Teams like Vandy? They finished 7-6 last year and we finished 8-5. They're not pathetic like they used to be. Johnson is a good coach who managed to get Vandy their first winning season in 27 years and their first bowl win in like 50+ years last year. And they return like 18 starters for that team. Though they had to replace their QB and a couple other good players, they have some talent. Outside of Florida last year (who they didn't play that bad against compared to almost everyone else), the second highest point total they gave up was 24. They have a stingy D. They're still one of those teams who may lose on any given outing, but they can also beat some really good teams on any given outing. Ask Ole Miss (you know, that team that pounded us into submission from beginning to end last year in our own stadium). Vandy beat them at Ole Miss last year. Vandy is a team that plays tough games with nearly all opponents. No, we shouldn't be putting up Florida numbers. They have Tim Tebow - one of the best college players of all time. We have a talented QB who started his first game in Tiger Stadium last night in bad weather. We do have loads of talent on O and could be really scary on O as the season goes on. But I thought we looked waaaaay better on offense last night than in the Washington game considering that we were playing a much better D. I'll take that 14-point win anytime over them because they are now one of those teams that can give you another loss in the SEC. And I know it's a new year, but they have many of the same players from last year where only ONE team beat them by 14 or more (Florida). It was a good win. For people saying the offense was predictable - last night, it was not. For the Washington game, I thought it definitely was and totally lacked imagniation. But last night, we ran 5-wide sets for a lot of the game, ran the ball with Lafell on option plays, ran Holliday up the middle (and he looked really good on a few of them), ran some of those pitch plays that Williams has always seemed to be good at, ran Shep (who looked extremely exciting), ran a jailbrake screen-type play to Dixon that worked well, etc. Now, I definitely think we were conservative at times when we probably could have blown this one open. I like the bubble screen to Lafell, but we called it too many times when it wasn't working because our guys (WRs) weren't blocking like they're designed to do. We should have run those against Washington, but didn't for some strange reason. There were just too many short passing plays behind the line of scrimmage or right at it. There were two drives where we moved backwards doing this. That was on the coaches. I agree that we definitely need to open up the middle and use Tolliver and Lafell to take in 15-20+ yard plays because those guys can definitely do it. But some of that has to do with the line blocking better and JJ getting a little better at deeper passes. There were some 3rd and 1 plays where I felt we could have went instead of going for 3, but with the conditions, I didn't really disagree. Also, since Williams was on a roll, he shouldn't have been gone for as long as he was at one point during the game. I don't like running Scott in those bunch formations when everyone knows what is coming and the line isn't opening up that many holes to begin with. I thought Williams was the better choice for the type of offense we were running last night where you didn't really know who was getting the ball. Scott is most effective when we are attacking downfield more and the whole team isn't right up on the line. It gives him some room to build up a little steam and then he's really tough. However, I will say that he had a few carries where there was nothing and he carried Vandy's whole team for like 7-8 yards - impressive. But Williams looked the best I have seen him last night. He looked really fast and more importantly, knocked some people back. The O-line needs to improve. I think that's obvious and they probably will. But I was very happy with the variety I saw in the calls and the use of our talent last night. It was world's away from the UW game. For the first time in a long time, I think we have a lot of questions on the D-line. I'm a little nervous about that, but they played okay last night. If there is a possible downfall, I think that might be it. Our linebackers look to be much better this year, but they're still missing a few too many tackles early on. We need to plug the hole we have in the middle of the field on D. That seems to be our biggest issue. It seems like we stop the offense pretty good or they rattle off 8-9 yards if given time to attack the middle. But it wasn't the easiest offense to defend last night considering the hurry up and their QB's good fakes, etc. Holding them to 7, I can't really complain. But we were fortunate they had a few drops as well. Overall though, I don't see our guys out of place all over the field like I did last year so far and that's a big positive. Also, we were light on penalties again...another positive. I'll take the 2-0 start. We could have been like Oklahoma St. last night losing to Houston - a team like Vandy that can get overlooked. But we got our with a 2 TD win and were decently in control of the game. If we start effectively getting 10 -20+ yard passes, this offense will be extremely difficult to defend. We have to start doing that though to get us ready for the meat of our schedule. JJ played good again last night and I think he's the real deal, but we need to open things up more or at least attempt to soon. Oh, and I had heard people say that Shep was like Pat White when he ran. He looked just like him last night and that's exciting because Pat White was one of the most awesome college QBs I've ever seen (total game changer). I also have heard comparisons to Harvin and Vince Young. The combination of JJ and Shep. may be the scariest thing LSU's ever presented on offense. It should be exciting.
