LSU/UW Thoughts

I've already given most of my thoughts on the game in the LSU/UW thread and the Replay thread, so I'm not going to rehash it all again. I will say that I didn't see a lot of breakdowns in the secondary that led to huge plays, at least in the area of blown assignments. If Jai Eugene gets beat 1 on 1 downfield, that's not Chavis's fault, and if Chad Jones gets two hands on a guy and can't make the tackle, that's not bad coaching, either. Like pretty much every game, the outcome would have been different if the players had just played better.

Let's go over what I was looking forward to and see how it played out:

1) Russell Shepard. I saw him standing around the huddle during timeouts with his head down, but he never set foot on the field. My #1 thing to look for against Vanderbilt will be...Russell Shepard.

2) A fast defense that can handle a mobile quarterback. Didn't happen. Little pressure from the front four, and Locker threw for a bunch of yards even before the meaningless last drive. The ends pinched down hard on a lot of play action, giving Locker a chance to make plays with his legs on the outside.

3) Execution. Meh. Tackling stunk, and the offensive line was really unimpressive. However, I absolutely loved LSU's last drive of the game. Jefferson was 3 for 3 passing, and the option plays were run very well, with Jefferson making good decisions each time. I think the defense looked like they knew what they were doing, even if they missed too many tackles.

4) Something not referred to as the "Wild Tiger." Wish granted. We didn't even see a package close to it.

5) Pressure from the front four. Nope. Alem was credited with a sack when Locker's knee hit the ground as he was diving forward, and Nevis blew through with a sack when Washington was playing catchup. Other than that, LSU had to blitz to get pressure, which exposed some open spaces the blitz created.

6) LSU fans putting up a good showing at Husky Stadium. Wish granted, and then some. LSU may have had as many as 20,000 people in the stadium. We saw them all over town before and after the game. The Washington crowd seemed a lot louder when I watched the replay on TV than they did in the stadium. Keep in mind that they don't even start school until the 30th. When LSU scored, the crowd got quiet. If the other team had scored in Tiger Stadium, the crowd would come roaring back to pump up the team. The people up there are really nice, but their crowd wasn't much of a challenge.