LSU-Iowa Game Review (Long); Full Jennings Analysis

Now that the reactionary talk begins to subside, I decided to re-watch the entire game to get a better idea of how LSU performed.

Background: I sat in the first row in the LSU end zone for the first half and was on the field for the entire second half. Recorded the game at home and watched it again.

I'll start with the 600-pound gorilla - Anthony Jennings. Like most of the LSU fans, I was disappointed leaving the game with how AJ had performed. However, after rewatching the game, I am much happier with the performance. It is amazing how much perspective changes when you know the outcome of the game and don't let your emotions get caught in the mix.

AJ's stat line looks miserable. 7/19 for 82 yards, 0 TDs and 1 INT. Toss in 4 or 5 sacks and it was a terrible stat line.

However, let's break that down a bit more. Here are the incompletions:

First Half:
1 - Hill slipped and fell on a short pass out of the backfield. Throw was fine.
2 - Major pressure off a playaction. LB comes unblocked and AJ throws the ball away barely avoiding a safety.
3 - Low throw to OBJ on a 5 yard hitch route. Tight coverage but poor throw.
4 - Deep throw over the middle to OBJ into the endzone. This was his second worse throw of the game (behind the INT). This was an easy TD if he leads OBJ. Beckham had separation and there was no safety help. Really poor throw.
5 - Tough throw to make to Connor Neighbors. Connor was free past two defenders along the sideline but a safety had coverage over the top inside. This forced AJ to throw the ball towards the sideline which was not the shoulder CN was looking over. If AJ throws it over CN's left shoulder, then the Iowa safety has a great chance for an INT. AJ threw it to the right spot.
6 - Threw it away. No one was open, he scrambled right and tossed it out of bounds.
7 - Terrible throw to Travin Dural. Third worst throw of the game. He short-armed it and the ball landed 10 yards to the left and about 15 yards short of where it needed to be to lead Travin into the endzone. It would have been a tough play for Travin, but he had a little separation.

Second Half:
8 - Deep ball down the left side. AJ underthrew the ball by a few yards because JL had a step. Great defensive play by King the CB.

The next play is the OBJ one handed catch. It was actually a perfect throw but the CB holds Odell which slows his route and forces him to make the acrobatic catch. More of an FYI. Very good throw though.

9 - JL's right hand is held and he tried to make a one-handed catch deep down the left side of the field. Solid throw.
10 - Interception. Airmailed it. Dickson was wide open (the guy he was throwing it to). And yes, there were multiple holding penalties not called on the return. Worst throw of the game.
11 - 3rd and 17, long comeback route to OBJ where AJ threw the ball a little too low. Not a terrible throw but definitely could have been better. Coverage was excellent and AJ needed to make a great throw to get the completion.
12 - Threw the ball away; dropped 8 in coverage and no one was open.

End of game.

Takeaways:
I came away from this review with a much brighter picture for next year than I originally was believing. There were three really poor throws in the game: The deep ball to OBJ where he would have caught a TD, the interception that he airmailed a wide open TE and the ball he short-armed at the end of the first half to Travin Dural.

Yes, AJ could have executed a few passes a bit better (threw a few too low for the WR to make the catch), but overall he made good decisions when throwing the ball. He didn't ever force the ball into double coverage or fail to see a safety over the middle. In short, he threw the ball better than his stat line would suggest, IMO.

On the sacks, Elliot Porter completely whiffed on two of them. On another one, Hill missed the blitzing LB. Yes, AJ held the ball a little too long and I think he could have scrambled better, but those three weren't his fault when I rewatched.

The OL had issues with what Gruden loved to refer to as the "Amoebe" package where Iowa put a lot of speed on the field and all of the DL and LBs played standing up. We had trouble on our pass protections with this defensive approach which led to multiple sacks.

On the defensive side of the ball, LSU played well the entire game. Welter had his best game as a Tiger. He was in on almost every play and held his own.

Loston played very well and was up in the box a ton. He was a sure tackler and played intelligently in coverage when he was needed.

Jalen Mills was terrific at FS. He got the boneheaded personal foul at the beginning of the game, but I was really impressed by Mills' willingness to step up in 1-v-1s vs TEs and RBs and make sure tackles.

Ricky Jefferson had multiple good plays when we went into our dime packages. I am very interested to see him competing for a starting position next year. Nonetheless, he has talent and as long as he doesn't make mental mistakes, he has the physical talent. Seems as though he gets forgotten as one of our young talents.

Kwon was great - he is going to have a breakout year next year.

I don't want to beat a dead horse on the defensive side of the ball. The entire team played well.

Enjoy and look forward to your thoughts.