The preseason is officially over ...

Thank God we got outta there with the win. I'm definitely not pleased or satisfied with the performance, though. That said, the only way one of these first four games would have "mattered" is had we lost. I'm just glad to get home with a victory. We did, however, make the big plays when we neeeded to on the road in some adverse conditions, and I am pleased with that. Good teams find a way to make the plays when they need to be made. We did that, Mississippi State did not.

Hopefully ... HOPEFULLY, our guys will be more fired up and start playing more inspired football when we finally play a "name" team this week when the real season begins. We are simply put: a very inconsistent football team right now. There are certainly flashes of brilliance and at times play like the team we all expect to see, but we just have to be more consistent with that. We also need to develop that killer instinct and put lesser teams away when we've got them on the ropes, instead of letting our foot off the gas and making mistakes to keep teams in ballgames they have no business being in.

The biggest issue I see on this team right now is our inability to run the football with consistency. Our offensive line HAS to get better. I'm very pleased with Jordan Jefferson's progression. He continues to play without mistakes, which is key. He had three 40+ yard completions in this game, so his deep ball is obviously getting better, and the vertical passing game will continue to improve as he matures (fwiw, I called those long passes to Toliver and Lafell on Friday, lol). If our offensive line gets better, this offense has the potential to be very good, but until our offensive line gets better, we will continue to play with inconsistencies on O. I will admit: Jordan Jefferson has surprised me this season. I was really worried about him coming into the season, but I really like what I am seeing from Jefferson. He is going to be a solid QB for LSU when all is said and done.

Although I think the defense is not playing great just yet, I'm not as concerned with the defense as I am with the offense. I think in the end this will be a solid defense that will obviously go down as being a much better defense than last season's D. It was nice to see Chad Jones beginning to be the playmaker on defense that we expect of him. The strength of our defense, IMO, is our secondary, which should help against an anemic Georgia rushing attach (much like our own). Georgia's strength up to this point has been their ability to score points through the air.

Special teams must improve. We cannot give a team 11 points on special teams (snap over punter's head, missed chip-shot field goal, and botched extra point), simple as that. That is unacceptable. Make those plays and this game is over in the 3rd quarter, if not earlier. That said, I'm pleased with our punter. He is much improved on punts from the Washington game.

The preseason is over. We'll find out a lot more about this football team over the course of the next month. There's nothing more to be said, this team must continue to get better. This LSU squad has great potential, and I'm hopeful that we've yet to see the fire from the players, coaches, and fans that needs to be there to have the successful season that we all desire.



I like the following quotes from Miles. We will see next Saturday if they are just coach-speak or if our players and coaches don't accept this level of play and some of mistakes that are being made.

"If we don't play sloppy, if we don't have miscues in the kicking game, if we don't do things that leave our opponent right in position to play with us, then this game can be different. But until we do that, we're going to be a team that's very vulnerable."

"Those guys that show up on Monday, they better be ready to work. Because we're a very talented team with some things to fix, and if we get them fixed, we can be a very, very good football team."

"I am glad to see our player rally late, but we cannot make mistakes like we did today. The team better show up at home on Monday ready to work."


Also, you can watch Dan Mullen's post-game press conference here ... LINK