9/22: @LSU Game

[dawg80]

The players share in any "lack of focus" fault. It shouldn't take a fiery pre-game speech from a coach to get you motivated. If anything, the way I remember it when I played, our coaches had to reel us in! Keep us from attacking the other team during pre-game warmups.

But, I saw some real effort from the Dawgs last night. The RBs were running hard...I love Kam's 17-yd run, he clobbered that one would-be tackler. Ferguson was a beast all night. He was held just about every play, of course, but he tortured that poor ole RT all night. Those are just a couple of examples. I thought the Dawgs played hard. What was disappointing was some lack of focus, which showed up mostly in the 1st half with the WRs.

When you play on the road against the #6 ranked team, you can't afford even the smallest gaffes. The missed FG...hit the upright. We needed that FG at that time, and would have meant the score was 24-24 early in the 4th. We didn't lose the game because of that missed FG...but we might have. Poor punts, whiffs on attempted tackles, dropped passes, unforced errors (fumbles), bad throws by the QB, etc...they all add up.

[stodgdog]

They will go 0-3 against those teams if they play anything like they have tonight.

I don't agree. LSU has a well balanced team, winning with a strong defense and old school, balanced offense. That said, the early turnovers, dropped passes and late game questionable official's calls could have changed the outcome.

[HogDawg]

I cannot remember the last tiime I saw this team play a complete game. My hope for this game was that they fight on every play. I saw some of that tonight but at other times I saw what I have seen all of last season and this year. Just a team showing up for their appointment. On the QB sneak, I was in a room full of people that ranged from teenagers to 80+. When they lined up, nearly everyone said the same thing.
"Oh that's not going to work". When will this team do something that completely surprises everyone in the room, in the stadium or most importantly - their opponents?

You are correct. That would have been the perfect time to run this and score a TD instead:

[stodgdog]

At least that flag was legit.

It was an uncatchable pass by the offense. Is that only an NFL rule? It hit Sneed in the back. Of course, I am biased, but there could have as easily been a no call.

[tech70]

To me it was offensive pass interference! He mugged our guy!

[Amos Moses]

I cannot remember the last tiime I saw this team play a complete game. My hope for this game was that they fight on every play. I saw some of that tonight but at other times I saw what I have seen all of last season and this year. Just a team showing up for their appointment. On the QB sneak, I was in a room full of people that ranged from teenagers to 80+. When they lined up, nearly everyone said the same thing.
"Oh that's not going to work". When will this team do something that completely surprises everyone in the room, in the stadium or most importantly - their opponents?

...and I believe we came out fairly injury free. The tigahs had more injuries than we did. They had many of their players limp off or helped off.

[faninmonroe]

The 2 turnovers killed us.

The long LSU play was not a first down - he was out
The PI - the LSU player had our DB wrapped up - shoulda been a no call
The 4th down sneak - LSU was offside big time
I guess that is why we take our 1milliom check and play against sec refs


We need to clean up a few areas to be able to beat UNT next weekend.

[theprofessor]

Also how many Quarterbacks better than J'mar are gonna leave the program before he does?
On another note, I blame Ryan Higgans along with Skip for this J'mar issue.

So far? None. Walker didn't leave because of J'Mar. He left because he'd already been passed by Allen.

[DogsWin]

At the airport this morning the LSU fans saw my LA Tech shirt. I heard so many comments of "That Tech QB is a stud! Where did you guys find him?" They were also impressed by Hardy and Veal and the fact that we had more offense than they did or any of their other opponents this season.

For me personally, I got to see 25 fraternity brothers some of which I haven't seen since my days at Tech over 30 years ago, so it was an awesome weekend. I'll get to see some others next weekend in Denton that couldn't go to BR. What a blessing.

[dawg80]

Those LSU fans aren't used to seeing really good offenses. They would have been wowed out of their socks by the 2012 team.

[theprofessor]

As an LTAC contributor...I'm done!

Peace out. Grab some purple and piss on your way out the door.

[theprofessor]

....but only because our OL gave him a LOT of time look for receivers. J'Mar kept holding the ball longer and longer as the game went on.

s

You don't think there's a correlation there? J'Mar held the ball longer as the game went on because he trusted his line to give him time to look downfield. He got more and more comfortable as the game went on because he wasn't getting pressured.

[theprofessor]

Good post. I concur. I'm still marveled by our OL's performance tonight. I watched 'em closely. And they were each beating their man in pass protection. When you consider who they were up against, you realize we have some VERY TOUGH guys in our OL.

I thought our OL did an incredible job. They stepped up in a major way. That said, since you said "when you consider who they were up against," I've said over the past two seasons that the major difference between recent LSU teams and teams in the past has been the play of the defensive line. They simply aren't as dominant on the defensive front as they have been in the past, and we saw that play out tonight. LSU is great at LB and in the secondary, but when they pressure the QB, it's usually because of Aranda's blitz scheme, not because of the play of the defensive line.

[theprofessor]

It was an uncatchable pass by the offense. Is that only an NFL rule? It hit Sneed in the back. Of course, I am biased, but there could have as easily been a no call.

The defender must turn his head around and play the ball. It's not uncatchable because the receiver has a chance to come back to the ball if the defender is face guarding. All our CB needed to do was turn his head and bat the ball down. Then it wouldn't have been pass interference. It was the right call in that situation.

[theprofessor]

It's funny to read all of the bashing of J'Mar by our own fans. He has his weaknesses, for sure. He doesn't pull on the read option, no matter how wide open the backside is. His deep-ball accuracy is his biggest weakness. He's not perfect. But we constantly bash the guy. Hell, some of our own posters are rooting for Southern Miss's QB so they can be proven right in their argument that he's better than our own starting QB. Despite all of that negativity, every single non-Tech fan who has commented to me about the game last night was about how impressed they were with J'Mar. Outsiders think he's a very good QB. NFL scouts think he has a chance to play in the league. And yet we continue to clamor for Skip to replace him. It's insane.