The Truth

[ShotgunDawg]

Can you handle the truth?

I never like to post on the day of a game because people's emotions are running high, they want everyone fired, and aren't able to clearly look at the game for what it was.

As I have said in previous game reviews, I don't care about final scores because there are to many variables that go into them, I don't talk about play calling because 99.9% of time its just what unknowable fans blame because they don't understand the game enough to blame something else, and I don't get to much into Xs and Os because I'm not an Xs and Os expert. I look at things from 30,000 feet, tell you whats going on, and where things are headed.

Here are my thoughts from last night.

1. LSU's QB, WR, RB combo is the best I've seen in college football in quite some time. Fellas, we had no shot last night because they simply had better players than anyone in college football at the skill positions. Jarvis Landry and Mettenberger are first round talents, Beckham is probably a 3rd round type talent, and Hill will be a solid NFL running back. Substitute Julio Jones for Landry, add in Beckham as an extra piece, substitute Mark Ingram for Hill, and then add in Mettenberger for Greg McElroy and you'll see that LSU possessed the best skill talent this side of the Denver Broncos. Their offense is the most balanced I've seen in college football, and probably won't be stopped this year. Not sure how Alabama is going to match up on the outside with Landry, and our young corners had no shot. LSU could win the Natty if their defense shapes up. The truth hurts, but this game was lost in the living rooms of defensive backs 2 and 3 years ago.

2. Chris Jones is an animal and will go down as one of the top 2 or 3 players in the history of MSU in 3 years. Completely unblockable. One of the best freshman d-linemen I've ever seen in the SEC. Plays with a relentless motor, power, and speed, and he's still just scratching the surface with his technique.

3. Our offense played outstanding, but we aren't Oregon. They were put in an unfortunate position of having to score every time they got the ball last night, and that simply isn't fair or sustainable against decent talent. I agree with other posters that Dak and Tyler should both play, but we just have to figure out how to most effectively use them. Tyler can obviously throw the football as well as anyone but Mettenberger, and Dak obviously has another dimension that is virtually impossible to stop. However, Tyler can't move and Dak needs to continue to progress with his throwing. Was very impressed with Daks vision as a runner. He is going to be very very good for the next 3 years. His legs can break down a defense. Runs and throw better than Relf.

4. Bear Wilson - looks like we've finally found a young receiver that can stretch the field.

5. Bell - need another kicker. Momentum killer.

6. Defensive gameplan was fine. Our defensive line was outstanding, but due to the lack of talent in our secondary and the NFL talent of their skill players, even when our defense was in the right spot LSU's WRs just made a play. Not sure what the coaches can do about that. Nickoe is done. Looks slow out there.

Last week when breaking down this game, myself and others asked on multiple occasions, "How are we going to stop Landry and Beckham?". The truth is that no one could ever give a good answer. The only answer was, "Get pressure on the QB.", and that is something we actually did. But it didn't matter because LSU held such a mismatch in the passing game.

The truth is that I thought we played about as well as we could last night for our talent level. We didn't match up well on the outside and we got burned because of it. However, no other team we play this year or, for that matter no other team in the country, presents that type of matchup problem for our secondary. We are a good team that is getting better. We have good young players all over the field, but just ran into a buzz saw last night. Don't get bent out shape about last night. I don't do moral victories, but I saw a ton of positives that should give us a chance in every game the rest of the season.

Not saying we will beat Alabama, but for comparisons sake, we match up better against Alabama than we do against LSU. Alabama has some good receivers, but not Beckham and Landry. Landry has the best hands I've seen in a long time. Alabama is having O-line problems, and Alabama's QB isn't as talented as Mettenberger. Bama's defense is better, but I think our offense could pose some problems due to Dak's ability to run. Thats why they can't stop Manziel.

Anyway, we are getting better, but just matched up very poorly defensively last night, as will every other team LSU plays. My eyes told me that for the first 3 quarters last night we looked like a top 20 team. I think we are getting there. There are winnable games on the schedule, and we just have to keep improving.

Talent, not coaching was the problem last night.

[blacklistedbully]

I agree completely. Thought the missed FG by Bell was huge. Was yelling at my TV when we brought him in, "Don't do it, Dan!". I just KNEW he was gonna choke again. Dude has missed a FG in every game we;ve played, if I'm not mistaken.

Up until that missed FG we were trading punches with LSU. When Bell missed, we blinked, and the rout was on.

[ShotgunDawg]

I agree completely. Thought the missed FG by Bell was huge. Was yelling at my TV when we brought him in, "Don't do it, Dan!". I just KNEW he was gonna choke again. Dude has missed a FG in every game we;ve played, if I'm not mistaken.

Up until that missed FG we were trading punches with LSU. When Bell missed, we blinked, and the rout was on.

Yes, the field goal was a momentum killer, but what I'm preaching is don't get bogged down with that being the reason we lost. Our offense was forced to score on every possession because of mismatch that LSU held with their skill position players. Bell needs to be replaced, but him missing that field goal wasn't the reason we lost. It just hurried the inevitable.

[chef dixon]

If my NFL squad was able to get Beckham in the THIRD ROUND...

[Statefan]

I know during the press conferences, Dan ha said that the team has improved each week in practice

And I believe it -- the team is far better than the sputtering offense we saw against OSU, it's just frustrating that the nature of our schedule doesn't reflect this progress. We are MILES better than we were last year in my opinion....

[corona con lima]

I know during the press conferences, Dan ha said that the team has improved each week in practice

And I believe it -- the team is far better than the sputtering offense we saw against OSU, it's just frustrating that the nature of our schedule doesn't reflect this progress. We are MILES better than we were last year in my opinion....




Yep.

[BogeyGolfer]

We aren't LSU, we never will be, we played like I expected through three quarters... The 4th quarter got away with us a bit... We will beat BG, UK and Ole Miss... We are going to have to beat Ark in order to go to a bowl... I thought Tyler should have started the 2nd half he had just thrown two TD passes... Go figure ... No Shump. Why did we waste his redshirt?

[MetEdDawg]

And some on here will use lack of talent last night against a team like LSU as the over arching reason Mullen should be gone or that Stricklin should be gone for not firing him. I gave stats last night that 33% of the 2009 recruiting class either left or didn't/haven't played any part on our team while they were here and the 2010 class has 38% of the recruits leave or not play any role for our team. That's a lot of people we are missing from those classes that did nothing for us.

Can we blame Dan for that? I guess, but do you really want to say "Dan sucks now because of how he recruited 4 years ago in his 1st 2 years of head coaching as a guy under the age of 40 at an SEC cellar dweller that had been to one bowl game since the year 2000? You can't define him like that guys. Shit people, we need to look at this objectively. We knew years ago the 2010 class sucked and we knew there really wasn't much we could do about it. That was Dan's first class by himself, but that was also the last class where we can say Dan really shit the bed on that class because it really doesn't have a lot of play makers.

We've got freshmen and sophomores all over the place in our 2 deep because we've recruited SEC caliber talent the last 3 years and they are forcing their way on the field. But you aren't going to win games with freshmen and sophomore. You are going to get games last night where we matched an SEC juggernaut toe to toe for 3 quarters but mentally we just don't have the experience or upperclassmen leadership to hang for 4 quarters. But you sure are building a solid foundation for the next 2-3 years.

This is a transition year where we are switching from Mullen not knowing how to recruit talent to Mullen learning how to recruit talent. Screw the stars. We have SEC talent at every position except maybe the secondary, and even there we are missing Hughes and Redmond who are SEC caliber. There is a reason we've never been to a bowl game 4 years in a row. We get transition years like this and fans can't see the bigger picture, which is that we have closed the gap. We say we always are looking for next year. Says who? We have a 9 win year and two 8 win years under Mullen. Some of you need to see the bigger picture that this transition year was coming ever since 2010 and understand the circumstances of where we were then in recruiting and where we have come since then.

[HoopsDawg]

Chris Jones needs to be in there 75-80% of defensive snaps.

Beckham is better than Landry.

Hell no to 2 QB's. Other than that, pretty good post.

[hells bells]

Can you handle the truth?

I never like to post on the day of a game because people's emotions are running high, they want everyone fired, and aren't able to clearly look at the game for what it was.

As I have said in previous game reviews, I don't care about final scores because there are to many variables that go into them, I don't talk about play calling because 99.9% of time its just what unknowable fans blame because they don't understand the game enough to blame to blame something else, and I don't get to much into Xs and Os because I'm not an Xs and Os expert. I look at things from 30,000 feet, tell you whats going on, and where things are headed.

Here are my thoughts from last night.

1. LSU's QB, WR, RB combo is the best I've seen in college football in quite some time. Fellas, we had no shot last night because they simply had better players than anyone in college football at the skill positions. Jarvis Landry and Mettenberger are first round talents, Beckham is probably a 3rd type talent, and Hill will be a solid NFL running back. Substitute Julio Jones for Landry, add in Beckham as an extra piece, substitute Mark Ingram for Hill, and then add in Mettenberger for Greg McElroy and you'll see that LSU possessed the best skill talent this side of the Denver Broncos. Their offense is the most balanced I've seen in college football, and probably won't be stopped this year. Not sure how Alabama is going to match up on the outside with Landry, and our young corners had no shot. LSU could win the Natty if their defense shapes up. The truth hurts, but this game was lost in the living rooms of defensive backs 2 and 3 years ago.

2. Chris Jones is an animal and will go down as one of the top 2 or 3 players in the history of MSU in 3 years. Completely unblockable. One of the best freshman d-linemen I've ever seen in the SEC. Plays with a relentless motor, power, and speed, and he's still just scratching the surface with his technique.

3. Our offense played outstanding, but we aren't Oregon. They were put in an unfortunate position of having to score every time they got the ball last night, and that simply is fair or sustainable against decent talent. I agree with other posters that Dak and Tyler should both play, but we just have to figure out how to most effectively use them. Tyler can obviously throw the football as well as anyone but Mettenberger, and Dak obviously has another dimension that is virtually impossible to stop. However, Tyler can't move and Dak needs to continue to progress with his throwing. Was very impress with Daks vision as a runner. He is going to be very very good for the next 3 years. His legs can break down a defense. Runs and throw better than Relf.

4. Bear Wilson - looks like we've finally found a young receiver that can stretch the field.

5. Bell - need another kicker. Momentum killer.

6. Defensive gameplan was fine. Our defensive line was outstanding, but due to the lack of talent in our secondary and the NFL talent of their skill players, even when our defense was in the right spot LSU's WRs just made a play. Not sure what the coaches can do about that. Nickoe is done. Looks slow out there.

Last week when breaking down this game, myself and others asked on multiple occasions, "How are we going to stop Landry and Beckham?". The truth is that no one could ever give a good answer. The only answer was, "Get pressure on the QB.", and that is something we actually did. But it didn't matter because LSU held such a mismatch in the passing game.

The truth is that I thought we played about as well as we could last night for our talent level. We didn't match up well on the outside and we got burned because of it. However, no other team we play this year or, for that matter no other team in the country, presents that type of matchup problem for our secondary. We are a good team that is getting better. We have good young players all over the field, but just ran into a buzz saw last night. Don't get bent out shape about last night. I don't do moral victories, but I saw a ton of positives that should give us a chance in every game the rest of the season.

Not saying we will beat Alabama, but for comparisons sake, we match up better against Alabama that we do against LSU. Alabama has some good receivers, but not Beckham and Landry. Landry has the best hands I've seen in a long time. Alabama is having O-line problems, and Alabama's QB isn't as talented as Mettenberger. Bama's defense is better, but I think our offense could pose some problems due to Dak's ability to run. Thats why they can't stop Manziel.

Anyway, we are getting better, but just matched up very poorly defensively last night, as will every other team LSU plays. My eyes told me that for the first 3 quarters last night we looked like a top 20 team. I think we are getting there. There are winnable games on the schedule, and we just have to keep improving.

Talent, not coaching was the problem last night.

Very well done and I agree. This should shut down the beer'ed up elite's who say fire Danny. Please remember recruits read these boards. We have several good pic ups this last week. Let's not detour them. Keep up this good work.

[SPMT]

Landry has great hands and route running ability. He's not fast.

Bama will murder us.

[ShotgunDawg]

Chris Jones needs to be in there 75-80% of defensive snaps.

Beckham is better than Landry.

Hell no to 2 QB's. Other than that, pretty good post.

I respect your opinion on Beckham and Landry, but I respectfully disagree. Think the Landry has the best set of hands and body control I've seen in an SEC receiver since Green at Georgia.

However, the main point is, if we are debating this, what chance did our freshmen and sophomore DBs have against those two animals?

[ShotgunDawg]

Landry has great hands and route running ability. He's not fast.

Bama will murder us.

I disagree that Bama will murder us. I think LSU is better than them and we match up better against Bama. Bama doesn't have LSU's receivers

[Dawgowar]

This is a transition year where we are switching from Mullen not knowing how to recruit talent to Mullen learning how to recruit talent. Screw the stars. We have SEC talent at every position except maybe the secondary, and even there we are missing Hughes and Redmond who are SEC caliber. There is a reason we've never been to a bowl game 4 years in a row. We get transition years like this and fans can't see the bigger picture, which is that we have closed the gap. We say we always are looking for next year. Says who? We have a 9 win year and two 8 win years under Mullen. Some of you need to see the bigger picture that this transition year was coming ever since 2010 and understand the circumstances of where we were then in recruiting and where we have come since then.

Agree with your post and it share the same sentiment. Watching us last night I am no longer willing to just concede all three of USC, A&M and Bama. Feel better about Mullen than I did before the season to be honest. Jackie said it 10 years ago and I agree to this day - MSU should always be in a place where it can win 6-7 games a year with a year where they dip below that and years they spike above that.

Until we are a consistent 6-7 game winner we will not close the deal on the next level of talent. Don't believe in moral victories at all, just W's and L's, but I like what I saw last night. People who lack the grasp on reality to see it takes time are thankfully not the caliber of supporter who get taken seriously by decision makers.

[SignalToNoise]

Pretty good post man.

Agree on it being talent not coaching last night. Didn't understand why people were calling for Dan's head last night.

LSU's offense is sick and even when our DBs were in decent position Mett would make a perfect throw.

I feel like we are still improving and think we can find a way to get six wins

[Fred Garvin]

Best post I've seen this morning. After watching the Georgia game, I thought LSUs receivers were going to be the difference. Last night, showed I was right. Not only did they elevate to get the ball, they could take hard shots and hold onto the ball. The other huge difference was their ability to execute when they really needed vs our inability. Siddoway missing that block on the screen and Mojo dropping passes exemplified that we still have a long way to go on finishing. I think we have the ability to compete. We just need the confidence and killer instinct to close the deal.

[msstate7]

Delete

[msstate7]

We aren't LSU, we never will be, we played like I expected through three quarters... The 4th quarter got away with us a bit... We will beat BG, UK and Ole Miss... We are going to have to beat Ark in order to go to a bowl... I thought Tyler should have started the 2nd half he had just thrown two TD passes... Go figure ... No Shump. Why did we waste his redshirt?

We need to give shump a look at safety. Nickoe is never gonna be his old self. Nickoe is done. Shump can help this team at safety right now. Move him back to rb next season, but he's needed at safety now

[Fred Garvin]

Something has to be done. Nickoe is a liability back there. Not the players he was 2 yrs ago.

[Percho]

Met made about 4 throws that were close to awesome. One being the little side arm screen pass.

[thf24]

Great post. I'm very excited about Bear. He's out there contributing more than 2/3 of the receivers on the team and he doesn't even know how to play that well. He's going to be a star next year when he fully knows what's going on. On top of that, he can block any DB in the country and loves doing it. He's going to be a very special player for us.

[blacklistedbully]

Yes, the field goal was a momentum killer, but what I'm preaching is don't get bogged down with that being the reason we lost. Our offense was forced to score on every possession because of mismatch that LSU held with their skill position players. Bell needs to be replaced, but him missing that field goal wasn't the reason we lost. It just hurried the inevitable.

Did I say we lost because Bell missed the FG? Nope. What I said was there was a palpable shift in momentum at that point. And momentum shifts are absolutely key determining factors in outcomes. It is widely accepted that games can & do turn on 1 or 2 plays. Before the miss by Bell we were staying with them score-for-score. When we failed to match them that time, you could sense the air coming out of the sails.

It's as if we knew they were gonna get another score to take it to a 2-score lead, and that we wouldn't be able to overcome that. Assholes tightened and it all went downhill from there.

Obviously the 3 points Bell cost us wasn't the difference in the final score, and there were plenty of other costly mistakes, but to me, momentum was the biggest factor, given they went on to score 31 unanswered points. If I were a player who had to watch a head-case kicker botch yet another field goal, when he has helped cost us games in the past, it would be hard to not feel extremely frustrated, perhaps thinking, "Son of a bitch, here we go again!".

[HoopsDawg]

On 3rd and 6 before Bell missed the FG, I would have loved for Mullen to be thinking this is 2 down territory. Maybe use Dak's mobility to either run for a first down or set up a 4th short. Bell isn't going to make a 40+ yard FG from the left hash in that spot very often.