Offense vs. Defense - an anti-Rant analysis

over and over again, there are threads about the offense's ineptitude and that CLM is the root cause of it. while the result of the game does fall squarely on his shoulders--as opposed to blaming the players or other coaches--the Rant's assessment that the offense is to blame is wrong. here are the incorrect points that reappear in each thread about our supposed offensive woes:

1) QB - many are questioning whether harris starts from here on out, whether or not jennings is inadequate, and the general theme of "les miles doesn't play the best QB" is floating all over the place. meanwhile, jennings had the best QB rating in the SEC coming into the game, he doesn't habitually throw interceptions or fumble, and threw for 157 yards, despite helming an offense that leaned heavily on the run game. harris threw 2 touchdowns and has been great in spots, but he also looked a little lost in the wisconsin game (which is understandable for a true freshman QB). harris may be the better QB and may start over jennings now, but playing jennings up to this point hasn't been a mistake.

2) OBJ, JLandry, & Mett production cannot possibly be reproduced - there is no mistaking the talent level that the trio had last year in the passing game. at the same time, though, dural and dupre both gained 120 yards or more, which has only happened a handful of times in LSU history and only twice last year with the trio. in all, LSU amassed 341 receiving yards against moo state. that is respectable, no matter who threw or caught the passes, no matter how early or late in the game.

3) the offense isn't productive enough - LSU gained 20 first downs, had a longer time of possession, and scored 29 points. in most games, each of those data points would likely belong to the winner. if you think that 29 points is too underwhelming, then you need to take a long look at the mirror and reassess your understanding of football because 29 is a respectable point total.

4) the offense is too vanilla - if LSU ran trick play after trick play, the blowback on the Rant would be intense. while i don't have numbers to back it up, i would speculate that there is likely a correlation between the number of trick plays a team runs and the overall talent/output of that team. the better a team is, the fewer trick plays they run and vice versa. and our vanilla offense just happens to have been pretty successful for the past 10 years, so i'm not sure what would appease you negative nancies.

5) CLM handicaps the offense - it has long been spouted on the Rant that CLM is a terrible offensive coach. in 2013, we averaged 35.8 ppg; in 2012, 29.8; in 2011, 35.7; in 2010, 29.7; and so on an so forth. source: lsusports.net when you couple those averages with the average points scored against, it would appear that the offense is typically more than productive enough to win games under CLM. and it's no mistake that CCC runs an offense with a similar style to miles...it's a pro-style that every team runs at the next level. there haven't been many spread or option or gimmick offenses who've won it all in the NCAA or NFL.


i realize that this is a lengthy post, but the whining and melting after the game has been ridiculous. the issue is not the offense, it's the run defense. moo state rushed for 302 yards, 197 of which were the RB and 105 were the QB. if our front seven limits them to 100 fewer yards, then i have no doubt that we would have won the game easily. the offense is not so deserving of your ire or the blame.