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

Yes, our offense does try to be too "cute", we are fooling ourselves not the other team. We could have rushed for 300 plus yards and won this game going away if the coaches would have just handed the ball off.

I truely believe we could win every game the rest of the season if we didn't throw another pass. Our rush offense is that good. We should have steamed rolled Bama!

 

Actually that was the most points scored by LSU ever against Bama. Bama has scored more than 34 against LSU several times. The alledged underutilization of our running backs argument has gotten very tiresome. Ole Miss & Arky, of course they will be close games, they are SEC games. We have to face yet another Heisman guy in McFadden against Arky, who had 323 yards rushing against South Carolina yesterday. I don't know what you think needs to be turned around, but LSU is most likely the #2 team in America today.

 

Our running game averaged 2.6 per carry. It was not working as well as the pass. At least it was a lot better than Bama's .6 yards per carry. No way Gary Crowton would ever turn LSU into a one dimensional Arkansas type team.

 

If our offense shouldn't be cute, then we should NEVER have called the Doucet pass to Flynn. I thouhgt that is the hallmark of Crowton's offense with innovative play calling. IF that 4th and inches play were not penalized and actually worked, people would be praising the trick play as being great. I'd rather see these plays which should have a bigger chance of success because of the element of surprise. Do we want to get Fisher back as the OC?

That being said, I would sure love to know exactly whether the play was legit or not, or whether the team was called for something else like Carnell Stewart's reaction to the defense crossing the line.

I think the term CUTE started by the announcers was a stupid one, IMO.

 

More combined points than ever, according to TV.

What is tiresome about the observation that our running backs are underutilized? I don't mind running Flynn, but does it make sense for Flynn to get 10 rushes and for the rest of the backs behind Hester to have a combined 6 runs? Flynn had 30% of our runs in a game when the backup was Hatch. Keiland Williams had 3 runs for 21 yards. 8 yard average there. There were 34 rushes and 46 passes. I think these stats show these "allegations" are not baseless.

Ole Miss is not a good team but they always give us problems. Arkansas is solid, so with 130 yards of penalties in their favor they stand a good chance of ruining our title hopes.

:huh: An unbiased observer would not be impressed with LSU's penalty yardage. They may be impressed that we won despite a sea of yellow flags and 3 turnovers (including many momentum shifting breakdowns), but it all points to LSU not performing close to their ability. That translates into a lack of discipline and focus, both key ingredients for a national champion to NOT exhibit.

I'm being hard on Miles, and I know he won't lose sleep over my criticisms, but let me congratulate the guy for continuing to win. And for being gutsy and emotional. I want to congratulate him for his exceptional winning percentage during his stay in Baton Rouge. And I really want to congratulate him for getting a huge win against our former coach. A loss in this particular game would have been devastating.

 

Substitute gimmicky for cute if you want. I appreciate innovation, but there is a time and place for it. If the 4th and inches play would have worked it would have been awesome, but I think that maybe should have been saved for a different down/distance combination.

I really think that play was legit as far as what the linemen did before reacting to the defense. I think the backfield screwed it up (aside from the OLine flinching).

 

Just my observations:

I think we need to get a couple of retired refs out for every practice/scrimmage and scrutinize these players for basic mistakes. This would cut down on the mechanical penalties like holding, but I'm not sure about personal fouls :huh: I like passion, but unharnessed and undisciplined passion can cost you.

Check LaFell's eye's (al la Bowe), although he was clutch yesterday for the most part. It's my opinion that you should always eliminate the physical first. I think LaFell, Byrd and Tolliver are going to grow into their own and be one of the best rec. corps we've had in a long time.

When (if) RP comes back, stop that crazy 1 play substitution stuff. I'm a big fan of giving RP his snaps, but on a series basis. It inturrupts the cadence for just one play. Bring him in one series a quarter and groom him for his time in the spotlight (assuming he straightens out) next year.

These are such small things I mention, like fine-tuning a fast car :milesmic:

Overall, I'm so pleased with this team and appreciate their efforts and CLM and his Staff. :thumb: FEAR THE HAT!

 

The reason why CGC offense is so successful is because of running the ball. If you knew his offense you would have known that. That is what has made us in to the offensive machine we are and the very reason we won the Florida game. I love to pass just as much as anyone else does but instead of passing for 12 strait plays and getting nothing but a punt returned on us we could have ran the ball more.

I'm not hating on CG I loved it when he came here and wouldn't trade him for any other OC in the country. Jimbos offense was too predictable Gary's ain't.

Bama defense couldn't have stopped us even if they knew we were gonna run it on them. If we run the ball 40 times we win big that's all I'm saying.

 

I disagree. Many personal fouls can and should be coached away. The difficulty lies in the balance between maintaining an aggressive, emotionally charged team and one that can check themselves when they're about to get out of hand.

Personally, I think it's about discipline. My opinion, the fact that it took 3 run ins with the law to get Odom kicked off the team says a lot about this topic.

The good news, I think, is CLM has a very strong corps of senior leadership that can turn this around for them the rest of the season. He should make them step up.

:LSU231:

 

Excellent comment, CParso. Although Charles Scott and T. Jackson may be exceptions. But you may be right - perhaps the coaching staff should engage more.