Was going to start like 3 different threads so figured just combine these into a cohesive list.
1. Seen a lot of talk about the secondary's struggles. I think those are more of a symptom of the inability of the defensive line to be able to get anything done. In our rush to get excited about returning 9 starters on defense we forgot that one of the losses was a guy who is now playing on Sundays. The other in Jeffcoat was still a really good athlete that could cause some problems off the edge. They could have played that offensive line from now until Christmas and Daniel's pocket would have been clean. That forces Baker to play more zone because man just simply can't hold out for that long. The problem with that is we have played very little zone as a team until last week. There were a lot of busted coverages on the back end and I would bet a lot of it is a result from just simply not repping those looks a ton. It all starts up a front. God bless him, but Matt White started an SEC championship game at safety. Why? Because he was on a team that wrecked the game up front. I have always felt that a secondary's best friend is a good pass rush. Last year we had dudes that could make the QB uncomfortable. Right now, we don't..... and that's a problem.
2. I was a little surprised to see that Cook is actually receiving a decent amount of blame when checking the board. Here's the deal, if you repeatedly throw the ball deep and over the middle, you are going to throw picks. Honestly he was probably overdue coming into this one. I still like the offense and for it to reach its potential Cook is going to need to be aggressive down the field and over the middle. That means that he will throw more picks. It's going to happen. The second one doesn't bother me. You're on your own five with no TOs and forty seconds left. What would have really pissed me off is if he would have dumped it off short of the sticks. He was trying to make a play in a bad situation.....who really cares...they were a long shot to win any way at that point. I would have liked to have seen a little better pocket presence on the strip. That was the most egregious mistake in my mind. With that said, at the end of the day we scored 40 and moved the ball all day. I find it hard to really bitch that much about Cook or anyone else on the offense.
3. The better team won. The biggest difference in the game IMO was that LSU had a defense that has some freaky dudes who are just lost. We have a defense that has a talent deficiency up front. That talent showed out as crunch time came and LSU won up front on D and won the game while our D line was gashed in the run and hapless when rushing the passer. After the first quarter it felt like LSU could score whenever and however they wanted. We moved the ball and made plays, but it just didn't seem quite as easy as it was for them. I still think it is also worth pointing out that LSU might have the best offense in the country with the way that they are playing. It isn't just Mizzou that they have lit up. So all of this could just be an overreaction. Time will tell.
4. Overall I still think 8-4 would be a sign of definitive progress if it came to that. 9-3 is also still absolutely on the table. I think we got to 5-0 and everyone had shades of 2013. The bottomline is that team had fewer gaps top to bottom. It had a legend for a coach who had his system and process in place for over a decade at that point. I liked Barry as a guy, but his recruiting was what it was. Hell, the last time we played these guys we had Keke Chism and Tauskie Dove catching balls. The talent has improved but we are not quite there yet. This year is about seeing positive signs that we are headed in the right direction and I think 8-4 does that and is still absolutely attainable.
One last side note, the fact that people are complaining that we actually got screwed by the officials is living proof that fan is short for fanatic.
1. Seen a lot of talk about the secondary's struggles. I think those are more of a symptom of the inability of the defensive line to be able to get anything done. In our rush to get excited about returning 9 starters on defense we forgot that one of the losses was a guy who is now playing on Sundays. The other in Jeffcoat was still a really good athlete that could cause some problems off the edge. They could have played that offensive line from now until Christmas and Daniel's pocket would have been clean. That forces Baker to play more zone because man just simply can't hold out for that long. The problem with that is we have played very little zone as a team until last week. There were a lot of busted coverages on the back end and I would bet a lot of it is a result from just simply not repping those looks a ton. It all starts up a front. God bless him, but Matt White started an SEC championship game at safety. Why? Because he was on a team that wrecked the game up front. I have always felt that a secondary's best friend is a good pass rush. Last year we had dudes that could make the QB uncomfortable. Right now, we don't..... and that's a problem.
2. I was a little surprised to see that Cook is actually receiving a decent amount of blame when checking the board. Here's the deal, if you repeatedly throw the ball deep and over the middle, you are going to throw picks. Honestly he was probably overdue coming into this one. I still like the offense and for it to reach its potential Cook is going to need to be aggressive down the field and over the middle. That means that he will throw more picks. It's going to happen. The second one doesn't bother me. You're on your own five with no TOs and forty seconds left. What would have really pissed me off is if he would have dumped it off short of the sticks. He was trying to make a play in a bad situation.....who really cares...they were a long shot to win any way at that point. I would have liked to have seen a little better pocket presence on the strip. That was the most egregious mistake in my mind. With that said, at the end of the day we scored 40 and moved the ball all day. I find it hard to really bitch that much about Cook or anyone else on the offense.
3. The better team won. The biggest difference in the game IMO was that LSU had a defense that has some freaky dudes who are just lost. We have a defense that has a talent deficiency up front. That talent showed out as crunch time came and LSU won up front on D and won the game while our D line was gashed in the run and hapless when rushing the passer. After the first quarter it felt like LSU could score whenever and however they wanted. We moved the ball and made plays, but it just didn't seem quite as easy as it was for them. I still think it is also worth pointing out that LSU might have the best offense in the country with the way that they are playing. It isn't just Mizzou that they have lit up. So all of this could just be an overreaction. Time will tell.
4. Overall I still think 8-4 would be a sign of definitive progress if it came to that. 9-3 is also still absolutely on the table. I think we got to 5-0 and everyone had shades of 2013. The bottomline is that team had fewer gaps top to bottom. It had a legend for a coach who had his system and process in place for over a decade at that point. I liked Barry as a guy, but his recruiting was what it was. Hell, the last time we played these guys we had Keke Chism and Tauskie Dove catching balls. The talent has improved but we are not quite there yet. This year is about seeing positive signs that we are headed in the right direction and I think 8-4 does that and is still absolutely attainable.
One last side note, the fact that people are complaining that we actually got screwed by the officials is living proof that fan is short for fanatic.
