I know I’m out of the gate a little sooner than usual with this post, but it’s nut cutting time in Athens, boys. I watched a replay of the LSU-Mississippi State game yesterday and between that and my Saturday night in Athens, here are a few impressions to chew on:
- Vegas has to be cringing just a little bit at setting the line in this game. The early number is Georgia favored by 2.5, which strikes me as being as good a number as any. But really, is there any realistic spread that wouldn’t surprise you at this point?
- The stat that scares: LSU, first in the SEC in turnover margin at +7; Georgia, last in the SEC in turnover margin at -9.
- Bobo’s biggest job this week is figuring out a way to scheme A.J. away from Patrick Peterson.
- Cox’ biggest job this week is paying attention to where Chad Jones is on the field.
- I’m not sure if this is supposed to reassure me, but evidently King’s fumble was caused by Ben Jones bumping into him. If these backs can’t secure the ball well enough to protect against an accidental collision, how much better are they going to fare against defenders that are trying to knock the ball out on purpose?
- These are not your father’s LSU offensive and defensive lines. LSU currently ranks tenth in rushing offense in the SEC. Scott and Williams did not suddenly become mediocre players. And outside of Alem, the Tigers defensive line isn’t generating a consistent pass rush.
- Combine that with LSU’s sudden prowess in the long passing game (and Georgia being a mirror of LSU on both sides of the ball), and I’m leaning towards another shootout on the scoreboard.
- LSU looked like it really struggled with the option against Mississippi State, so maybe it’s worth trotting out Logan Gray in situations other than for one play on second down in the red zone.
- Trindon Holliday. Jon Fabris. Directional kicking. Just sayin’.
Get The Picture 
My first thoughts of the LSU game came to me yesterday, after suffering severe tension and anxiety attacks during the first four games of the season.
My new “strength of schedule” is the following (and, in an act of semi-Christian brotherhood, offer it to the Senator and his readers):
Very hard liquor and 2 Valium for LSU, TENN, FLA, AUBURN, & TECH; beer and 1 Valium for Vandy and Kentucky……iced tea and 1 aspirin for Tenn Tech.
Appropriate libations and prescriptives for the bowl game are tentative at this point, but will be pubished at a later date.
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Liquor and valium are not a good mix. Just take a couple ambien and call it a day.
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Enough with the Logan Gray “Grayhound” nonsense. I dont know what all you people see, but Logan Gray is not the guy to run any variation of the wildcat. Yes he is quick and has some speed, but he is too small and it is so obviously that we are going to run the zone read (which he has read wrong all 3-4 times). So far it has been a waste of a down in the redzone.
And let’s face it, the kid isnt our QB of the future, so they should just move him to WR and let him be a slot possession guy for the remainder of his career.
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You can’t conclude anything about Gray’s future prospects. He’s had a handful of running plays in games. That’s it. The coaches, who see him running the entire offense in practice, believe he’s the best option behind Cox right now. So we have to trust that.
I agree with most people that Gray’s not dominant enough to be brought in for a play that everybody knows will be a QB keeper. But that doesn’t mean he can’t be a good QB next year.
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Seriously, the guy’s getting ALL (or at least most) of the first team snaps on Wednesdays. That’s a lot of time to give the guy who isn’t our “QB of the future.”
I’m with the contingent of fans who thinks that Bobo is trying to set something up for later in the season with this zone read nonsense. Do I think it will work? Probably not.
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I have to agree that with all the Wednesday snaps, he should be getting ready to see a little more action on the field.
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It’ll only work if Gray finally gets to throw a pass.
Right now ever DC we face knows if he comes in, to play the run.
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My thought about the LSU game is that we’ll finally get some much needed relief as fans. This game should be decided before the end of the 3rd quarter with them pulling away to a comfortable lead to win by 14+. I’m not sure if I can take losing by 3 or less in the waning seconds.
Why do I say this? Glad you asked:
-we don’t like to keep the football, they do
-their D is better than any we’ve played so far
-our O doesn’t play well against good D’s (sans SC?)
-they likey the deep ball
-we likey to watch other teams throw the deep ball (our DB’s are entranced by the beautiful flight of the pigskin)
-we’ll give them the ball on the 40 2+ times
So, at least we won’t have to sit through another nailbiter! We can start our griping early!
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We were four inches away from beating LSU.
LSU kinda sucks. You’ll win.
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> we likey to watch other teams throw
> the deep ball (our DB’s are entranced
> by the beautiful flight of the pigskin)
Hahahahahaha. Man, that was clever. 🙂
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Maybe this sets up perfect for Fabris… if we kick all of them out of bounds we don’t have to worry about Holliday.
just sayin’
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Since this is going to be against an SEC team, we’re going to go all Big XII/Pac 10 style and score a bunch of points. Now, if we were facing an out-of-conference foe, then we’d play like an SEC team. After four games, that’s been our M-O.
And if there’s any team in the SEC that has as much questions as us, it’s LSU. They probably have more, at least one part of our team–offense or defense–shows up to games. Discounting their games against cupcakes, LSU hasn’t had that luxury.
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Current thought is that Green will draw double coverage with LSU..logical..does CMR/Bobo then counter with other receivers to take advantage of this..logical…and will Cox speed his thought processes up to look off DBs and find secondary/tertiary receivers?? Again, seems logical but Bobo seems to defy logic with his scheming..eg..Logan Gray/fullbacks! Long for inivation/variation from Bobo. And, Coach Searls how about kicking some ass on our lineman!!!
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Thank you, Realist, for the suggestion. I’m looking for a new internist. Do you have a practice? Do you free-lance?
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