Much as I dislike Maisel, he's absolutely right.

No flames needed. Well-written post that really frames the issues. To answer your question about the penalties, I honestly don't know. I was convinced LSU would lose this game (remembering FU last year) with all the penalties and turnovers. The Tigers overcame themselves and got the job done. :thumb: That's great, but I was thinking the same thing during the game: "we gotta get these penalties and discipline issues under control."

 

Granted, it does need to be addressed, especially the PF's. However some posts in this thread and other thread are making it sound like there were never excessive penalties when CNS was at LSU... it's not just CLM... these are 'kids' and they make mistakes/let their tempers/heat of the moment that need to be addressed.

 

I am so pissed, I had tivo'd the game but didn't missed the last 5 mins of the game. Need to wait for 2arms2legs to do his magic.

What is going on with our offensive play calling? Why do we keep going away from things that work to try out some gimmicks? Is this a case of if the gimmicks had worked, we would have been patting each other on the back or just bad play calling. And what about the simulating a snap penalty? If that is a penalty, shouldn't the coaches know about it or did we not execute it properly?

 

Maisel totally nailed it when he said that the only team that could beat LSU was LSU. We're stronger, faster, more physical than all the other teams out there. If we lose, its not such much the other team winning the game as it is as losing the game.

 

I think the penalty was due to Hester shifting in the backfield? I think the OLine was legit until they reacted to the defense. Just a wild ass guess, though.

I've returned to feeling unresolved on my opinion of Miles. I even feel unresolved about our coordinators (Crowton - too cute?, Pelini - defense has not been as solid as in years past). I am not overwhelmed by confidence like I was at the start of the season. We started the season looking like 2003, but we've been looking more and more like 2004 lately.

I can't wait to play Louisiana Tech, but with the way this team has been playing I wonder if it will be like Tulane all over again. I think the problem, more than the talent level of our opponents, is our ability to execute. Winning like we've been winning will keep the hounding of Miles at bay for the moment, but our coach is walking a fine line. When he loses, all the problems shown in past close wins will be fuel for the fire.

 

What are you talking about? Yes we all heard the one TV guy calling our offense "cute", no need to repeat after the TV guy. LSU finished with 475 yards of cute. Pelini's 2007 defense is allowing less yardage per game than the 2006 defense. And what's this "Fuel for the fire" nonsense? Miles is the most winning coach in LSU history.

 

By all means, the penalty issue "has" to be addressed. Coach Miles said post game that this was something that was going to happen, and I take the man at his word. I as well believe we need to run the ball more with all the talent we have in the backfield, but each game calls for different strategies. Thats something I understand full well, here again, we hired CLM to make those decisions and at this point we are 8-1. We should be 9-1, but I contribute a lot of that to coming off a hard fought battle against UF the week prior and frankly we were a little beat up. UK won that game but it took them 3 OT's to do it! That kind of success against the best the SEC can throw at you his hard to argue with. Bottom line. They are playing good football and winning games, can it be better "yes", but its far and away a much better situation than we've had in so many years past. These kids with all their imperfections truly have the hearts of Tigers, they won't quit...why, because they are a "whole team" perhaps the best LSU Tiger football team I have seen in my 40+ years of supporting my school!!! And, after what I've seen so far, Its hard for me to see them achieve anything short of a NCG. "Yea", they're "that" good"!!!

 

Right, we won. Why question the actual in game performance? The shifting on 4th and inches was cute and did nothing to assert that we were going to take this game from Bama physically. Lots of misdirection plays down the stretch, sprinkled with some qb draws and sneaks, and a few hardnosed running plays. Against a defense susceptible to the run, we underutilized our stable of running backs.

More points were scored in this game than in any LSU-Bama game ever. Our defense didn't play their worst outing of the season, and we actually handled the run well, but our passing defense was on and off.

I don't want to totally trash the team, we're still winning, Bama isn't a pushover, and Nick Saban had his team ready. But this game was much closer than it should have been and it had less to do with Bama than it did with our turnovers and an insane number of penalties. I expect this problem of undisciplined play to continue until the end of the season. I was forced to eat crow last year when we blew the doors of Miami, I'd be thrilled to be wrong again.

Arkansas will be a close game and Ole Miss will probably be much closer than it should be unless we turn things around.