ISLSTL is just a figment of your imagination. He only exists when you start to believe he doesn't exist...
Unbelievable as it may seem, I could not get myself pumped up for the national championship game. I still could not wrap my head around the fact that we were playing a team we had already beaten at their place. I had no emotion the entire game (well the part I watched). I never yelled or even raised my voice once. I could actually understand to some degree why we as a team appeared to be flat. I wasn't even upset with the team. I almost posted a thread at halftime declaring that the only way we would have a shot at winning this game was putting in Mettenberger. When I saw Jefferson squander away another possession to start the 2nd half, I stopped watching the game. At that point, Miles had made up his mind it was Jefferson or bust. I went with bust. I didn't need to see the rest of the debacle. Crazy as this thread seemed to be when I started it, it proved to probably be correct: http://forums.tigerfan.com/tigers-den/106379-ive-seen-all-i-have-see-mettenberger.html
Looking back I now see why you felt this way or at least one reason. All we had to do is look back at the Arkansas and Georgia games. Some of even said our offense couldn't do that against Bama. JL or Mett gave us our only chance in that game. Its funny, I was so believing for this game that we would play better, JJ had a track record of playing better in bowl game. This was the first game that I really believed we could win all season to the point I wasn't nervous before. I did watch it through the 3rd Q, once Richardson ran for that TD I turned it off. I could not watch it anymore. Then as bad as this was, I started asking the question of why Mett wasn't the starter all year if he is the better player at that position. People say you can't argue with CLM's track record, true enough for the most part, his recruiting, etc. but it bothers me that he doesn't always play his best players at a certain position especially QB. He also appears not to make a change at that position either if a QB is sucking in that particular game. I know the coaches can see that but they refuse to do anything about it.
Glad to see you back. I agree with your assessment. I also stopped watching after LSU's first drive of the second half.
That's the problem most people have with Miles. He should have pulled out all the stops on offense in that game. But he continued to do the same thing he had success with earlier in the year when it was obvious it wouldn't work. I can't argue with Miles' record here or about his recruiting since he's been here. But his hard-headedness in refusing to adjust his game plan gave credence to all of the rumors of what caused this to happen. It became believable to lots of fans that something sinsister was at work behind the scenes. Now we have to look ahead to the future of the program because Les is not going anywhere for a while. Let's hope he's learned a valuable lesson.
Yes .. let's hope. He should have taken a clue from the first game. We couldn't run on Bama then ... no reason to think we were going to run on Bama the second time. Saban saw that he wasn't going to just ram the ball down LSU's throat. Altered the plan and kicked our butts.
ISSY, felt the same way you did. I had the feeling this game was lost at halftime itself. When JJ was handling the ball like Hot Tamale in the 2nd half and not looking comfortable one bit, I knew this one was over. However, I was really shocked that CLM didn't even try JL then to throw some wrinkles in the game. It is evident that Little Nick is going to study every detail that has happened against him like a hawk, then wtf were we play calling like it was Nov. 5th in Tuscaloosa all over again? Anyways, glad to have you back. The forum can't be the same without vets like yourself. Stay connected my friend.
There are some gems in this thread. I particularly liked the following which, while ringing true, turned out not to be about JL.
