxtige
Not sure what that has to do with the grades for the Kentucky game, but yes the guy is doing his best impression of the Honey Badger.
Our run game was far from great. We will need to be more creative on offense to beat Florida and Alabama. But it's nice to say that even with all that, we won 35-7 despite a total vanilla offense.
I'd probably give the coaches a B, but not because of the play calling early. If our receivers catch passes the offense is balanced and effective. I thought they mishandled the QB situation again. JJ on 4th and goal @ the one was questionable, then bring in Lee to pass for JJ was crap. We should have pulled Lee a few series earlier and played JJ a little more. Glad Mettenberger got playing time, but he's probably third string now.
Coaching - C+ The pictures that JJ has of Miles must have resurfaced this week. Why would you put JJ in that early, which, IMO, made Lee lose some confidence early. Lee wasn't as focused, and I credit that to having JJ over his shoulder. I have no issue with Miles playing JJ later in the game when it was in hand, but we all know that JL has a weak psyche, and that was a terrible coaching decision. Almost as terrible as our fans issuing a round of boos when JJ entered the game. Whether they were booing Les for the poor timing of his decision, or voicing their opinion of JJ directly, it was embarrassing for our fanbase and our team. I'm no fan of JJ, wasn't before the incident and not today, but I can't agree with what happened in our stadium today. Just shameful.
They called it 7 drops, and I'm not sure if anything that touches a receiver's hands is always considered a drop (not in my book), but at least 3 or 4 of those were thrown way too high. I guess it's the adrenaline that is forcing Lee to throw it so high, but he really needs to get his passing accuracy under control.
8 and 9 in the box and if I'm Florida, more of the same If Coach Stud is too stupid to take advantage of 1 on 1 matchups, then we are in trouble vs the Gators. Something tells me we held back in our game plan on offense, so I'm not so worried.
I don't agree with a single thing you just said. I saw an added dimension to the LSU offense, and we certainly can use as many weapons as possible. JJ looked awesome on the read option plays and it's something teams will have to spend time practicing against. That's a plus.
