If bell converted would it have cut it to two? Can't remember

[Itsbeenworse]

Regardless, his misses kill momomentum.

[Political Hack]

special teams cost us 4 points tonight at least, and at one point it was 28-26. It's a completely different ball game with those 4 points, or if we hadn't given up points at the end of the 1st half.

[Itsbeenworse]

Offense stalls and fg kicker is so inconsistent. It's almost palpable the deflation of momentum.

[nsvltndog]

I normally don't buy the coachspeak that we were just a few plays away from a potentially different outcome, but I think they were there tonight.

2 pt conversion - we aren't Oregon - leave that stuff alone.

Missed holding call on the edge by the WR on LSU's first TD - it was brutally obvious b/c it was a 1 on 1 play out in space w/ no one else around except the dude getting held and the RB walking by. I think the RB scores w/o the hold, but the flag should have come out and led to 3rd and goal from around the 13 yard line. Reasonable shot at holding them to a FG in that situation.

Our first FG came 1 play after a great misdirection pass to Lewis where Siddoway completely whiffed the block out in space. That missed block cost us an easy TD vs the FG we got on the next play. There was no one on that side of the field between the receiver and the endzone. A simple bump from Siddoway would have led to a TD.

3rd and 3 or 4 with ~2 minutes left in 1H and Russell's pass goes thru Lewis hands. Convert that play and worst case we run out the half - best case we get some more points before half time. Instead LSU gets a late TD b/c we had to give up the ball.

At half time, we should have had at least 28 points and could have been up 28-17 or maybe a little more if we had scored on our final drive. Play out 3rd quarter like it did, but make FG and it is 34-20 MSU heading into the 4th quarter. Now we could have still imploded in the 4th, but I doubt we would have like we did. I think the upset was there to be had, but no one will think that way based on the final score.

Now its easy to disect the film this way and talk about what could have been, but if you want to beat Top 10 SEC teams - you make those plays, otherwise you lose and write what if's on message boards.

[Political Hack]

you're right nsvltndog. that whiffed block and missed holding call are a 10 point swing.

[RC3]

you're right nsvltndog. that whiffed block and missed holding call are a 10 point swing.

I thought it was clausell who missed that block on that play

[nsvltndog]

I could be wrong on the player, but it was on the right sideline in front of the student section while driving into the construction end zone. If Claussel was playing LT on the play it would have been tough for him to get out there that quickly. If they had him playing RT, it may very well have been him.

[bluelightstar]

It was Siddoway

[HoopsDawg]

I thought it was clausell who missed that block on that play

Nope it was Siddoway. Siddoway's missed block, Russell's missed throw to Lewis, Preston Smith's facemask (he didn't grab the mask), and going for 2 cost us a total of 16 points, minimum. Throw in Bell's missed FG and that's a 19 point swing heading into the 4th quarter. We go into the 4th quarter leading by 14 instead of trailing by 5, different ball game.

[nsvltndog]

Definitely a different ball game. I think we are also leaving out the stalled drive after Nickoe's INT. They called the same hold on us that they forgot to call on the first LSU TD and bogged that drive down. We would have been faced with either a 4th and 2 or a 48 yard FG attempt, but had to settle for a failed 4th and 12 after the holding call. It was a for real hold on the edge that deserved to be called, but no different than the one LSU got away with.

LSU had the better overall team, but with proper execution on just a few plays there was a for real upset opportunity that we let slip away. We haven't played well enough against LSU over the last 20 years except in a few cases to say this after our games with them.

[ChupacabraDawg]

He kills momentum and why in the world does Dan go for 2 after our first TD? I don't understand that at all. We really had nothing to gain on that. You go up 1 on a team that you know is going to score and if you don't get it then you're playing catch up the rest of the game. I know we kept it close but I kept looking for a way to tie the game up and it just wasn't there. I know coaches like to do that stuff at home but that was a silly move at that point in the game.