I made the decision that I'm going to follow the two best teams in the East and the West weekly in these breakdowns, and whatever teams they happen to be playing going forward, because it's honestly about who is going to make it to the Dome. In that regard, the current East leader is Florida, and the current West leader is LSU. If they are off or lose, I'll take on the next teams down for parity sake. But if your team has two losses right now? I don't see much point in putting them in the discussion currently.
With that said, LSU looked amazing on the ground against South Carolina on their way to a 45-24 win, and that should come as no surprise. South Carolina made everyone look good this year, and that's partly why Steve Spurrier finally decided to retire mid-year. However, there's another story to this game, and it's not one you'll hear much about unless you watched it or you're an LSU fan. The starting Fullback and lead blocker for LSU, John David Moore, went down with a knee injury that could sideline him for 3-4 weeks. He's the main blocker that springs #7 Leonard Fournette out of the power-I formation. That had major consequences in this game as they had to replace Moore with #47 Bry'Kiethon Mouton (real name, yes) and he looked woefully unprepared to make the key blocks. It's probably why they took Fournette out at the half and barely let him play at all in the third and fourth quarters.
One thing I really wanted to see from this LSU team is how their passing game is developing, because at the beginning of the season it was non-existant. At no point in their first five wins did LSU throw for more than 100 yards. So against what is arguably the worst defense in the SEC, how would they fare? Answer, just fine. Not great, but fine. QB Brandon Harris was able to fling it around for 228 yards and 2 TDs, which is unfortunately pretty average against this SC defense. I noticed that Harris does do very well on early quick reads and passes, and even managed to make an NFL-style fade route throw to his best receiver Malachi Dupre for a TD. Dupre is the obvious go-to for Harris, so if you're game-planning against LSU on the pass (as if you would have the time after worrying about Fournette) then he's the guy you attempt to take away.
Fournette continues to be as advertised, making tough runs in the middle, shedding blockers, and putting his foot in the ground while making people miss. His lone TD on the 158 yard day was a long 87 yard run after his made two secondary players miss to the outside, cut it back in, and then was off to the races. Normally, a secondary player can chase down a guy of Fournette's size, but he just turned on the jets and never looked back. If he's even, he's leaving as they say. But even after Fournette went out, #5 Darrius Guice (pronounced G-ICE like mice, the names on this team are insane, thanks Cajuns) went off for 161 yards of his own pretty much all in the second half. LSU can run in any down and formation, but they seem to love to go power-I strong side on first down and beat you to death for 3-4 yards minimum. At 2nd and medium, it's anybody's guess, and that's what makes the offense flow so well.
However, the downside to LSU's offense is that if you get them in longer downs, they are hosed. They look almost as bad as a Georgia Tech team trying to throw the ball at times with Harris' accuracy issues. Yes, Harris CAN make throws, but the longer a play goes, the chances of a good pass almost approach zero. The only option after 3-4 seconds for Harris is to take off running, which he is actually pretty good at. But you do not want him throwing on the run. That way lies madness. What that does bring up to me as a fan though is how LSU will react when a stellar defense takes the run away. I've watched Alabama and Florida play, and they are both quite capable of shutting down the running aspect of your team. If you make Harris have to win? I think that's where LSU falls apart.
The other glaring weakness is that LSU's secondary looks woeful. They let South Carolina put up two very bad secondary breakdown TD's on them, and each time it was because they were completely out of position. #13 Dwayne Thomas has an especially tough day, but he was covering Pharoh Cooper most of the time. Granted, Pharoh Cooper is a stud athlete and can make people look silly, but this is South Carolina's offense we're talking about with their 2nd string QB. And they managed to put up more points on LSU than they have on any SEC team so far, including Kentucky. That's not a good sign for this defense, which I expected to look better. Even worse, they got no real sacks or pressure on the SC QB until the very end of the game. I was wondering if maybe Les Miles is playing possum knowing they have Florida next week, but then I remember Les Miles probably isn't that smart.
The other issue for LSU was special teams. They got torched by South Carolina for a kickoff return TD, and then in the second half they gave up a surprise onside kick, but it was called back due to SC being offsides. Still, it's not a good look. They need to shore that up or they'll find themselves on the losing end of a bad special teams play very soon.
Overall though? LSU can run that rock. And if you can't stop them from running it, you're in for a very long day of watching #7 run around, over, or through you. Still, I'm not sure we're looking at the SEC champion in LSU unless the passing game continues to develop. Because at some point the running game won't work, or the defense will give up too many plays in a shootout, and they'll have to play catchup. And what then?
I guess we'll find out if it ever happens.
No comments:
Post a Comment