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LSU @ UCLA


Nutriaitch

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LSU needs to own this...internalize it, take it to heart, and prove the critics wrong over the rest of the season:

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2019 was the fluke for LSU, not 2020: Ed Orgeron led LSU to an undefeated 2019 national championship with one of the greatest teams of all-time. But two years into the post-Joe Burrow era, that season is starting to look like an outlier, not the disappointing 5-5 follow-up. UCLA ran all over LSU in a dominant 38-27 win at the Rose Bowl, outgaining LSU 454-378. LSU's offensive line struggled to protect against a Pac-12 defensive front, mustering just 1.9 yards per carry and constantly allowing pressure. It's great to know that LSU can be a championship team ... if it lucks into a Heisman Trophy quarterback and No. 1 NFL Draft pick who gets play calls from a savant offensive mind like Joe Brady.   

 

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I'm watching the replay, stopping the failed runs and the sacks.  It's the o-line.  I see a guy jump between Shannahan and Ingram comes through clean and gets a hand of TDP, slows him enough that a LB from outside finishes him off, he was not touched.  Cam Wire can't handle a LB coming from the outside on a pass rush, but on one play it looks like Wire should have taken a DE and let the RB pick up the LB, and when Wire stepped to the outside, the DE over him ran right between Wire and Ingram, who was blocking nobody.  Boutte was open short, 2 yards past LOS, but I don't think Max was aware of what was going on, it had to be a hot read and he didn't make the hot read.  I think Max got better at it as the game wore on, coach must have talked to him.  What I have seen is early in the game.  But to me, the o-line looks very confused on who they are supposed to block.  UCLA did a very good job helping create that confusion, they had a lot of variety and it was hard to pin them down to a pattern.  That was good defensive coaching on their part.  But if we are a passing team, we have to get figured out who to block on blitz situations.

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The year we lost to Troy, there was a players only meeting and the team looked like they came out with more effort and focus, and that team improved a lot by year end.  Rashard Lawrence was one of the leaders in the team meeting IIRC.

Although it was Jake Peete's first game as OC, UCLA looked very comfortable defending a spread offense, which they run a lot in the PAC 12 I think.  No surprise to UCLA.

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1 hour ago, dachsie said:

The one play that HAS to be addressed ASAP is Max throwing the ball blindly behind him to avoid a sack.  I dont know how that even worked out for us - damned lucky I guess.  Even with my limited football knowledge I was saying WTH?

I'm pretty sure that will be a one time occurrence.  I bet the coaches gave him an earful when he got to the sidelines.

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1 hour ago, COTiger said:

And bring in a Freshman QB?  No thanks.

For that stunt? Hell yes

That freshman has a full spring,  summer, and fall camp under his belt. Max didn't have that last year when he was brought in and has slightly more experience than Nuss.  

I agree and said as much last night I didn't want Nuss in there because that OL SUCKED.  But the second max pulled that crap, I changed my mind real quick. 

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There is not a single answer here as there is a need to find multiple answers.

I refuse to believe that our OL "sucks" and can't be fixed. There is a reason we recruited these kids. They have talent.

The main issue here is coaching in that we fired our OL coach, brought in a new guy, and that disruption could explain a lot. Mentally, it looked like these kids walked on the field and started acting like they were still in practice/scrimmage mode rather than "game mode". (Or maybe they arrived in LA and hit the party scene and were hung over for the game.)

I hang the OL issues squarely on coaching. Whether that is a lack of preparation, a lack of discipline, or a lack of getting the players sufficiently pumped up and motivated, the HC and OL coaches failed to get these kids in a position to succeed.

This had cascading effects on both the passing and running games. Having said that...

I have serious concerns about Max Johnson (yes, he's my man crush), especially his mechanics, timing, and release. Some of this is definitely related to not having the time to set up, etc., but on some plays he simply needed to get the ball out a lot earlier. He hung on to the ball as though it were a game of keep away instead of a game DefCon surgical strike. Reminded me of that scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail when they were attacking the castle and the attack kept replaying from the beginning.

There were some plays where Johnson had the time but his mechanics looked awful...I don't know how to describe it other than to call it some kind of slow motion, over-exaggerated over the shoulder throws. Instead of a nice, quick, smooth motion it seemed overly deliberate instead of a natural and efficient motion. 

There were other plays where his passes were so far off that receivers could not adjust.

It was obvious the blitz was coming often. The way to beat the blitz is to check down to your short route receiver as soon as he hits the open spot behind the LBs or Safeties that are blitzing...in a blitz there are big open spots. Equal blame here goes to the coaching staff for not adjusting at halftime to roll in plays with safety valves to check down to, but it also seemed like Max was intent on waiting for the primary receiver to be open instead of playing dink and dunk to take advantage of the defensive 'bald spots' on the field as the result of blitzing.

Again...the coaches are the responsible adults in the room and they failed to put Johnson in a position to succeed but Johnson needs to learn how to pick up the blitz better, not hang on to the ball as long, and understand better where he needs to check down to.

Peetz and Ensminger need to fix this yesterday.

Do I think Johnson should be pulled and replaced with Nussmeier? No.

But I think in these next 2 games - against opponents we should easily dominate -  the issues with Johnson need to be worked on urgently AND we need to feed Nussmeier some actual playing time because he is the future.

Peetz needs to up his game and Ensminger might need to quietly retire and a new QB coach brought in.

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Your reply is long so I won't quote it

OL isn't fixable because we have no tackles. Period.  The guys we recruited are guards.  Go look at Saban's OL. They're all tackles. Big AND athletic. Our guys are big, out of shape, and slow. 

It's not fixable this season and good luck finding some stud tackle in the portal. 

2019 was an abberation. Joe and clyde made that OL look good and I've said that for two years. 

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3 hours ago, Fishhead said:

Your reply is long so I won't quote it

OL isn't fixable because we have no tackles. Period.  The guys we recruited are guards.  Go look at Saban's OL. They're all tackles. Big AND athletic. Our guys are big, out of shape, and slow. 

It's not fixable this season and good luck finding some stud tackle in the portal. 

2019 was an abberation. Joe and clyde made that OL look good and I've said that for two years. 

Joe made everyone look good. 

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