re: A closer look at Etling's 2nd half

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At least you're consistent.

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to me, Dupre has been the biggest disappointment in the season so far

Harris lack of improvement has been a disappointment, but I never expected Harris to be elite

I thought Dupre was an elite talent and he just has yet to live up to that. This is his money year and he is losing a lot of money right now.

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Dupre made it harder than it should have been because he so poorly misplayed it.

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In his defense, that's not how play is drawn up and stuff happens. He has missed some easier catches on better throws.

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I thought Dupre was an elite talent and he just has yet to live up to that. This is his money year and he is losing a lot of money right now.

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He still has time and I'll give him the benefit of the doubt this early, but it hasn't been promising so far this year.

That being said, he really only has 1 legit drop - the ball in the 2nd quarter where he adjusted to the ball behind him and it hit him square in the chest and he dropped it. That has to be caught. Otherwise, the 5 against Wisconsin and two or so against JSU aren't really drops. I think expecting him to catch all of those passes is ridiculous, but not catching ANY is just as surprising.

Honestly our WR corps as a whole hasn't done anything to help. I can't recall a pass that they've caught that was a good play by the WR. After the catch and whatnot is different, and I don't expect highlight catches every game, but they haven't brought down anything difficult. That isn't something we usually see at LSU.

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Also, they seem to have trouble getting separation.. could it be the formations and the routes they run?

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Etling was throwing to guys with a lot of separation in the 2nd quarter.

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he is 19-20 yrs old and I am sure feels like he made a bad decision coming to LSU...why good wrs come here is baffling

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Oh boo hoo! Man up and catch the ball thrown to you! These excuses are ridiculous.

LSU gets highly ranked receivers because LSU prepares them for the NFL very well using the NFL route tree.

Dwayne bowe, buster Davis, Brandon lafell, early doucet, James Wright, Odell, Jarvis etc

That's why LSU gets good receivers.

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to me, Dupre has been the biggest disappointment in the season so far 

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you recruit a WR who came from a veer/option offense in HS, where he wasnt targeted much, with no real stats. you get all excited based on that 247 rivals scout ranking crap. BUT NOW YOURE DISAPPOINTED. Stop kissing arse over rankings and recruit REAL football players. SMDH

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Etling and Dupre just don't seem to be on the same page.

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If dupre would actually catch the ball when it hits his hands, they'd be on the same page.

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Also, they seem to have trouble getting separation.. could it be the formations and the routes they run? I'm not sure.. I wish they would step up more though or we would run more 4-5 receiver sets with different routes.

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I'm not sure either. My hypothesis for sometime has been that the lack of any dedication to the passing game encourages LSU QBs to take on deep balls trying to make something happen. We run low risk, high reward plays that also carry a low success rate. That is often evident with the PA passes out of the I-formation with 1 or 2 WR routes.

As a result of the low success rate early on, the play calls seem to focus on passing only when we need with 1 to 2 read short routes - all hitches, slants, screens, etc. Some of this may be the result of the OL which doesn't give a ton of time to execute long plays or make multiple reads. Some of it may be the scheme itself. I really don't know, but that is the way it seems to play out. It is sort of a chicken and egg argument that turns into a self-fulfilling prophecy for Miles's ground and pound approach.

People think they saw something different with Etling. I don't. I saw the same variation of pass plays called Saturday as I did against Wisconsin, with much the same results. PA passes were thrown deep. Long developing plays worked or were checked down when they had time. Pressure screwed things up multiple times. WRs caught balls that hit them in the hands and didn't catch anything that wasn't essentially perfect. So on and so forth.

The two notable differences were one, Etling seems to be like a more emotional guy and brought some "ra ra" spirit to the offense and they seemed to respond. Second, Etling was aggressive with his feet and wasn't afraid to tuck it and run. Harris seems to have been instructed to keep his eyes downfield and avoid scrambling almost to a fault. Whether that is by design or not, a thread to run helps in this offense when things break down. For those two reasons Etling deserves the start IMO. All the rest of the stuff is just fluff people are using to justify why they like one guy or the other and it is unnecessary.

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Several if not all had the dropsies at one time or another at LSU...the rant probably said they sucked also.

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the difference is they had the dropsies early in their career

Dupre is a Jr

The other progressed. Dupre hasn't. It's now or never for Dupre.