My thoughts on the game

I can understand a lot of peoples’ concerns. We have been told all offseason that this team was disappointed with its performance last year, and they were going to come out this season hungrier than ever. Instead last night the team looked a bit sluggish, which was probably due to traveling over 2000 miles. But come on, as a fan base we have to be more positive than a lot of what I have seen so far. Here is how I am taking last night’s game.

We played a hungry team, who is obviously a lot more talented than we expected. Washington has not started school so the 20 hour rule did not apply to them until after they played us. We played against a brand new coaching staff, and we really had no idea what to prepare for and it showed as times. In addition to that, their new coaches seemed to be very good. Holt had their defense playing aggressive. Their offensive play calling was very good if you ask me. On the 3rd down on their first drive, we called an all out blitz, and they countered that with a perfectly executed slip screen for a huge gain. They ran plays that allowed Locker to make plays while on the run. Washington played a very impressive game IMHO.

As for us, there are some things I am concerned about, but I am going to reserve any judgment for a week or two. We struggled against the run early on, but we did much better in the second half. TT is poised to have his breakout season. We put up 31 points while running a very conservative offense. Patrick Peterson is a future All-American, and it looked like Harry Coleman has made a very smooth transition to linebacker. One thing that does concern me though is our punting. It doesn’t look like we are going to win to many field position battles this year, but hopefully Helton had some first game jitters.

With all that being said, LSU came away with their 20th nonconference victory under Miles and fans should be very pleased. Washington looked like a possible top 25 team to me, and if they can keep that hunger maybe they can upset USC in a few weeks in what could be a hangover game for USC coming off their game against Ohio St.