Official SEC Football Thread 2012

[oooo35980]

Let's go back to talking about football, I for one don't care if anyone is ignoring anyone else or why.

Alabama looked terrible this week, honestly their defense was brutalized, it had a lot to do with the coaches refusing to admit LSU had a good quarterback (For one game at least.) and was passing quick enough to avoid the pass rush. Hopefully it won't take 200 yards for them to notice the blitz isn't working next time. LSU looked good, really good, just not quite good enough. They are going to obliterate Mississippi State.

A&M looked good too, getting through them is going to be hard, thankfully LSU smacked Bama around so they are unlikely to go in overconfident. I think Bama wins next week, not as soundly as against Miss St., but cleaner than the LSU game.

Wtf has happened to Florida? They fell apart vs Georgia and nearly lost to Mizzou? They looked like the best in the SEC a couple weeks ago...

Georgia has come alive, Bama will be playing them for the SEC championship unless both teams lose to Auburn, I find that unlikely. Georgia hasn't looked particularly good this year when facing quality opponents, if they play Bama they'd better do more than they did against Florida and USC. Then again Bama wasn't exactly impressive last night, could go either way.

Auburn beat somebody, I forget who, yay for Auburn I guess.

[ninjavanish]

Originally Posted by oooo35980

Let's go back to talking about football, I for one don't care if anyone is ignoring anyone else or why.

Alabama looked terrible this week, honestly their defense was brutalized, it had a lot to do with the coaches refusing to admit LSU had a good quarterback (For one game at least.) and was passing quick enough to avoid the pass rush. Hopefully it won't take 200 yards for them to notice the blitz isn't working next time. LSU looked good, really good, just not quite good enough. They are going to obliterate Mississippi State.

A&M looked good too, getting through them is going to be hard, thankfully LSU smacked Bama around so they are unlikely to go in overconfident. I think Bama wins next week, not as soundly as against Miss St., but cleaner than the LSU game.

Wtf has happened to Florida? They fell apart vs Georgia and nearly lost to Mizzou? They looked like the best in the SEC a couple weeks ago...

Georgia has come alive, Bama will be playing them for the SEC championship unless both teams lose to Auburn, I find that unlikely. Georgia hasn't looked particularly good this year when facing quality opponents, if they play Bama they'd better do more than they did against Florida and USC. Then again Bama wasn't exactly impressive last night, could go either way.

Auburn beat somebody, I forget who, yay for Auburn I guess.

I don't think Bama really played that badly, there were definitely some mistakes, but what really was the big difference was almost a matter of timing. Went sent blitzes on 3rd down almost everytime. And almost everytime we got there, just a second too late. Mettenberger's ability to ignore the blitz and get the ball out just ahead of a sack kept alabamas defense on the field. But despite converting all of those 3rd downs, bama was able to tighten up and eventually force a punt or a long fg on all but 3 drives. Lsu needed to capitalize on every opportunity to put points up, but due to some iffy play calling, they allowed to skilled opponent to stay within reach of victory.

[oooo35980]

Originally Posted by ninjavanish

I don't think Bama really played that badly, there were definitely some mistakes, but what really was the big difference was almost a matter of timing. Went sent blitzes on 3rd down almost everytime. And almost everytime we got there, just a second too late. Mettenberger's ability to ignore the blitz and get the ball out just ahead of a sack kept alabamas defense on the field. But despite converting all of those 3rd downs, bama was able to tighten up and eventually force a punt or a long fg on all but 3 drives. Lsu needed to capitalize on every opportunity to put points up, but due to some iffy play calling, they allowed to skilled opponent to stay within reach of victory.

We won because of "iffy" play calling. That isn't the best our defense can do, we barely scraped by and I think it would have been a much cleaner win had we not been so predictable on third down the entire second half. LSU knew we were coming and acted accordingly. It's not that we played badly, and blitzing on 3rd isn't always lousy play calling, but being that predictable hurt us.

If not for that last offensive drive we would have lost, if Les Miles hadn't screwed up four plays we would have lost. We came within a hair of sending LSU to the SEC championship again and possibly excluding the SEC from the NC altogether. I don't think it would have happened if we had played a little more coverage, and a little less blitz, especially on 3rd down.

I also think we gave it to AJ a bit too much, he was obviously rattled and having an off night, thank god for that last drive, but the rest of the second half was awful. I'm no expert though and it's easy to say that after the fact.

[rizzle]

Originally Posted by oooo35980

We won because of "iffy" play calling. That isn't the best our defense can do, we barely scraped by and I think it would have been a much cleaner win had we not been so predictable on third down the entire second half. LSU knew we were coming and acted accordingly. It's not that we played badly, and blitzing on 3rd isn't always lousy play calling, but being that predictable hurt us.

If not for that last offensive drive we would have lost, if Les Miles hadn't screwed up four plays we would have lost. We came within a hair of sending LSU to the SEC championship again and possibly excluding the SEC from the NC altogether. I don't think it would have happened if we had played a little more coverage, and a little less blitz, especially on 3rd down. I also think we gave it to AJ a bit too much, he was obviously rattled and having an off night, thank god for that last drive, but the rest of the second half was awful. I'm no expert though and it's easy to say that after the fact.

LSU had the right game plan put together and for some reason we weren't making the defensive adjustments we should have. They were rolling TE's out to the sideline and leaving the WR's in the slot. Our CB's rolled out with the TE's and that left our safeties to come up and cover the more skilled WR's. It was a mismatch all night and it shows you how much we miss Mark Barron from last year's D. Not like we've never seen that before, hell we used to do it with Julio all the time.

Anyway, great game. One that we should have lost, but somehow didn't. One that when Yeldon lost the fumble and LSU drove it down our throats to score, I said we're gonna lose this game.

Don't forget LSU had an extra week to prepare and rest. I know we could use some rest about now. We're all beat up. This was also the first game, other than WKU, that we were mostly in our "base defense" for the whole game all year. Now we'll have to go back to being a little more "unconventional." aTm will present challenges, but I think you'll see us play them about like LSU played them. Should be a similar time game. At least I hope.

Carry on...

[OLS]

Originally Posted by rizzle

Don't forget LSU had an extra week to prepare and rest. I know we could use some rest about now. We're all beat up. ...

Correct me if I am wrong, Rizz, didn't we get you guys in the same spot last year, or am I extrapolating
off of the Champ. game where you guys had a month of rest?? Duh, I guess I can look it up on the webster...
Yep, you guys were off for a week last time.

All homerism aside, this was a superb football game. Last year I liked it because we won, but was not
a fan of the game from almost any other standpoint. Sat nite the game was constantly up for grabs,
nearly from the opening kick. I know fans of young-man football could care less, but wow, what a football
game. If I wasn't so mad at Les Miles, I could enjoy it more, but I enjoyed so many aspects of the game.

One was the courtesy and sportsmanship of the tide. The Tide D could have re-arranged Mettenberger's DNA
on all those pass attempts where he hung in the pocket, but they gave him the bennie of the doubt that he
WAS going to throw and not pump and they never killed him once that I recall. They simply tackled him
and everyone lived to play another down. I DID NOT like the camera shot they got on number 6, giving 'kissy goodbye'
lips to the LSU fans in the stands after the big closing drive. I thought that was classless. but there are SO
many of those moments in every game, only a fraction get on camera. Like that moron Mettenberger playing
the 'cell phone-call me' move as if he had suddenly re-written the record books of college football by scoring a TD.
But of course its ALL just kids being kids. What ya gonna do.

Obviously I hope A&M beats the Tide, but you made your path to the big game clear, and I see no
way to stop the ball rolling downhill. Should be another egg for the elephants, hope they glue this one down.

[OLS]

Originally Posted by oooo35980

Let's go back to talking about football, I for one don't care if anyone is ignoring anyone else or why.

Alabama looked terrible this week, honestly their defense was brutalized, it had a lot to do with the coaches refusing to admit LSU had a good quarterback (For one game at least.) and was passing quick enough to avoid the pass rush. Hopefully it won't take 200 yards for them to notice the blitz isn't working next time. LSU looked good, really good, just not quite good enough. They are going to obliterate Mississippi State.

I disagree with some of this, but just semantics in most places. In a lot of posts after the game,
people have said that bama blitzed too much, which is true. but bama got the scare of their season
much more because LSU ran the ball down their throats. LSU gashed bama whether they blitzed or not.
Mettenberger did get the ball out quick, but he also displayed a TON of guts, never once seeming to be
throwing off of his back foot. He looked into the teeth of the rush and threw the ball pretty effectively.
I couldn't believe what I was seeing. AMAZING CALM and AMAZING PERFROMANCE by that kid.

LSU lost because their coaching staff did not show enough faith in the game plan, just doing what
they needed to do. Stupid gadgets....it was almost as if Tracy Wolfson goaded him into going
back to that looney bin crap from 2-3 years ago. How utterly embarrassing for Les.

The prevent defense on the last drive cost them the game. That plus mcCarron obviously said in
the huddle, YOU WILL PROTECT, and for as long as you have to, you bastards. LSU was desperately
trying to claw their way to AJ, and he never got a scratch on that last drive. LSU lost because of
coaching decisions, and bama almost lost because of them. If you had just kept running the ball down
our throats, WE would have been the team that got gashed. We couldn't tackle all night. And then suddenly,
like they were throwing the game for a gambling debt, bama let off the gas. They went away from what was
working. Sure, halftime adjustments made a big difference, but SO MANY 3 and outs? It was starting
to embarass ME. It was something more, though. I DO believe that Saban and Miles are very similar. Sometimes
in big games they are too scared of some boogeyman in their minds to just coach. The measure of the best,
in the end though, is that Saban snaps out of it and coaches the end of the game. Les just looks shell-shocked.
If he wins a close one in the end, its because his players bail him out. If they lose, its because they COULDN'T.

One thing you can't do though is dwell on what might have been. That's why they play. If LSU had
simply played the last drive the way they played the whole game, you guys would be eating your
hats today....No way you win it. But you did. I was kind of shocked when Vern said "there is no
reason to think bama can pull it out on this last drive, if the previous 55 minutes are any indicator".
That's when I knew we were doomed.