Wasn't talking to you in that regard; although I understand why you thought that since I quoted your post. I was speaking to LSU fans who would have to re-watch a play that we got beat on in a close game. Sorry if I confused you.
Do they run some kind of option offense? I saw where they only had 2 pass attempts. Be that as it may, I forget what year it was, but they were No.1 in the nation against the run with some ridiculous average, like 40 yards a game, and Georgia Southern came into Tuscaloosa and burned them for nearly 250 yards rushing with an option attack. Maybe that's the key to beating them. Just practice running the option during the bye week. With our athletes, we should be able to double Ga.Southern's rushing yards. /sarcasm
Like I said previously, never felt convinced of his offensive prowess, and what he’s doing in bfe-FL kinda backs that up.
I wanted to look at our offense in a way that would be fair and analytical, and two things caught my attention this football weekend. One was an article saying the Saints are in line to break an offensive efficiency record, meaning the percentage of touchdowns scored compared to possessions. The other, when noticing how many more points some of our SEC brethren scored against their cupcakes compared to our 42 against our cupcake, I noticed everyone seemed to get at least one defensive or special teams TD, or else gave the offensive at least one short field with a strong return or turnover. So I looked at our season through 11 games, and found the following: LSU has had 142 possessions this season. Including end of half or game possession when we just ran the clock out (lowering these percentages) we have scored on 57 possessions, or 40%. We've scored 35 TDs, or 25%. Don't have national averages, but IMO, the total scoring percentage is probably decent by comparison, the TD scoring, not very good. But, how hard, or more appropriately, how much, has the offense had to work for its points? Average starting field position for the season has been our own 31 yard line, so we're having to go 69 yards on every drive. And, we have a total of one TD by defense or special teams all season, that coming in the opening game on a pick 6. So, while we've been good at keeping our opponents from scoring (primary mission of the defense), those units have been virtually no help in scoring. Moreover, the D and ST aren't even helping the offense with a short field; by my definition,inside the opponent's 35. We've had that 10 times all season, and 8 of the 10 were produced by the defense. The only time special teams has given us a short field was by causing a fumble in the Georgia game (there was also an opponent's missed FG at the end of a half that officially gave us a possession, but with no time on the clock). The return game hasn't given our offense a single short field all season, and the defense hasn't given us one since the Miss St. game. The Rice game was the epitome of offensive efficiency for us. 6 scores - all TDs - in 10 possessions, damn near New Orleans Saints efficiency. But the average starting field position was our own 21 yard line, with the best starting field position being our own 34. I would say in broad terms, while our offense needs to improve, the defense - and especially special teams - also need to improve in playing complimentary football.
This is a great analysis. Field position is such an underrated stat and as great as our D has been this year, it's surprising to learn that they haven't helped the offense more in that regard. For a struggling offense with a talent gap from previous years, I'm not sure why more emphasis has not been placed on this as a way to help them. I'm not that surprised that STs hasn't helped that much. I think this may be the first year in a while that we have had zero kick or punt returns for TDs, unless I'm forgetting one. So that gives us a grand total of 1 non-offensive TD. Hopefully this is just a statistical anomaly and the law of averages balances out over the next 2 games.
I don't vouch for the accuracy but I found these stats: https://www.cfbanalytics.com/2018-field-position According to my interpretation of the chart, LSU is better than average in terms of starting field position. LSU ranks 59th in average starting field position and 72 teams have a worse average starting position. On other hand... LSU ranks 76th in yards gained per possession. Only 54 teams have been worse at moving the ball. So by a slight margin, LSU gets better than average field position and less than average offensive production... in terms of yardage.
This seems more in line with what we’re seeing. I’m curious how many three and outs, maybe how many drives of less than some arbitrary number (opp 40, starting from our 35 = 25 yards).
Ok, take FAU and Tennessee. What he was able to.do with UT in one season makes that a wash, at worst. What he was able to do with UA is documented. Same at USC. This reminds me of seeing Saban and his record at Miami brought up to discredit his ability...all the while peoole were lauding Cam with no regard to his NFL experience at the same job. We'll likely continue going around until you separate OC from HC. We're also talking first hand experience with Kiff versus watching from afar. Let's not.forget a part of the pitch O gave LSU was bringing Kiffin in as his play caller. If he's that bad, am I to assume Orgeron can't recognize coaching talent?
