LSU O vs Oregon's D... What do you guys honestly think about your offense vs. Oregon's D? Do you think Jordan Jefferson can beat Oregon with his arm if needed? From what I've seen, and from what I've read from LSU fans, Jefferson may struggle if it's put in his hands to win it. I've heard he struggles reading complicated defenses. Will he even be the starting QB? The reason I ask, is in the past three seasons, Oregon has held it's opponents under their rushing averages. 2008 (-28.54) 18 Rushing TD's, 2009 (-23.62) 15 Rushing TD's, 2010 (-33.0) 11 Rushing TD's. In these three seasons, only Toby Gearhart burned the Oregon D, but he was killing EVERY DEFENSE! But that was almost 2 years ago, and TG is in the NFL (Thank gawd!) Of the 7 games lost over the last 3 years (Boise State, USC, Cal in 2008, Boise State, Stanford and Ohio State in 2009, and Auburn in the NC), Only Stanford won the game because of the run. In 2010, Oregon only gave up 15 TD passes against this same secondary. So going to the air didn't work out to well either. After doing some research, LSU's returning RB's don't have a ton of experience. Now I hear Spenser Ware will be a beast, but without a bunch of reps, it's hard to tell how he'll do. Oregon historically has had some issues stopping larger backs (See Toby Gearhart). Mostly it's been that our tackles were never large enough to plug the middle. Running up the middle has been the place teams have taken advantage, as no one could run the edges against Oregon last year. Oregon's team speed on the front 7 was just to fast to do it. Hopefully that will change this year with 321 lb. 6' 4" DT Ricky Heimuli, who's been compared to Haloti Ngata. (Link) Oregon's game plan will be to stop the run (same as they've done for the past 18 or so years with Nick Allioti as the DC), and make Jefferson win it with his arm. If LSU has to go to the air, they will be going into Oregon's strength. 21 INT's last year with arguably the best secondary in the nation. I'm not saying Oregon will win. I have my concerns with the new Oregon O-line (With a new center) against that big, fast, experienced LSU Defense! AU's Nick Fairly is still giving Oregon fans nightmares, and that was with one of the better lines we've had in school history. Even with Heisman candidates Thomas and James, if the line can't block for them, Oregon won't do squat (See 2009 Boise State game). I believe Oregon has better athletes in place on the O-line this year as compared to that 2009 line, but who knows what will happen against that big, fast, and nasty LSU D-Line in the first game of the year. Usually Oregon has at least a game to tune up for a big opponent, so this game scares the sh- outta me! Could go either way really. Lots of question marks for both teams. And LSU hold the wild card in Les Miles! It will be interesting to see how things pan out. Cheers!
Yes, I honestly think the LSU offense will have no particular problem with Oregon's defense. We face tougher defenses week-in and week out in the SEC. Yes Jefferson has been inconsistent, but he's not incompetent. When he's hot he's very hot (see the Cotton Bowl) and when he's not hot . . . Mettenberger will come in. Metenberger is new but he's the real deal and took his Junior colege to the national championship game last year with 32 TD passes. What matters is what you have on D this year. Oregon lost some significant players, did they not? No it ain't. All three running backs played significantly as reserves last year, they are not green. Ware is going to surprise you, but he is no surprise to us. LSU is going to run, run, run the football this season. Our offensive line is big, strong, experienced, and quick. Interestingly, we have no true fullback on the roster this season. You may see a tight end or an offensive lineman at fullback in short yardage situations. LSU will run inside and outside.Even the power backs have scary speed. LSU ran the ball effective last season against some of the top defenses in the country, despite a poor passing game. With a legitimate passing game this season, the run ain't going to get any less effective. LSU is going to have outstanding offensive and defensive lines this season. You had better be ready for it. LSU has extremely talented and speedy backs on offense and defense as well. Special teams may be an exploitable weakness, though. We lost the best returner in LSU history, an All-American kicker, and an outstanding punter that kept us in fine field position. The new guys are talented but unproven. And me as well. But we opened on the road against North Carolina last year and did very good. It's a confidence builder for the team. They can cut it. And we played in the Cotton bowl last December, so the stadium is familiar and will have 35,000 paid LSU fans plus a lot more LSU fans live in the Dallas area. we expect a friendly crowd.
And in Washington the year before. This team has some serious experience when it comes to openers on the road against non-pushover teams. The problem for Oregon is that they have no idea what to expect from LSU's offense. We have a brand new OC, and I'm confident that we'll have a vastly improved Sr. QB taking snaps. That should really have them back on their heels. I expect a run-first attack to let the players get their legs, then maybe we'll toss it around a bit.
I can see that Miles will be preparing this team like for a bowl game in this HUGE first game of the new season. Given the history of Miles' record in Bowl Games, I am optimistic that the team will be well prepared :thumb:, and so will JJ mentally.
I expect great things from JJ and Ware this year....great things indeed. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3TLprzCUm8&feature=fvwrel"]YouTube - LSU 2011 Cotton Bowl Video‏[/ame]
And ask yourself this…Is Oregan’s D better than Bama’s, Florida’s, Mississppi State’s or any other SEC team we beat last year. What about West Virginia’s, North Carolina’s or Texas A&M’s. We only lost two games last year and one was by the team that took the National Championship out of your hands. I’m a homer, given, but I ain’t worried. Should be a great game though. Oh...and I know that you asked about our O and the Duck's D...but I just want to say get ready for Tyrann. [ame]http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr2Roa60BLA&feature=related[/ame]
We did very well against UNC??? we were very lucky to win that game and i'm not saying the winnner of close games are lucky....but we were lucky. Thank u Pat Pete. I hope everyting u say is true of course but I'm not sure about us having no trouble against the oregon D nor that we face better D every week. Yes top to bottom I believe we face better depth and fantastic athletes. I think LaDuck or whatever his name is (sorry) provides good info and has a pretty fair view of things. I dont know about that best secondary in the nation thing though.....seriously...Cliff Harris is outstanding and he isnt alone but if there is anything about our team that i'm willing to put myself on the line for, its our secondary. The guys we have back there are "special" good. and deep. There are plenty of great teams and Oregon is def one of them but everything works from the inside out. thats just football. our O line looks great but they have to play the game. Same goes for the D line. I love Baker and Minter but we dont know about that yet. No room to run= poor passing(for us at least) No QB pressure= 3rd down conversions and a tough time covering. U cant guard guys for 6 seconds no matter who is in the secondary. I love what we have but would rather be cautiously optimistic until i see the product on the field. A worthy opponent awaits us. The whole country will be watching. What else could we ask for? Gonna be a great game.:geaux:
I agree. I dont think the D will be anything we havent had to match but being the first game of the year is the wild card here. what helps the SEC is that over the course of the season we see everything. By the end of the year we have been extremely battle tested. This always seems to show through. even If we start slow. I remember colin cowherd making a prediction before the LSU OSU sugar bowl game. He basically said that OSU would come out sky high, punch us in the mouth and make a few plays and then eventually the monsters that we have year in and year out on our D line and the skill position players will take over and that OSU would have no answer because they havent seen it before. That i exactly what happened. it turned into a beat down. Same with the aggies except our O-line really made strides in that one.
not to mention that SEC teams match up with the spread better than any conference as a whole. We have the depth of athletes to cover and the athletes on even most 3 man fronts can get pressure
