Just because he could throw against High School teams in Tejas, doesn't mean he can throw the ball in the SEC. I think it speaks volumes that Spencer Ware who was also a quarterback in High School, has now thrown a pass, and Shep going on 2 years hasn't. Shepard hasn't grasped the game yet. I love the kid, he is a great person, but he has been a disappointment in my opinion.
I can't believe some people actually believe this game was lost at the QB position. The QBs didn't allow Newton to run all over on us. They didn't allow Fairley to get to them in .5 seconds all game (well...second half, anyway). They didn't formulate and execute Auburn's BRILLIANT blocking schemes all game long. They didn't shut down our patented "Ridely up the middle" play. This was a team loss if I've ever seen one. There is no one answer or simple fix to this.
This. And only this. Lee threw for 7000 and 70 tds yards in two years as a starter in HS. Jefferson never lost a game until he came to LSU. HS is no indication.
It was a team loss, but the defense did enough. The QB's and Receivers in my opinion were the main reason we lost. Receivers dropped balls, and our quarterbacks and offense sputtered at times when the defense made huge stops. We had a chance to get the first points on the board, and JJ's high throw along with Randle's drop, and Crowton's poor play calling, going to the pass instead of continuing to run the ball killed that. Then coming out of halftime we had a chance to go up, and i think we went 2 3 and outs to begin the 3rd? That sh!t just cannot happen.
Agreed. Actually, if you look at it the overall game plan could have worked. i.e. - control the ball, keep it away from Newton, and stay in the game, win it at the end.. If we would have managed to put together a couple of drives and not go 3 and out so many times, we could have easily been in position to win that game, even with Auburn's offensive performance. I think the thing that bothers me the most is TT dropping 5 passes.. Not good.
Agreed. The overall plan wasn't bad. Our Oline got their butts whipped in the 2nd half and JJ quit scrambling for 1st downs. We weren't in very many situations to give Ridley the ball... 3rd and 2, etc. Forget how many yards we gave up. They only scored 24 points. We had the ball tied at 17 with 7:51 left to play. Ball at the 40 yard line....1st and 10 and we couldn't do anything.
When is the last time anyone feels we had a really good Offensive plan? UF maybe? and supposedly BG played a role on the sidelines with that. 3 straight years we win in spite of our Offense...the numbers don't lie. I hear people say that if we had Cam Newton....well what if we did? Do you think we would be using him this effectively? I sure don't. GC is a proven QB killer.
to be honest with you, i felt really good about the gameplan until we started replacing the run with the short pass on that first drive. You could tell that Jefferson was going to have trouble throwing the ball after his first pass. I can't for the life of me figure out why we just didn't stick with the option based offense in that one, along with power running with Stevan Ridley. You know you hear alot about drop the option, it sucks it doesn't work, or replace JJ, he sucks, he isn't a qb, or replace Lee he doesn't have what it takes, so on and so forth. What i have a problem with is the way Gary Crowton doesn't realize what works and what doesn't in certain situations. Everything we do offensively will work against someone. The option was working against Auburn, but it hasn't worked against other teams, the vertical passing game worked against Florida, but not on other teams. Jefferson scrambling worked against Auburn, but it doesn't on other teams. Gary Crowton's job is to find out what works and stick with it until they stop it. And he didn't do that against Auburn. He tried to get too cute, and we lost.
Care to elaborate!! We can't expect our QBs to throw the ball when they get sacked immediately after the snap. The O-line has to do a better job, and assignments should have been shifted to keep Fairley out of the backfield. I mean .. HEY ... AU took care of Nevis .. with double and triple teams. Granted .. our WRs need to put some resin on their gloves. The plethora of dropped passes was inexcusable. AND .. granted, too many passes are not thrown well. .... But .. I still say I could have beaten AU with a blitz of quick, short 5-10 yard passes. I see other teams do it all the time. For some reason, our OC seems to think all passes must either be lateral or 15+ yards down the field. Last I checked ... 5+5 = 10 .. and that's a first down. 10 of them in a row = a TD.
