Just back from the LSU game thoughts

[Todd4State]

I am not surprised that we beat LSU. I thought we had a good chance even though I didn't express it because of past LSU trauma. I AM surprised that we beat them by 31 points. There is no question that this team has a chance to be special- of course time will tell if they can finish the season off and be up there with 1999, 1980, 2010, 2014, 1998, and etc. But they have a chance. I think the thing that stands out to me early and the reason why I think they have a chance is this appears to be possibly our most complete team- offense, defense, special teams- since maybe 1980. 1999, which IMO was our best team in my fan lifetime had issues on offense. 1980 got blown out by USM and lost their bowl game. 2014 we had some issues on defense and a few on special teams. But this team- like Bill Walsh used to say- everyone is an extension to themselves. We are able to pass the ball, which helps running the ball, which leads to balance and points which helps the defense- who by preventing points and applying pressure helps the offense get field position helping them to score points. And then the special teams helps us by getting points and field position as well.

I thought Nick was outstanding. No turnovers and good decisions all game long. The play action fake to Mixon was a thing of beauty and probably my favorite play of the game because it completely owned LSU. The slow rollout and then pull up to throw to a wide open Deddrick Thomas was almost equally as good. Dan completely destroyed Dave Aranda's defense and just outcoached him. Nick's first touchdown where he dove in from about what looked like four yards out was just Nick wanting it more. The bootleg from inside the five was another great play call and was key because it have us a 10 point lead compared to 3 plus getting the ball to start the half, which we cashed in on to get a 13 point lead and some breathing room. The A-Train ran the ball very well all game long, as well as Dontavian Lee when called upon and he is a huge difference in our offense from the last two seasons. I would like to see us work in Kylin Hill more as the year goes along. Because Dan has been stubborn in the past, I was a little skeptical that he would actually use Jordan Thomas at WR- but to my pleasant surprise he has and it has worked out pretty well. We have to call things to help get our small WR's open and once we get Guidry and Heath in, I think it's going to really help open up the offense that much more next year and make it even easier on Nick. Farrod Green continues to do great at TE. Our offensive line performed very well- and probably one of the best performances since Dan has been here. I don't believe they allowed any sacks and we were pretty much able to get positive yardage on just about every running play. I also think this group could be potentially even better next year because I believe four of them return depending on how well we are able to replace Rankin. But 38 points on what I think is one of the better defenses in the league? A+

The biggest difference to me between this year and last year is the defense. One thing I LOVE about Todd Grantham's defense is while he is considered a 3-4 guy, he will adapt his defense every game to get the best match-up for us. That may mean that we start totally different people from one game to the next. It gives us the best chance to win whether that's an option team, a spread team, or a pro style team he has shown me that he can shut them all down. The people that have had the most success against him this year are the officials in the Louisiana Tech game. LSU likes to do a lot of shifting, motion, and use unbalanced lines and things like that and our team was ready for whatever he threw at us except for the one drive they scored. After that Grantham made whatever adjustments he needed to make and completely shut them down. We held a potential NFL running back under 100 yards and caused LSU to throw the ball which is not what they want to do. We racked up a couple of sacks and Marquiss Spencer- who I don't think played a ton against La Tech- got a helmet sticker from ESPN. Simmons is an absolute beast and kudos to him for bullying the LSU team before the game especially that traitor Sahdiq Charles. Tolando Cleveland has pleasantly surprised me and our safeties are night and day better from last year. We're attacking the ball and punishing people. And they cover guys very well too. I don't think I notice the linebackers as much because the d-line and DB's are causing so much havoc. A+

Kudos to Jace Christmann for stepping up at kicker. Another huge difference between this year and last. Logan Cooke is an awesome punter and did great on kickoffs except for the one he kicked out of bounds. And Donald Gray really stepped up at punt returner for us. He showed the shiftiness that he has and why I think he would be a better fit at slot WR. And while Gabe Myles did a solid job there, I hope Gray at least shares the job once he comes back. Perfect on field goals, great job punting, one bad kickoff which keeps this from being a perfect performance, but I'm not going to let that keep me from giving them an overall A+ as well.

I've seen some people say that this is "the year" or 2018 or 2019 is this "the year". I think the truth is this could be "the era" for us. Potentially the best since 1998-2000 and possibly even better. We have a fairly young team and if we keep our heads on straight we could do some really great things. I'm looking forward to seeing what the rest of this year brings for us. I personally do think LSU will decline under Orgeron- but that doesn't take away from Saturday from us in any way shape or form. That was probably the best performance I have ever seen us have over a top 15 team in my life and certainly the best since we beat Florida 30-6 in 1992. I'm going to put this one ahead of that because our QB didn't get hurt for the season and it didn't spur the idea that us playing on Thursday nights was an awesome idea. As it is, let's all enjoy this win this week and be proud to be Bulldogs.

[Reason2succeed]

Dang we scored again?!?***

[Commercecomet24]

Good write up, Todd! That was one of the best called offensive games I've ever seen at any level. Dan was money with his calls! And the defense, wow! After the td drive when they kept cutting back against the flow and our outside guys were getting caught jumping inside. He made adjustments and the cutback lanes disappeared. That's what a real dc does! Heckuva job all the way around.

[RocketDawg]

Dang we scored again?!?***

Yeah, we scored one more PAT just for kicking practice.

[Interpolation_Dawg_EX]

I this this tweet from Bill Connelly summed it up perfectly, "MSU-LSU. God, the Dawgs just pushed ‘em over."

https://mobile.twitter.com/SBN_BillC...25386534510592