quote:
I agree Max has missed plays, but last season he made plays while getting hit, felt pressure and navigated the pocket well and showed more poise.

The difference this season is the guy calling the plays.

Not necessarily. Max got a lot of praise last year for going into the Swamp and winning a big game. But let’s be honest—that wasn’t “The Swamp.” They only allowed 17,000 fans to be in attendance. Weren’t a ton of fans in Tiger Stadium for the game against Ole Miss. so this “poise” Max convinced you of was done without the pressure of playing in front of 100,000 fans. There’s huge pressure for even LSU players to play in front of that many fans in Tiger Stadium, even if their “your fans.” Even more pressure playing in a packed road SEC stadium screaming as loud as they can while you have the ball.

The fact is last year was the easiest year ever play QB, because there was simply not nearly the same amount of pressure as a normal season. NFL QBs dominated last year because they could communicate easily with their OCs on their headsets and their teammates on the field. That part was too easy. And the no fans greatly diminished the pressure.

I was concerned with this in all sports last year. Most games seemed like exhibitions and had more of a feeling of not really counting. I was careful not to buy into any young guys—in any sport—looking great for being so young because a lot of them were playing in front of crowds made up of cardboard cut outs of real people. And I didn’t trust it.

Your premise is stupid that “the problem” has to be one or the other, because 1) they could both be bad, and 2) it implies there’s just 1 problem. Our OL sucks, no getting around that. Peetz may also be a bad play caller right now. And Max could be somebody who doesn’t handle pressure well, because this is the 1st time he’s had to really deal with it at LSU. And let’s be honest, he really hasn’t had to deal with any, compared to what he’s got coming up. And I, for one, am not very optimistic that he will handle it well.