The Chick-Fil-A Game: An LSU Victory That Almost Feels Like a Loss

When your team wins a big game you are generally jubilant, excited, and happy, but for most LSU Tiger fans that is not what this Chick-fil-A kickoff-game victory over UNC felt like.  

It left you with an empty feeling, with many questions and few answers as to whether anything has really changed for this LSU team after last season's 9-4 team, with an anemic offensive performance.  With Jordan Jefferson as the quarterback, who knows what really lies ahead for these LSU Tigers in 2010. 

I guess we should give them at least two more games before we put a final stamp or prediction as to how good this LSU team will become in 2010.   

LSU went from total cruise control with a 30-10 lead in the first half to barely hanging on for dear life in the second half for a 30-24 victory. 

To make matters worse, the opponent was a grossly undermanned team, using it's second and third teams along with redshirts and walk-ons to take LSU to the very last second and the very last play before finally losing.  

This lack of a second half killer instinct strategy by coach Les Miles and his staff almost resulted in an embarrassing opening season loss in the Chick-fil-A kickoff game.   

We must all take off our hats off to coach Butch Davis, his staff, and a gritty bunch of UNC players that refused to fold their tents for LSU.  UNC was able to score the only points of the second half, and it seems they just called the right plays for them to move their offense against LSU's talented, young, and somewhat confused defense.

After LSU built their big lead in the first half, the Tigers seemed to be content with the lead and played it close to the vest as maybe coach Miles just wanted to show his physical running game. 

It seems Miles was left at the starting blocks when the second half kicked off, as both the offensive and defensive coordinators of UNC had figured out what they needed to do against LSU.

LSU's simple offensive approach was easily counter acted by playing and stopping the run first and then putting more pressure on Jefferson. Apparently Miles and Crowton lack real confidence in Jefferson, and they were trying to protect their lead without letting him be too risky.   

On the other side of the ball, the UNC offensive coordinator exploited LSU coach John Chavis' defense, first with short passes in front of the corners and then beat them deep as LSU started coming up.  

LSU's vaunted secondary was ripped up by T. J. Yates and J. Boyd, who caught a school record 97-yard TD after he got way behind Mo Claiborne, one of LSU's supposed lock-down corners and then raced to the end zone untouched. 

Not all the blame goes to coach Miles as Steven Ridley and Richard Murphy both fumbled the ball, Ridley twice and Murphy once.  Steven Ridley's last fumble was the most damaging as he was rather careless with the ball with only 1:08 left in the game, when he should have been protecting the ball and the lead.

I sure hope LSU's proud record of having very few fumbles by previous running backs does not turn into an unwanted liability.

Even though Jordan Jefferson's numbers did not look that bad, he still displayed most of the same negative traits from last year.  If you take away his best pass play that scored a TD to Ruben Randle, there were really very few impressive plays that he performed.

Despite repeated statements by Les Miles saying Jefferson was much improved and ready to step up and run the offense as they expect him to do, little was demonstrated to support that optimistic opinion. The opinion most have about LSU is that they are a quarterback away from being a great team.   

Jefferson still can't seem to run the option, does not carry out fakes very well, stares down receivers, takes too much time in the pocket, can't find the secondary receiver, and makes bad decisions when pressured. 

A good example of the pressure was when Jefferson was facing a strong rush and he panicked and ran backward for eight or 10 yards and then grounded the ball.

This does not sound like a guy that has corrected his errors.  I don't think any amount of playing time will make Jefferson a real SEC top caliber quarterback, and LSU will again have to pay for that situation the rest of this year.     

I will continue to be very high on this LSU defense, but they will need much more maturity to become an SEC-championship caliber defense. They are certainly very young and talented, but they need more game experience before they can become the speedy dominant defense we all expect to see return to LSU. 

Hopefully by the time the big SEC games against Florida, Alabama, and Arkansas come around, they will be ready to make that claim.   

All in all, the final results of LSU's (barely a victory) game against UNC Saturday night does little to make Les Miles hot seat any cooler.  If he can overcome his team's second half collapse in the next few games, he may be able to cool that seat down.  The real tragedy for Miles is that he appears to be stuck with Jordan Jefferson, and that one guy could end up costing him his job. 

While Miles has recruited very well for LSU, his inability to turn those recruits into winners for whatever reason could end up marring his career as the Tigers' coach. 

He has had two years to come up with a quarterback to replace Ryan Perriloux, and he still seems at least a year away from that guy coming to his rescue.  Even then, it will take some time for Stephen Rivers to gain the experience necessary to be a top notch SEC QB.  

There has been a rumor of a Georgia QB transferring to LSU, but that rumor has not been confirmed. 

It seems like LSU needed every bit of its Georgia Dome magic to pull off the 2010 Kickoff Game Classic in Atlanta.  Hopefully, the LSU Tigers will build on this scary experience for a greater future in 2010.