re: can someone please give me positives

OK here's a positive. Out of the 13 opposing head coaches LSU faces in the SEC, Les Miles can beat 12 of them.

AMEN! Its again on LES for bringing back that loser BDP. Why the hell is that guy our game day coaching field general?

no one has done less with more than Les

We were getting ahead of ourselves to think that we could run the table. LF7 is an awesome RB and people may have thought (including me) that he may be good enough to take us to the end. Last night proved that theory wrong. We still have a lot to play for and this is a very young team. If we want to contend for another NC...our OL has to be able to create holes against a DL as good as Bama's. Our D played aggressive but missed too many tackles. Our DB's have the talent and can play much better. BH is improving but he still doesn't show the confidence to manage every situation...and most importantly a game like last night. He's got to complete a higher percentage of his passes. The WR's have to catch balls that are catchable.

Maybe last night motivates some of our Jr's to come back for the chance at a title. Maybe last night motivates LF7 to come back stronger. If BH continues to improve, he can go from good to great. We need our freshmen LB and DL (next year) to be ready to contribute immediately. If that happens, we go from a good/great team this year...to a great/special team next year.

How can anyone not see the positives in that? Our coaches need to be better than last night. We are sill in the Top 10 and ~120 teams would gladly switch places with us.

so next year is supposed to be our year. It will be. We ill go 8-0 then Bama rolls into town and Les uses the same game plan as he has every time we play and then we will be 8-1 and having these same conversations a year from now

Positives -- maybe Saban will get bored of winning the SEC and retire.

No positives from last night. Only positive period is they don't have to play that team next week.

Our OL leads the conference in receptions and yards

The first string defense played pretty well and Corey Thompson is actually healthy.

Positives (I'll include some negatives for context):

Offense

The receivers made some big catches.

Brandon Harris did some good things, and he was playing hurt.

Darrell Williams had a nice 5-yard run on 3 & 1 in the 2nd quarter on a well-designed play. It was a relative rarity, but a number of guys did a good job blocking on that play.

I thought William Clapp was the bright spot on an offensive line that was consistently dominated throughout the game. The OL allowed penetration and got pushed back on a regular basis (Pocic was dominated. He was behind the LOS throughout the night). The Alabama DL overwhelmed them. They had problems reaching and blocking the Alabama LBs. Maea Teuhema really struggled to reach the LBs -- that Alabama front is a really tough matchup for a frosh, though. Tim Williams was consistently able to beat Vadal Alexander with ease to put pressure on Harris. Williams also beat Jerald Hawkins to get in on a sack in the first quarter. Both tackles had a lot of issues in pass protection. It was pretty thorough domination, but Clapp was able to hold his own on a lot of plays, and I thought he did a good job, especially considering he's just a redshirt freshman.

(On a side note, at full health, I think Josh Boutte probably would be able to hang with the Alabama front in terms of strength on some running plays. Passing situations would be a different story, though.)


Defense

Kendell Beckwith had a good game, and he wasn't getting much help in front of him from the D-linemen.

Frank Herron did a good job in a backup role at DT in the first half (maybe it was a stamina issue, or maybe the way the game was going, but he seemed to wear down a little in the second half). You can't look at the box score to evaluate what he did well, though. You've got to look at how he played vs. the Alabama offensive linemen. He played with good power and stood his ground well in the first half. That's something LSU was not getting throughout the game, especially from LaCouture. CL had consecutive plays in the 3rd quarter where he was in good position -- those plays also kind of found him when you look at how the plays unfolded, but he was pushed back and dominated on a regular basis throughout the game. This is a good example of why you cannot simply go by statistics. Sometimes stats are very relevant, sometimes they're of little relevance. It depends on the situation and circumstances. People who have a fantasy/statistical perspective about the game often don't understand this. Alabama's defensive players are good examples as well. The majority of the time, you can't measure their impact on the game with statistics, but their impacts are HUGE. Although LaCouture had better stats in the game, Herron did much better, especially in the first half, vs. the Alabama offensive linemen. Overall, the defensive line was beaten or neutralized on a regular basis.

Deion Jones was active and made some plays. The Alabama blockers also did a good job at times of getting on him and taking him out of plays.

Lamar Louis did some good things against the run.

The safeties often struggled against Derrick Henry, but they also made some good plays. They were active and gave great effort. You have to tip your hat to Derrick Henry. He played great.