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The obvious thing: It's all about up front

Posted on 9/21/14 at 11:33 pm
Posted by jonboy
Member since Sep 2003
7144 posts
Posted on 9/21/14 at 11:33 pm
The most important group on offense and 2/3rds of our defense were dominated. If last night was an indicator of things to come, at the positions that require the most physical players we could be outmatched on either side of the ball by 5 of our remaining 7 SEC opponents.
Les & company have limited options. On offense they can attempt to establish a power running game by relying on the backs to make plays. Sometimes it looks like the tailback is just too deep so cheat him up. The holes may be there briefly but tailback distance is cancelling it out. If it does work it keeps our defense off the field and shortens the game. If it doesn't...well you saw last night. Going full on BIG 12 style spread O - with Auburn & UF on the road coming up - forget it. My prediction: the offense stays the same with incremental changes in the passing game when Harris plays. Because this is LSU, we will run the EXACT same plays every time with Harris & by Kentucky any gains will be negated and it's back to the drawing board.
Defensively, we are in trouble. Our d-line is not going to get bigger, stronger and gain added depth this season; our linebackers are too small to make any kind of impact on the running game between the tackles & our DB play hasn't been quite right since Raymond took over. Welter playing is a fact of life. We can bitch but he will play. The physical limitations will not go away by simply playing more. Chavis will have to throw everything in the Standard Edition Defensive Coordinator Handbook at every offense we face. Multiple fronts; multiple blitz packages; move players around - be as unpredictable as possible. In other words: Give our guys a fighting chance. Unfortunately, I have zero confidence Chavis will change anything. None.
If LSU wins 4 games in the SEC consider it the best coaching job Les Miles has done at LSU. It also means something special or drastic happened.

Flame on Tiger fans, Flame on.
Posted by TG
Metairie
Member since Sep 2004
3064 posts
Posted on 9/21/14 at 11:36 pm to
Good post that I have to agree with.
Posted by SabiDojo
Open to any suggestions.
Member since Nov 2010
84030 posts
Posted on 9/21/14 at 11:39 pm to
Last night was so bad. Defensively and offensively, we're just soft. It was really tough to watch that game.

It's all about the line of scrimmage, you're right.
Posted by Topwater Trout
Red Stick
Member since Oct 2010
67601 posts
Posted on 9/22/14 at 9:32 am to
quote:

Les & company have limited options


this isn't one of them

quote:

On offense they can attempt to establish a power running game by relying on the backs to make plays


if we aren't physical enough the only option is to finesse teams...that can be done by spreading the formations and going to single back sets.
Posted by etm512
Mandeville, LA
Member since Aug 2005
20774 posts
Posted on 9/22/14 at 9:41 am to
To sum up our offensive scheme it continues to be line up and beat the guy in front of you. That works if you have 3 first round OL (Bama in years past) but we don't. At no point do we try to spread the defense out and run power up the middle (ie what state did to us) or use misdirection to get the skill guys the ball in open space. We look like a 9 year old playing playstation. It's either a power run play or throw it deep. Where are the short and intermediate passes. Where's the read option we heard about all summer? Yeah our OL is disappointing but our scheme isn't exactly helping them succeed. I form with one and two TE sets are being used too much. And for anyone who has watched us they know that we refuse to throw to the TEs so it becomes basically a 7 man OL in those sets and beat your man. A great and very crucial play the other night that state ran was the 3rd and 11 after our defensive TD. You don't see us do that. Misdirection one way to run the screen the other. Give your athletes the ball in space. And we need to practice this shite against the ULMs. Yes we can run it 60 times against them and win. Great. But run your offense you need to run to beat the SEC teams and get work in. Use the three and four wide sets. Create mismatches. Create space. Do what state did to us and it makes me fricking sick that I have to say that.

Stop the FB dive. It's 9v11. Most teams with mobile QBs in goalline situations do that inverted wishbone with the TEs lined up behind the guards and plunge forward with the QB. 11v11. They get it. We don't. There is a reason nobody else runs it except maybe 3-4 times per season. Not per GAME. I would love to see a stat on how many FB dives are run per team (not counting triple option teams)

Defense. Same problem. Not physical enough up front. We are soft. Our tackling is suspect. No pass rush. We can't expect our DBs to cover for 7 seconds. The long TD pass was on the fronts inability to close down Dak.

Question: are the highly touted linemen we recruited not that good or do we not develop them? I'm thinking it's more of the latter.

And guys we have been down 3 TDs in the first half twice this season against the two decent teams we have played. Not a good sign. And if Wisconsin's entire DL doesn't get hurt that game might have turned out differently.

At this point I think we beat Florida and arky but I'm not too confident we can beat the other teams.

In summary, frick.
Posted by catholictigerfan
Member since Oct 2009
56332 posts
Posted on 9/22/14 at 9:59 am to
Defensive line is obviously having issues.

But I don't think we should count out this o-line yet. I truly believe the reason we can't run the ball well is because the opponent lines up 9 in the box, runs man to man on the outside, and calls run blitzes. So the defense blitzes 6-7 including LB S and CB. If Harris/Jennings can hit some quick passes than they ill before forced to keep an eye on TE and WR. Right now they can leave a TE uncovered when we line up in the I because they don't believe we can pass it. Once we start passing it well, our run attack will get better.
Posted by GonePecan
Southeast of disorder
Member since Feb 2011
6086 posts
Posted on 9/22/14 at 10:07 am to
Miss St. hit much, much harder than we did. That surprised me.
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