The 10 best SEC games of 2007: #4

October 6, 2007: LSU 28, Florida 24

Before there was The Celebration, there was this outpouring of Gator class – the pregame stomp on the Tiger logo:

Hmm… I wonder how much Franz Beard and Danny Wuerffel fretted over that.

There’s only one stat you need to remember from this game: LSU was 5-5 on fourth down conversions. To get an idea of how staggering a number that is, consider that seven SEC teams converted less than 10 fourth down tries all season.

And those calls weren’t made at inconsequential points in the game, either:

• 2nd quarter, 4th and goal at the Florida one. Result: touchdown
• 3rd quarter, 4th and five at the Florida 25. Result: drive ending in touchdown
• 4th quarter, 4th and three at the Florida 4. Result: touchdown
• 4th quarter, 4th and one at the LSU49; 4th quarter, 4th and one at the Florida 7. Result: drive ending in winning touchdown

That’s right – on every drive that involved a LSU fourth down conversion attempt, the Tigers scored a touchdown. (On the two drives where Miles elected to go for field goals, Colt David missed both times.)

I hope Miles had enough sense to hightail it over to a casino after the game, or at least buy a lottery ticket somewhere. You should always feed a hot streak.

Testosterone display aside, Miles had an excellent game plan for Florida. He certainly learned one lesson from Auburn’s upset of the Gators – keep UF’s offense off the field. The Tigers held the ball for almost 36 minutes and limited Florida to 58 total plays on offense. Even with that, Florida was still able to open up ten point leads twice in the game.

In the end, though, Superman wasn’t super enough.

Tebow’s fourth quarter interception set up a short field drive that saw LSU close the gap to three points with around twelve minutes to go. The Gators went three and out on their next drive. LSU responded with a fifteen play scoring drive that took over eight minutes off the clock. It was the first time – at about one minute left in the fourth quarter – that the Tigers had led in the game.

It ended on a Florida incomplete pass.

Here’s a highlight reel:

Advertisement