The Truth Game Thoughts

[ShotgunDawg]

1. There are no moral victories. LSU is a extremely talented but average football team. We should have won tonight. LSU is an 8 win football team. Good but not great.

2. We were a cluster 17 in the first half on offense. I believe us not knowing what LSU's defense would look like completely disrupted our offense till we could make adjustments.

3. Just like at Bama last year, we came out hesitant & conservative. Why Mullen continues to allow this to happen baffles me. For some reason, Mullen has no interest in taking the fight to the other team.

4. We've got two weeks to find a running back, hell or high water. Shumpert is not the answer. I like Holloway as a situational guy, but he cannot be your feature back.

5. Last year, we had 3 games before our big run. This year we only had 1. I think we would have benefited from another week of prep and game film on LSU.

6. Have no clue why Dak isn't running more. We have to find a running game.

7. Have no clue why or how we get a delay of game penalty with a 7th year 4 million dollar coach & a 5th year QB.

8. Was proud of our defense and the way they adjusted & gave us a chance.

9. Was proud of the way our offense adjusted, especially our offensive line. If we get to over time or play a 5th quarter, MSU wins. Shouldn't have come to that.

10. Devon Bell is a wasted scholarship. I know if was a tough kick, but he had one shot to make us all forget his missed FGs over the year. He failed. TWICE


Conclusion:

We have a good, but not great team. We look like a 7 or 8 win team to me that lacks the running game & pass rush to be better than that. IMO, we are not a 6 win team unless the wheels falls off and the chemistry of the team falls apart.

The good news is that the SEC West doesn't have a dominate team, unless it's Ole Miss, since they are the only ones that have looked dominant. I am proud of the way we made adjustments, continued to battle, & put ourselves in position to win. However, make no mistake, MSU is the better team, LSU is a pretty good team, & we should have won tonight, but played not to lose in the first quarter.

The season is not over, & we possess the ingredients to go on a run, but MSU can't continue to lose games like this. We should have won

[BulldogBear]

On that last point. I really thought we were beyond that. Got adjust my expectations for the rest of the year. Beat Auburn and TAMU and maybe we start to dream again. But until then beat the Demons.

[ShotgunDawg]

Northwestern State is a big game because we've got to find a running back. We are more than capable of beating both A&M and Auburn, but we've got to find a running game to do it. We can't ask Dak to throw for 350 yards to score 19 points.

[confucius say]

Agree mostly. We are a 7-8 win team. I do think Lsu is better than you give them credit for though. I think they are a 8-9 win team, and if they play mcneese, a 9-10 win team, as long as Harris continues to not turn the ball. I think they beat arky and auburn and the two east teams they play. That's 9-3 at minimum if they would have played mcneese.

[ShotgunDawg]

One things for sure, whoever drafts Fournette is going to get a guy that's worked a heavy workload.

He's like a high school pitcher that threw way too many innings

[Smitty]

One things for sure, whoever drafts Fournette is going to get a guy that's worked a heavy workload.

He's like a high school pitcher that threw way too many innings

AT least Miles understands his job is to win not be a minor league team for da pros

[ShotgunDawg]

What sucks about this game is that no one made a play.

If Bell makes his FG, if Shumpert catches the ball on the two point conversion, if Ross catches the pass in the middle of the field near the goaline in the first half, if Bear catches the slant route late in the game to get in better field goal range, if Dak finds an open receiver after he scrambles on the final drive,...... Nobody made a play.

This game reminds me so much of the Auburn game in 2011 against Cam Newton. We had so many chances & just never made the play. If we only make one of those plays, ball game

[UMCDawg16]

The Oline is a bigger deal than the RB. The lanes weren't there. Not even Dak had anywhere to run.

[Irondawg]

The delay was potentially the difference and inexcusable.

But man, that terrible throw on the 2pt conversion by your Heisman candidate was almost as bad.

Then go back to how big the holloway drop at the end of the first half was.

All potential difference makers in a game where we had a terrible offensive gameplan and poor OL play for the most part

[UMCDawg16]

Although shump is an average at best RB, the o line is the bigger deal to me.

[ShotgunDawg]

The delay was potentially the difference and inexcusable.

But man, that terrible throw on the 2pt conversion by your Heisman candidate was almost as bad.

Then go back to how big the holloway drop at the end of the first half was.

All potential difference makers in a game where we had a terrible offensive gameplan and poor OL play for the most part

Dak did short arm that. He should've had made a better throw, but it was still catchable

[Smitty]

Not even Dak had anywhere to run.

We will never know

[ShotgunDawg]

Although shump is an average at best RB, the o line is the bigger deal to me.

I think it's two fold. I thought the offensive line came together in the second half & we actually ran the ball better. Shumps problem is that he can't break tackles or make a guy miss. When Shumpert gets 5 yards, J Rob may have gotten 15, because he made the guy miss & had balance.

We really miss J Rob and MUST find someone else that's capable. Shump isn't bad, he just isn't dynamic & not a difference maker

[ShotgunDawg]

Dak didn't have anywhere to run because LSU didn't respect our RB enough to bite on the zone read.

[Brando]

To be fair, Dak had a ton of time to throw on most of the plays. I did see however, there were a few plays where if he would have tucked and run, he would still be running...

[Coach007]

The ol grew up a lot. We have a chance to peak late in the season. The next improvement has to be the second level blocking. Its not the back... Its a combination of Dak not running, Dan being conservative in 1.5 quarters.

We have tons of upside right now, and almost beat a contender.

[CadaverDawg]

Shotgun, I agree with your post. What's most disappointing to me, is that it shouldn't matter what defense LSU is running. If Dan is the offensive guru he's supposed to be, he should want to set the tone and dictate the way the game is played...not allow the LSU defense to tell him how he's going to call plays. That is Bullshit, and he should be ashamed of himself for allowing us to come out, yet again, in a big game uninspired and with such a shitty gameplan on offense.

The whole Dak not running thing, can only be one thing....Dan is trying to help Dak get drafted. There is absolutely no other explanation. Dak killed those guys last year with his legs, and Shumpert ain't gettin it done, so you HAVE GOT to run Dak, and we didn't. Our whole entire offense is based on the run threat of the QB, and we chose not to run ours. The only other explanation is if Dan figured that Steele was going to key in on Dak bc of what happened last year, so Dan thought he was outsmarting him. But even then, how many series of failure does it take to decide to run the guy that was a Heisman candidate last year? Just so disappointed in Mullen's preparation and playcalling in the first half.

The OL is shit, and I have no clue what we're going to do. We just have to teach them to pass block, and let Dak throw and scramble 50 times a game I guess. Can't believe our OL looked that awful, even the experienced guys.

If Westin Graves has ever made a 50+ yard field goal, he should walk in Mullen's office and kick him square in the nuts and then quit the team. I'm so ****ing tired of watching Devon Bell miss FG's. The guy seems like a good dude....but good grief, you're on scholarship to do one thing.....1 ****ing thing.....and you can't do it. Not even a little bit. And even his punting sucks now. There's nothing I hate more than a kicker that can't make a FG. That is their ONLY job.

I will give Manny credit for holding them to 21....but I was disappointed in the D as well. Manny is all about stopping the opponent's best weapon and forcing someone else to beat us. We didn't stop Fournette, and they beat us. That being said, when you have Dak, Ross, Wilson, and Dan Mullen....you are ALWAYS supposed to win if your D holds the opponent to 21. Especially since LSU started so many drives early on at midfield or better, while we were starting deep in our own territory because our offense couldn't do shit.
So the D wasn't great, but it did not lose us the game. Our "offensive guru" cutting our Star QB's nuts off lost us the game. It's sickening. Mullen thinks he is so damn smart....He's going to switch it up and show that he can win without Prescott running, while also getting him NFL ready, yet all he does is make us lose and make Dak look worse. He turns in to the football version of John Cohen sometimes...where he thinks he's smarter than everyone else. We won 10 games running a Dak Prescott offense last year that was tops in the league.....Why in the hell would you change the key component of that offense? It is mind boggling.

We have a very very legitimate shot at losing to Auburn and A&M, and if that happens, we better hope the wheels don't fall off. I'm worried, because I don't think LSU is that good. I think we just played that bad. And to think one good drive to start that game would have gotten the crowd amped, and we could have blown them out....but we let them decide how we would play, and they did exactly what they wanted. Made it a low scoring ugly game, and grind out a W. Disappointing and disgusting.

And since I'm complaining, somebody tell Jim Ellis to either learn our players' names, or GTFO. He called Joe Morrow, "Joe Morrison" all night, and JT Gray, "TJ Gray" all night. You are OUR commentator, Jim....learn our players or go the hell home.

Looks like I'll get some good deer hunting in this year. Last year all the winning kept me glued to the TV all day on Saturday....the deer won't be nearly as safe this year it appears.

Disappointing and uninspiring. We had a crowd waiting to explode on a National stage, and we came out looking like a bunch of sissies. **** that. I'm done with this one, but it's going to be a shitty year. Good post Shotgun. Where's the Tylenol.

[confucius say]

I think it's two fold. I thought the offensive line came together in the second half & we actually ran the ball better. Shumps problem is that he can break tackles or make a guy miss. When Shumpert gets 5 yards, J Rob may have gotten 15, because he made the guy miss & had balance.

We really miss J Rob and MUST find someone else that's capable. Shump isn't bad, he just isn't dynamic & not a difference maker

If we have jrob, we win tonight.

[Smitty]

If we have jrob, we win tonight.

If we have HUD we win tonight

[CadaverDawg]

If we have jrob, we win tonight.

More than likely, yes. But boy we could use a Clausell, Day, and Beckwith too. Our OL looked like hammered hell out there.

[mstatefan91]

If we have HUD we win tonight
Shut up with this shit.

[Irondawg]

I'm not sure that 2 point pass is what I would call catchable. Even if he had caught it I think he might have been a half yard short based on where he landed. It's possible that shump went too wide on the pattern which caused it to look bad but that simply has to be a completed pass

[Smitty]

Shut up with this shit.

Truth hurts

[confucius say]

More than likely, yes. But boy we could use a Clausell, Day, and Beckwith too. Our OL looked like hammered hell out there.

Fully agreed.

[confucius say]

I'm not sure that 2 point pass is what I would call catchable. Even if he had caught it I think he might have been a half yard short based on where he landed. It's possible that shump went too wide on the pattern which caused it to look bad but that simply has to be a completed pass

The pass was not great, but geez, shump has to keep his feet there, adjust his body, and catch the ball on his feet. Our ol is struggling, but we miss jrob.

[confucius say]

Truth hurts

Dan has his flaws, but he is the best thing to ever happen to msu football. (Administrators (Byrne) not included).

[ShotgunDawg]

And since I'm complaining, somebody tell Jim Ellis to either learn our players' names, or GTFO. He called Joe Morrow, "Joe Morrison" all night, and JT Gray, "TJ Gray" all night. You are OUR commentator, Jim....learn our players or go the hell home.

Jim is terrible at football & it shows.

You can tell, even by the way he tweets, that his love is baseball & it's no surprise that is a much better play by play guy in the sport that he has a passion for.

Jim is a great guy, but he simply isn't very good at play by play for football.

[mstatefan91]

My opinion is now the truth and it shall hurt your poor ignorant soul.



Well, looks like you got me there.. oh my

[Pokechop Womack]

Jim is terrible at football & it shows.

You can tell, even by the way he tweets, that his love is baseball & it's no surprise that is a much better play by play guy in the sport that he has a passion for.

Jim is a great guy, but he simply isn't very good at play by play for football.

First of all, Shotgun, I told you so... Second of all stop talking $*** about Jim.... guy is more of a Dawg than you will ever be so... there's that...

[ShotgunDawg]

First of all, Shotgun, I told you so... Second of all stop talking $*** about Jim.... guy is more of a Dawg than you will ever be so... there's that...

What did you tell me so about?

Not sure what Jim being all dawg has to do with his play by play skills.

I'm all dawg and Cadaver is all dawg, but we both likely suck at play by play. Is being "All Dawg" a qualifier for the position or should it go to someone who is really really good at play by play, prepares, and knows the names of our players, particularly Seniors?

[DancingRabbit]

If we have HUD we win tonight

Ha ha first Hud call of the year. Dumbass.

[defiantdog]

One things for sure, whoever drafts Fournette is going to get a guy that's worked a heavy workload.

He's like a high school pitcher that threw way too many innings
What? Adrian Peterson has done well in the NFL. Backs like Fournette and Peterson only come so often. Typically, RBs are a dime a dozen. But guys like Fournette only come so often. Dude is gonna rock it in the NFL.

[HSVDawg]

What sucks about this game is that no one made a play

You are right. But you forgot one other thing that sucks the most about that game. We actually for the first time since the 90's had a legit shot to win the west this year (especially after watching what unfolded today), and now that is gone. Already. After one SEC gane.

In 7 years, tonight is the first time I have been truly ****ing pissed at Mullen beyond comprehension. Lost to a lesser team in our own stadium for the first time in his career. I guess its a testament to his consistency and an indictment against the current team at the same time, but either way it sucks. Especially when you look at his 4.3 million dollar paycheck.

[Joe Schmedlap]

Dak didn't have anywhere to run because LSU didn't respect our RB enough to bite on the zone read.

Bingo

[Dawgface]

Bingo

Quote Originally Posted by ShotgunDawg View Post
Dak didn't have anywhere to run because LSU didn't respect our RB enough to bite on the zone read.

This is the problem. Dak will continue to be a passing QB as long as our OL doesn't open holes for the run. On the bright side, at least the OL did a better job at pass protection as the game went on.

[tcdog70]

Come on, LSU took away the Run. It took us too long to figure out to run a hurry up with Dak throwing short quick passes to wear out their lineman. The short passes were the equal to a running game. Our ****up came when Dan slowed us down and got a delay penalty. Our strength is our receivers and Dak--shit play to our strength. Throw it