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Story Archives: How not to win a ball game
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How not to win a ball game
Once again, the offensive imagination was on the other side of the field.
The opening drive of the second half says a lot about LSU's loss to Ole Miss and the season.
I thought halftime was the time you made adjustments.
Let's take a look at LSU's first drive of the second half starting at its own 25-yard line with the Tigers up 17-15.
Russell Shepard rushes for no yards.
Second down, Jordan Jefferson gets sacked.
Third down, LSU receives a delay of game penalty.
Jefferson throws incompletion.
Now, check out Ole Miss on the LSU 27 facing second and four on its first possession of the final period.
Dexter McCluster gets the pitch, but throws a pass to a wide open Shay Hodge for a touchdown and 22-17 Rebel lead.
You can't blame Patrick Peterson too much for biting on that one. He's probably never seen the Tiger offense run that in practice.
Oh yeah, this is the same McCluster who had a career day against Tennessee a week earlier and races for 57 yards on second down and 18 from near his own end zone.
Then again, we're talking about a coaching staff that has to call two time outs to prevent two more delay of game penalties.
One was after a 32-yard pass play to the Ole Miss 35 in the second quarter. That time out was very useful. Keiland Wiliams rushed for no yards on the next play.
Third and 10 on the same series.
Time out LSU.
Next play, Jefferson 3-yard run.
And we haven't even gotten to that final series of the game.
Ole Miss 25, LSU 23 and the Tigers convert an onsides kick at the LSU 42 with 1:16 remaining.
An incomplete pass is followed by a 26-yard pass from Jefferson to Brandon LaFell (he held on to one) to the Ole Miss 32.
At this point, my son Jake and I both commented bring in Shepard, let him fake running it and throw the ball to someone who would no doubt be wide open.
Then Jake comments, "You know, I never would have thought we would be in the 11th game of the year and Russell Shepard would not have thrown a pass."
Everyone knows what follows next.
And it's been commented there's plenty of blame to go around.
LSU has won its games this year primarily by its talent, although I cannot say that goes for the offensive and defensive lines, which have been way overrated.
Where has Charles Alexander been all year?
How many plays has Rahim Alem run himself out of?
And HOW MANY SACKS have there been? Sure, Jefferson holds the ball too long, but the blocking has not been there all year.
It may be good that LSU lost that game. Otherwise, if they would have pulled it out everyone would be saying, "Well, they are 9-2." Never mind the incompetence on the sideline.
Hey, things got so confusing that even CBS analyst Gary Danielson got caught up in it.
Ole Miss punted and it was downed on the LSU 1-yard line. Replays showed that the ball may have actually gone into the end zone.
But for some reason LSU hurried up to the line of scrimmage and Danielson said LSU wants to hurry up and run a play before it has a chance to be reviewed.
Huh?
Yeah, it was that kind of day.
Confucius say it's been an interesting year.
And with one game to go in the regular season, I'm still confused. |
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