LSU Football: Questions on Offense Will Keep Tigers out of SEC Title Game

If offense sells tickets and defense wins championships, the LSU Tigers would be playing for a BCS Championship in front of 1,000 people because they have a dominant defense, one of the best in the country, but the offense is, quite frankly, offensive.

There is no denying that this defense is capable of carrying the team to an SEC title and another BCS game, but there is going to be one game where the offense has to bail the defense out, and nothing they have done through two games leads you to believe that they can do it.

Obviously, the problems on offense were not planned. Jordan Jefferson was supposed to be the starting quarterback for this team after shining at the end of the 2010 season, but his off-field problems forced the school to suspend him and there is no telling if or when he will be allowed back.

Jarrett Lee, who took over the starting quarterback position when Jefferson was suspended, looked terrible in the one game LSU has played against quality competition. In the first game of the season against Oregon, he only completed 10-of-22 passes for 98 yards.

Is he really going to get better when he plays against SEC competition where the defenses are much more physical than Oregon's?

The Tigers' running game has looked good, but unless opposing teams respect the pass, they are going to load up in the box and make Lee beat them.

As things stand right now, the Tigers will lose at least two games that most people feel like they should win. They have a difficult test tonight against Mississippi State, a game that they could easily lose if the Bulldogs are able to run through the brick wall that is the LSU defensive line and force Lee into making mistakes.

And if the Tigers are able to make it out of Starkville with a victory, they have to go to West Virginia and Alabama and host an improving Florida team, Auburn and Arkansas.

The odds of this team running the table and representing the west division in the SEC Championship game are decreasing with each incomplete pass that Lee has.

There are too many questions surrounding this offense right now to think that the Tigers will be playing for an SEC Championship in December or a BCS Championship in January.