Rewatched the game.........(WARNING: TL;DR)

First of all, what a game. I'm more convinced than ever that we just saw the two most complete teams in the SEC and possibly two of the 4 or 5 best teams in the country.

Georgia is great, and they would have looked even better had Gurley not gone down early in the second when he was on pace for close to 200 yards. With their schedule going forward, I would be shocked if they aren't playing in ATL for the SECCG. The question is, can LSU be their opponent, and I really think they will be.


The obvious, is that the passing game looks great. Mettenberger is playing so well, and Jarvis and Odell are really clicking with him. Kadron making a couple of big plays can only help us going forward too.

As good as Odell is, I really think Jarvis is the soul of this offense and the key to what makes us great (aside from Mett's NFL arm). Odell is a great big play guy and makes defenses pay for mistakes, but Jarvis is the guy that makes the play even when the defense does everything right. He is the guy that turns a 5-7 yard pass into a 12-15 yard gain, and that is so valuable. After being involved on the first two drives, both for TDs, he disappeared in the 2nd quarter, and that's when we were held to 3 points. Once we got him back in the fold after halftime, we were rolling. Can't say enough about him going forward.



But what I really noticed on the rewatch, that I didn't see at all live, was that I really think both defenses actually played pretty well against two of the best offenses in the country. (DISCLAIMER: I was one of the biggest critics of the D last week after Auburn)

After the first quarter, when both offenses moved at will, both defenses really settled down IMO and made these great offenses earn everything they got.

Georgia especially pretty much shut down our run game, which made Mettenberger's performance even more impressive under the circumstances. He was also under a good amount of pressure as our OL really struggled with what looked like a very solid Georgia DL. It wasn't that we were just doing anything we wanted, but that the O was able to step up and make big conversions to keep drives alive (Landry on 3rd and 10 despite getting his helmet knocked off, Odell on 3rd and TWENTY TWO with our backs to the goal line). That Georgia defense is legit, and I don't think they're getting enough credit. But Mett leading us to 10-15 on 3rd downs can't be praised enough.


But LSU surprisingly made Georgia work too. I'm obviously not saying they played great, and I still believe as I did last week that there are issues, but I actually think there was some improvement. It was just hard to see because Georgia is really fricking good. We gave up 490 yards to UGA, but we also gave up 440 to Auburn. After last week, I honestly thought UGA could put up closer to 600.

On Georgia's first two touchdown drives, UGA never even faced a third down. But after the 1st quarter, we made them start to have to convert multiple third downs. Surprisingly, we did pretty well getting off the field too, holding them to 4-11 on 3rd down conversions. It's really hard to get a great team like UGA off the field on 3rd, even for great defenses, so the D deserves praise for doing a good job there. The game could have gotten out of hand if they hadn't. Remember, the UGA D couldn't get off the field on 3rd against us.

As for the "blown coverages", the first one for a TD was on a 3rd and 11 (after what would have been a 3 and out before Odell muffed the punt ). But that TD, as well as the last TD of the game which was another "blown coverage", was also just great design and execution by UGA. They caused confusion by flooding our zones and made the defenders try to figure out who to cover. We didn't, which was bad, but that's what good offenses do. They design plays to put pressure on the defense to make decisions and often there is no right answer.


Again, I'm not making excuses, but it isn't as simple as "our D is terrible and everyone will score 40 on us". Most teams can't do the same things UGA can.

As good as Ego and Freak have been, I do think we are clearly thin at DT. There just seems to be NOTHING behind them. And our ends just aren't good enough to pressure a great OL and QB like UGA's with just the front four, which is what we tried to do all game. We are going to have to get creative to generate pressure.

The problem is, it's hard to get creative when the LB corps is struggling the way ours is right now. Lamin has been a huge disappointment, and not to pile on, but Welter just isn't making plays. I'm not going to say he's horrible and bench him, because he may actually be the best guy we have as obviously the coaches haven't seen anything from the guys behind him to take him off the field. But at the very least, someone else deserves a chance based on what Welter has shown. His play just hasn't justified him being on the field virtually every play the way he has been.


As for the secondary, it's kind of hard to judge them because we had so little pass rush, and Murray just had all day to place the ball where they couldn't get to it. But there were obviously issues with both safeties and corners understanding their responsibilities in coverage, although only on a couple of plays. Unfortunately, they were big plays that went for scores. It's hard to tell who was responsible without knowing the calls, but people were clearly out of position. But that should be correctable.

It is clear though that the safeties are often late in run support also. We need them to get to the ball faster, especially since our LBs have been so unable to make plays. I'd really like to see Ricky Jefferson start getting more time based on reports from camp.


I know it sounds silly to say the D wasn't terrible after writing all of that, but honestly, I thought it would be even worse. Despite all of those issues, we still put UGA in a position where they had to convert some long down and distance plays to keep up with our O, and Murray just made the plays. I think we'll see some steps forward against lesser competition the next couple of weeks.


I really think this game could end up being similar to the UF loss last year. The offense was about as bad as it could have been in that game, but we started figuring ourselves out with workmanlike wins over South Carolina and A&M before really putting it all together against Bama and then MSU and OM.

The D will be able to count on the O to win these next games for us while they figure out the right personnel and scheme moving forward. The key is that the O not lose motivation the way our D clearly did last year after the Bama game.

With Mett, Hill, Jarvis, and Odell all very possibly NFL bound, I would hate to see that happen to them too, but I really don't think it will. These guys know they are a special group that can still have a very special season and leave there marks on the LSU record books, and Mett should play even better now that the difficult return to Athens is behind him and he proved himself so admirably.


Very much looking forward to the rest of the season, and would love to see UGA again in ATL.

Too long; shouldn't have written


:fearthehat: