So, then. I’m feeling pretty good about my picks this week, except for the whole MSU beating Kentucky thing. Because I’m sure all of you predicted that. Some notes from the weekend:
- If Kentucky gets fined $50,000 for not keeping its students off the field after the LSU game, Georgia should get fined $500,000 for its head coach ordering his entire team onto the field to execute the world’s gayest motivational dance:
Mark Richt’s defenders talk about getting his team fired up by ordering such a massive display of unsportsmanlike conduct, but this was a low point in organizational control, class and coaching tactics. A big ole “fuck you” to the accepted code of conduct - ordered by the team’s head coach. Is Georgia so deflated by their repeated embarrassments at the hands of Florida; is Richt so unconvinced of his team’s talent; is he so desperate for a win that it takes a lame and pointless organized taunt by the entire team to motivate the Dawgs? Sad that it came to that, and shame on Richt for stooping to that level.
Best part of this is Richt’s quote about it in his post-game conference:
I spoke to the group after chapel before the game. I wanted to make sure they all understood that the celebration should be a team thing, not anyone’s individual on his own. It was going to be a team celebration, and just once. We weren’t trying to disrespect anyone.
Oh, yes, a fine topic for after “chapel”. What would Jesus do? He’d go out and purposefully take the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty … but only once. After that he’d be cool.
If Georgia gets past Auburn and makes the SEC Championship Game and tries something like that on LSU, let’s just say I’m pretty sure their penalty would be offset by (at least) one from LSU.
- Overshadowed forever by Richt’s very Christian-like celebration plan was the fact that Georgia beat the crap out of Florida and in the process exposed the way to stop Tebow and exploit the Gator defense. Timmy’s not quite broken in half yet, but there’s no way he can play his normal game for another year or two in the SEC.
- Things couldn’t have played out worse for LSU during the off week. Boston College should have lost to Virginia Tech, elevating LSU to the BCS Championship Slot, but the most improbable of comebacks erased that notion. And going into the week, LSU had victories over the teams sitting at Nos. 8, 11, 16 and 22 in the BCS and its one loss was to No. 14. Now LSU has wins over Nos. 11, 16, 20 and 26 and lost to No. 28. Of course, Ohio State has only beaten Nos. 29 and 31; Boston College has only beaten Nos. 11, 24; Arizona State has only beaten Nos. 30, 41 and 44 and Oregon has only beaten Nos. 12 and 19 and lost to No. 30.
- Could the SEC East be more of a mess? The prospect looms of a team with three conference losses representing the East in Atlanta. Tennessee’s horrible pass defense will have to shut down Kentucky (and beat Arkansas and Vandy) to win the East. Georgia will have to hope for a Tennessee loss and beat Auburn and Kentucky. South Carolina needs two Tennessee losses, a Georgia loss and needs to beat Florida and Arkansas. Florida needs two Georgia losses, a Tennessee loss and needs to beat South Carolina and Vandy. Kentucky needs to beat Tennessee and Georgia and have the winner of Florida / South Carolina lose their other game.
After three straight “showdown” weekends, my LSU Tigers are letting others sort things out this week - before engaging Fonzie in the ultimate SEC 2007 Showdown next week. This week in the SEC:
No. 11 Florida vs. No. 18 Georgia - The Dawgs haven”t looked good since … well, have they looked particularly good in any game this year? And the Gators haven”t looked bad since the Auburn game. It”s hard to pick against Florida in the annual “Florida beats Georgia” game, and barring the inevitable serious injury to Tim Tebow happening this week, it”s hard to make a case for Georgia here. Call it a feeling; call it wishful thinking … Georgia 31 - 28.
No. 16 South Carolina at Tennessee - What”s worse: getting embarrassed by Vandy or getting embarrassed by Alabama, Florida and Cal? That”s a tough one. If South Carolina had an offense, this game would be a cake walk. But they don”t. There”s not really much good to say about Tennessee at this point, but I like their chances of out-scoring the Cocks. Tennessee 24 - 17
Mississippi State at No. 14 Kentucky - Kentucky 31 - 20
Ole Miss at No. 22 Auburn - Auburn 38 - 6
Florida International at Arkansas - Huh? Arkansas 60 - 10
Miami (Ohio) at Vanderbilt - Oh, that Miami. Vandy 20 - 13
So that was fun. Just another year in the LSU / Auburn rivalry where little plays out as expected. And, this year, LSU comes out on top and is in the driver”s seat of the SEC West. A win over Fonzie in two weeks and LSU is practically guaranteed a spot in the SEC Championship Game. And holding the No. 3 BCS spot right now sets the table for LSU to make the BCS National Championship Game by going 5-0 from here out.
It”s difficult to remember much of what happened in the Auburn game prior to the game-winning touchdown (with 4 seconds left), but the short story:
- LSU gave up 296 yards of offense to Auburn, with 82 of those yards coming on Auburn”s late-game go-ahead drive. Auburn managed only three good drives in the game (including the most-impressive 90-yard touchdown drive late in the second quarter), which accounted for 79 percent of their yards gained. For a beat-up, tired, illegally-chop-blocked LSU defense, not a bad showing. After eight straight weeks on the field, LSU is ranked No. 2 nationally in total defense and No. 6 in scoring defense (even with a 3-OT, 43-point give to Kentucky factored in). Lee Corso may not be impressed with the Tigers” D, but I am.
- LSU dropped 488 yards of offense on Auburn, a team that”s used to giving up 305 a game. Matt Flynn had his first 300-yard passing game and spread the ball out to eight different receivers. Eight different guys also carried the ball during the game, which was good use of the Tigers” depth on offense. The play calling was a little bland at times, but ultimately it was an effective gameplan.
- Flynn being mobile again was huge, especially on the final touchdown pass. Auburn left Demetrius Byrd in single-coverage so their safeties could watch Flynn and the LSU backs to keep the expected field goal try at 39-40 yards, not 29-30 yards. A gimpy Flynn doesn”t earn that defensive respect, and Ryan Perrilloux likely would not have been trusted to make a throw in that situation. Coupled with the return of Early Doucet, the mobility of Flynn was a huge factor in LSU”s win.
Overall, LSU played exceptionally well against a tough Auburn team, especially considering this was the eighth weekend in a row the Tigers have been on the field, and the last two weeks against Florida and Kentucky were draining, bruising games. This week off will be very welcome.
And though I”ve mentioned it before, the facts of the game-winning touchdown pass are worth repeating. It was not “crazy” to run that play. Les Miles was not making an all-or-nothing bet on it.
LSU had time to run the play, and they ran it brilliantly. Had the pass been incomplete, tipped, batted, juggled, fondled or otherwise molested, LSU would have had one, two, three or four seconds left on the clock. The defense Auburn called on the play made an interception highly unlikely and a touchdown catch doable.
Calling a timeout before the play would have clearly signaled to Auburn that LSU was going to make a pitch to the endzone. Doing that would have been risky. What LSU did was take Auburn (and brainless announcers and sports writers) by surprise and ran a high-benefit, low-risk play that just happened to be called done with one second left.
It was brilliant, and Gary Crowton and Les Miles deserve tremendous credit - and zero second guessing by writers who haven”t taken the time to actually analyze what happened - for the call. Demetrius Byrd gets huge points for recognizing the coverage, signaling Crowton for the call and making the catch, and Matt Flynn played the role of game-managing QB to perfection and delivered a perfect pass.
Elsewhere in the SEC:
Vandy over South Carolina. Obviously that wasn”t expected, and it”s a bummer. I”d rather not see Florida again in Atlanta.
Alabama put the hammer down on Tennessee, as I predicted. Fonzie”s offense played above their history, but seeing gushing stories like Yahoo”s Jason King”s about Bama”s dominance of the Vols makes me wonder if anybody other than me realized that Tennessee has the worst defense in the SEC. King certainly didn”t see fit to mention that in praising Alabama”s performance - why ruin a good story that includes Fonzie almost seeming human?
Arkansas beat up on Ole Miss and Mississippi State did as expected against West Virginia.
It”s a shame that the incorrect and hysterical ranting of ESPN”s announcers following LSU”s brilliant touchdown pass to beat Auburn last night is being adopted as reality. “If that ball is incomplete - they lose. THEY LOSE!” said ESPN”s Mike Patrick after the touchdown.
“If he even bobbles that, the clock runs out!” followed Todd Blackledge.
Then, after a few moments of calm reflection following one of the most surprising and brilliant plays of the year, Patrick gave us this nugget:
“Here”s the situation - if that ball is incomplete, you have a timeout in your pocket when a field goal would have won the game. And you have blown it. And everything is gone. Your season is done.”
Um, yeah.
Here”s how things actually stood when when Demetrius Byrd came down with the pass in the endzone:
See the “:04″ up there in the score bar? That”s how much time was actually left when the play ended. The refs waited a couple of seconds to make sure Byrd came down with the pass and was in bounds, so that ran it down to :01. And don”t discount the hometown scoreboard guy effect.
If that pass falls incomplete or is bobbled, there”s still 2-3 seconds left on the clock. And Patrick”s “If that ball is incomplete - they lose …” comment is just flat-out ridiculous considering there was still 1 second on the clock after the completion … which runs more time than an incompletion.
ESPN opted for “good TV” over informed analysis, which is not surprising for a network that trots celebrities out to present the opening lineups as the actual game progresses without comment in the background and where a feature on Glenn Dorsey hanging out with a handicapped kid takes precedent over updating the viewers on Dorsey”s injury.
But ESPN”s manufactured drama is now being picked up by “journalists” covering the LSU win.
I guess that”s what happens when you write about what ESPN said, not what actually happened in the game.
- Even Auburn defensive coordinator Will Muschamp apparently watched ESPN to decide how to react, telling the AP “If we tip the ball in the end zone, the game”s over”. Sorry, not true. Maybe, Will, if you recognized the soft spot in your defense the game might have been over, but the clock wasn”t an issue.
Yes, LSU cut it close. But the clock was manageable, and Matt Flynn managed it. That ball was either going to get caught, or the Tigers would have had a couple of seconds left on the clock.
Great call.
The ESPN announcers would have liked to see LSU call a timeout to set up a final heave to the endzone, but that would have played right into Auburn”s hands. What made the call brilliant was that LSU kept Auburn from thinking Flynn would go to the endzone.
That”s what makes a great call a great call - the other team”s not expecting it. And what makes for great game analysis and reporting is actually understanding what happened on the field. Too much to ask, I guess.
LSU / Auburn has become the defacto battle for the SEC West, and unless Fonzie gets things turned around in Tuscaloosa, this year will be no exception. Both the No. 4* Tigers and the No. 17 Birds are coming into Saturday”s game with 3-1 SEC records, although the Tigers have much more on the line than “sure, we lost to Mississippi State - but we beat Florida!” Auburn does. The series of late has been defined by smash-mouth, old-school, low-scoring close games, with the home team winning in each of the last six contests. LSU leads with the run (232 yards per game), and Auburn excels at stopping the run (109 yards per game) - though not as well as LSU does (68 yards per game). Auburn is second in the SEC in total and scoring defense (LSU leads in both categories).
And with the Birds” anemic offense (10th in the SEC in total offense, ninth in scoring offense), they”ll need to lean on their defense to win this game. A final score of 6-3 is what Auburn is hoping for.
Coming off its 9-7 win over Arkansas, where Auburn held McFadden and Jones to a combined total of 85 rushing yards, the Birds are itching to shut down the Tigers” ground game, and they stand a good chance of doing that. So LSU needs to open up that spread offense I seem to remember seeing a few weeks ago and crack the Auburn defense somewhere other than the middle of the line.
If Early Doucet is back and in playing shape this week, that”ll go a long way toward success. I also think this is the week to work Ryan Perrilloux in for more snaps and balance the offense with something other than Jacob Hester plowing the line followed by a slant pattern pass. Innovation will be key to cracking Auburn.
LSU 20 - 13
Elsewhere in the SEC:
No. 15 Florida at No. 7 Kentucky - If the battered and bruised Wildcats beat Florida a week after surviving a marathon slugfest against LSU while the Gators have had two weeks to recover from and stew over their loss to LSU, it”ll mean Kentucky has arrived as a real SEC contender. I don”t see it happening. Florida 45 - 27
Vanderbilt at No. 6 South Carolina - The Cocks don”t have much of an offense, but they”re one spot ahead of Auburn in total and scoring offense in the SEC. Auburn beat Vandy 35 - 7. South Carolina 38 - 13
No. 21 Tennessee at Alabama - Tennessee and Alabama both feature pretty weak offenses (the Vols lean real heavy on the pass, though, which is Alabama”s soft spot), and Tennessee is plain horrible on defense, giving up the most points of anybody in the SEC. Whether Alabama can capitalize on the Vols” generous defense is questionable, however. I”ll go with Fonzie focusing on making Tennessee run and the Alabama home-field advantage. Alabama 13 - 10
Arkansas at Ole Miss - Congratulations to winless-in-the-SEC Arkansas for making this a completely meaningless game (winless-in-the-SEC Ole Miss, I knew you had it in you). Arkansas 17 - 9
Mississippi State at No. 9 West Virginia - Sylvester is a brave man for scheduling this game. West Virginia 48 - 13
* Rankings will be quoted as BCS ranking from here out.
Colt David”s 57-yard field goal attempt at the end of regulation Saturday marked the point where LSU stopped playing like the national title contender they are and started focusing on not losing to Kentucky. That strategy, of course, went as flat as Charles Scott on fourth-and-two.
What happened to make LSU think “run it up the middle” was the only option in the third overtime; why didn”t Ryan Perrilloux take a snap after the 6:35 mark in the third quarter; why was Matt Flynn cut loose to throw a critical long-ball pick with 7:20 to go and LSU up three and why - in God”s name - did LSU run a Jacob Hester play with the game on the line and Jacob Hester out of the game?
I wish I knew the answers to those questions. Clearly these were errors in judgment by the offensive coaching staff that turned what should have been an ugly win by LSU over a talented Kentucky team into a disheartening loss. But overtime is a crapshoot, and little breaks either way can spell victory or defeat.
Instead of ragging on Crowton & Co. some more, let me focus on some positives:
- At the start of the fourth quarter, Kentucky was on a roll. The “Cats had just scored to bring the game to 27 - 21 and forced LSU to punt on its next series. Kentucky then drove 50+ yards to the LSU 11. But the Tigers held and Kentucky settled for a field goal to make it 27 - 24 instead of 27 - 28.
- After Matt Flynn handed Kentucky the ball back two plays later, the “Cats again drove the ball 50+ yards to the LSU 9. But again the Tigers held Kentucky to a field goal that tied the game at 27 instead of putting LSU down 27 - 31.
- The LSU defense played without Chevis Jackson and Kirston Pittman in the fourth quarter and without Craig Steltz for a bit of the fourth quarter and still managed to keep Kentucky out of the end zone.
- Clearly on the wrong side of momentum, LSU managed to eat up the last 4:21 of the fourth quarter and deny Kentucky a final chance to score, thanks in large part to a really gutsy run by Matt Flynn on third-and-10 and a beautiful sideline screen to Richard Murphy on third-and-11.
- Giving Colt David a shot at a 57-yarder to win it was an unexpected - and very good - call. He clearly had the leg, but hooked it just a bit.
Had LSU made the last-play kick or pulled out an overtime victory, the aforementioned tidbits would loom very large. As it happens, the lasting image of this game will be Charles Scott face-down in the turf a yard short of where he needed to be. That”s too bad, because LSU did a lot of things to keep this a game when it could have gotten out of hand.
Elsewhere in the SEC:
Hey, what do you know - the only game I didn”t get right was LSU. The weekend”s result can”t make the folks in Athens, Auburn and Tuscaloosa feel very good, though.
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