I don't think the powers that be would have invited us to the dance if we'd lost the first game. We don't have the media cachet that Bama does. They might have gone for OSU instead, which would have been the proper matchup anyway.
JJs pertormance was that bad but so was the O line's Faulk alone cost the team as many yards in the first half with 2 false starts and a blown assignment leading to a sack on a critical down. There are two points in my past defense of JJ. First is that he historically stood up to pressure better than JL and with the pressure coming from Bamas pass rush JL was doomed. Key stat for JL: against Bama 50% completion rate 1 TD & 7 ints. Second point was I dislike the venom & apparent hatred of JJ coming from some NOT all. I stand by both points. Based only on what we as fans see I would been reluctant to use JL in the game but thought he should have been given a shot in the second half. My expectation would be a continuation of his performance of Nov 5 but we were desperate.
With most rational fans this is the crux of the matter. Neither of them would've handled the awful O-line play or speedy pass rush very well. What was disturbing to a lot of people was the refusal or inability to switch tactics, and/or a different QB, when it was crystal clear to every last person watching the game that Jefferson and the first half playcalling was going nowhere.
Not just playcalling, but the gameplan , I presume "watered down", was a failure in terms of having no alternatives. It was painful to see the same plays called repeatedly in the second half when they weren't working. Maybe the team needs something not as simple, but with a bit more sophistication, at least halfway to the scheme of Crowton's. I remember there were some good plays that trumped the opposing team, like the TD TE catch in the red zone against Ohio State with three wide receiver set on the right, and the 4th down play against Bama from the RB handoff to Diangelo Peterson in the 2010 season.
Quite honestly, IMO the reason we saw such a simple game plan is that a simple scheme is all Jefferson was mentally capable of executing. In that category Jefferson makes Flynn look like Peyton and Brees rolled into one, and I think a lot of us, myself included, didn't fully appreciate how valuable a smart, consistent game manager like Flynn was to that '07 run. Our two biggest receiving playmakers, Randle and Beckham, were non-factors from Arkansas onward. Maybe some of the stat guys can back me up on this, but I'm willing to bet their production fell off a cliff as soon as Jefferson became the full-time starter. As of that point the offense revolved around a few simple sets: zone read option rollout play action quick screens quick slants RB iso off the toss That's it, the entire LSU offense under Jordan Jefferson. Because he has no consistent accuracy, rollouts did nothing. After 4 years his quick screen throws are still slow as molasses and allows corners to charge so far into the backfield the receiver never has a chance. But you go to war with the army you've got. I understand that. What I will probably never get is why nothing, no adjustments whatsoever, were made in the 2nd half.
LSU had no backup AMMO, or nothing to back up on........ Quite shocking as no one expected LSU's offense to be so much outplayed by Bama's defense.
"Why did you lack a PLAN B?" is the #2 question that Miles will have to answer in the off-season. #1 is "Why was your team totally unprepared, mentally and physically, for the game?"
I usually don't listen to ESPN crap, but Erin Andrews said that Les told the team to, and I'm certainly paraphrasing, "imagine what it will mean to you to win a NC." To me, it just speaks to the team not putting everything into preparing mentally to beat Bama. Like we were just gonna come in and win based on the season we had. That what I thought when I heard Barrett Jones say something about restoring the order. Like you should just win based on the name on the front of your jersey. If you would've told me before the game that the final score would be 21-0, I would bet the farm that LSU was the winner.
