I love playing with numbers. I have 7 yards on 27 1st down attempts. But this is interesting....to me, the tipping point on the change in play calling seem to revolve around two plays in the 2nd quarter. First, the incompletion to Dupre on 2nd and long that was reviewed (incorrectly, IMO). BH was forced to scramble on 3rd down for short yards and then we punted. The second play, the first of the next offensive possession, was the 90 yd TD that was called back for holding, it ended up being a 17 yard play. After that was when the play calling when hyper-conservative. Now, on 11 first down plays before this sequence, and including Dupre's 17 yarder (not 90, and also not including the 37 yd TD pass to Dural that was called back for holding), we averaged exactly 10 yds per play. After that, we ran 17 first down plays, but the average went down to 4.75 per play. In the first sequence, 5 of 10 1st down plays went for 11 or more yards, including one pass, one Harris read-option, and the reverse. After, only 2 of 17 went for double digits, one by LF, one run by BH. Seven of 17 went for 2 yards or less. The only 1st down pass attempt of the second half was a WR screen for 4 yards. Nothing at all wrong with 4.74 ypc on 1st down, but the point has to be continually hammered home....how good can the offense be with a little variety?
That's the question everyone is asking. Why win by 2 when you have an offense that appears capable of winning by 30? Do we have a want and desire to play close games?
its almost nothing to do with anything but the score. once we get up a couple scores on just about anyone, this is what you're going to see. if we are down or a 1 possession game either way, you'll see much more passing. if we lose a game, we open it up much more the next week. usually after conservative play calling cost us.
We should have kept throwing the ball in the 2nd half when we were up by 2 TDs like we did with Jamie Howard on the road at Auburn. Kidding above but maybe I shouldn't be. Miles keeps winning and many coaches like Curley Hallman get their dream coaching gig at a big time program and can't cut it. I'll wait until at least after Auburn to join the mob. Hopefully the positives on offense that we saw early evolve into an explosive offense in the near future.
It's not about taking a side or joining a mob, it's about seeing the obvious. Miles is a very good coach, his offensive philosophy just sucks.
What if you could average 6.5 ypc on first down because you strategically placed play action passes in the mix and kept the LBs and safeties further back from the line? Football is all about fooling your opponent. Not banging your head against a wall. If this continues to happen, we're likely to have another 21-0 loss on the schedule down the line.
It's obvious Les still has 2008 nightmares. He is so utterly afraid of his qb throwing interceptions that he is willing to shut the whole thing down in the 2nd quarter and try to run the clock out with a lead, even if there is tons of time left for the other team to scrape and claw back into the game, and at the expense of his defense. It's pretty pathetic and because of that, in the last 11 losses, 6 of those were games LSU either blew a late or early lead in because the offense was shut down (5 late and 1 early, 2013 Alabama) And there are probably about 10 wins in the last 3 seasons that could have gone the other way for the same reason.
Be careful. Truth is not well tolerated around here. This "chronic condition" has existed for so long now. Don't expect this to ever change with the egomaniacal Miles at the helm.
