THE GOOD 1. Mettenberger is extremely poised in the pocket. 2. The passing game is dead on the money. 3. Run blocking was much better. 4. Still no signs of offensive predictability. 5. Hill and McGee are the two most consistent running backs. McGee's fresh legs in the 2nd half just killed Kent State. 6. They fixed the stadium PA problems. They didn't play so much bad music at every friggin' pause and it wasn't as earschplittenloudenboomer. THE BAD 1. "too much penalation", as Les said on the radio. Especially the personal foul. 2. Four shanked punts in three games. Les may have to find himself another punter. 3. Poor pass rush. We are not sacking the quarterback. 4. We missed a chance to give Jennings and Rivers meaningful playing time. 5. Breakdowns in the secondary left receivers wide open too often. THE UGLY 1. We are extremely vulnerable to the screen pass. 2. We are telegraphing our blitzes.
I agree with everything. Not sure what we are going to do at punter. We can't average 30-35 net yards on punts in the SEC. This isn't last year's defense. You didn't hear it but Les' halftime interview was once again brutal. Not sure what he answered to the first question the young lady asked about how much Zach Mettenberger has progressed this season. It was like wtf?
I know some people inside LSU might have been tired of Wing's antics, but it was stupid to push him out without knowing that you have the punting sewed up. Wing WAS the difference in multiple games for us because of how well he pinned the ball. With our weakness on defense we really could have used his leg this year. Dural was suppose to be a big JUCO transfer for us and it might just be that he needs time. But I was expecting him to come in and tear it up. Sad that it hasn't happened yet. Defense is young. Defense is young. I just keep telling myself that. At least it looks like we have an offense that can bail them out. Plus to be honest, it doesn't look like anyone has a super dominate defense this year. I actually wonder if maybe the rule changes are finally having an impact and we're simply going to an offensive dominant era. I mean if you stare at the QB too hard it's a penalty now. Defense partly works because you make the player afraid to put his body out there for the ball. Remember when it used to take balls to run a route across the middle of the field?
Dural is a redshirt freshman I believe you are thinking of Q. Leslie. He was the juco transfer but I think he is too thin to see much playing time.
I think it is fairly evident that we have entered a new period of offensive dominance similar to what the nfl has gone through but it is going to be even more blatant in the college game due to youth, the changing of so many players each year and the fact that these new coordinators dial up basically trick plays the entire game. Damn near every play some of these teams run is a misdirection play of some sort, the qb only has to read one key to see where the mismatch is and every team has a speedster to take advantage of it. Add to that no huddle and more offensive plays and you are going to have many more missed assignments on D. That's why so many small time programs can have a substantial amount of success vs the bigtime programs. The secret on D is limiting big plays and making a team have to run a lot of successful plays to score. I have a feeling we aren't going to see very many teams that give up an average of less than 20 points, 250 yards, etc. in the coming years.
These new offenses are designed to help teams that are undersized and outmanned on the interior line compete. For a long time the over matched teams had to try and throw the on darn near every down and some of them has success over the years when they had good qb's and receivers. With these new spread attacks we are seeing them have success both running and passing.
How sick was ZM, OBJ, and Landry in 7 on 7 drills. They must have killed it. Those 3 are in sync like nothing I've seen at LSU before. Then add in Jeremy Hill running the ball. Damn. Someone has to step up as a 3rd and even 4th target. Dural shows flashes in the passing game, then disappears. Dickson finally grabbed one also.
I hear you, but it really isn't that "new" anymore. What has separated LSU from most the past few years, is that our defense has been so good that we are one of the few that have been able to matchup and deal w/these "new" offenses - better than most. This year, we are just young, and no one has really set them selves apart as our difference maker yet. We'll get there.
