Sunday Morning QB- Corndogs in the Afternnon Edition
1. Sorry it's late, I slept until 11 today. I watched alot of film last night for our big game this Friday.
2. Always good to beat LSU, no matter how good or bad they may be. We all know and agree on that. But that was an LSU team with 17 new starters and their best defensive player out on short notice. Tthey will be decent on D but heir offense is bad. They have some good, young talent but you can see the inexperience. Brennan is not very good at all. They had plays out there and he was late with the ball or flat out missed them. Trying to run last year's offense with Brennan is a mistake. LSU is a 5-6 win team this year.
3. Getting a veteran QB sure paid off didnt it? We made a few bad turnovers but Costello made some great reads and great throws yesterday. His deep ball was outstanding. He got baited on the Pick-6 but thats going to happen at times as much as we throw the ball. Was a damn good record-setting performance.
4. Hill wasnt bad but should have had a few more carries. He sure taps that helmet alot for an offense that is supposed to be in such good shape. I was waiting on the T-wheel call from Leach with all the M2M LSU was playing. Leach was waiting to get it on the hash so it would be more effective. Huge play in the game. Hill should certainly help his draft stock this season. Marks is a solid back-up. The others are solid. Should be a very reliable group for us this season.
5. Big day for Osirus- who was my pick for most yards this season. 7/183 and 2 TD's. The WR's looked good as a collective group and only had a couple of drops. Payton was as expected also. Williams is finally making an impact on the underneath routes for the most part. Shavers had some big catches. I think he and Heath will become bigger parts of the offense as the season goes.
6. OL was as expected- a good group. 5 sacks seems like alot, but we did throw it 60 times. Dolla Bill had his troubles with Gaye- but he wont be the Lone Ranger this year on that. Cross was outstanding and likely becomes the player he was projected to be. We have issues at Center right now- but I expect that to get better. He needs experience. The communication should improve, especially with the lack of fans in the stands this season. The bigger line splits are inviting DC's to blitz more (they are doing the same to me in HS) and Pelini got a few sacks- but they also paid the price on crossing routes for it. We also did a good job of jamming them up in the middle on blitzes- making a big traffic jam hard to get thru. That gave Costello just a little extra time to make some throws.
7. We are very well-coached on D- thats pretty obvious. We had 2 months to get a plan ready for LSU and executed it as well as we could. 7 sacks and held LSU to less than 100 yards rushing. Able to get a piece of Brennan's arm when they had a guy running free that was likely 6 and turned it into a pick. Brule played pretty well. Errol looked damn good. We were physical. Brule acting hurt on the goalline and the D gathering themselves to turn a TD into a FG was huge in the game. That and the getting the piece of Brennan's arm to force a turnover were the two biggest defensive plays for us. Those 2 were an 11 point swing- the difference in the game. It's still concerning we gave up 425 and 27 points yards to a bad offense- but it's def something to build on.
8. Great way to start the season. With UPig and Kentucky up next, could see a 3-0 start to the Mike Leach Era before a showdown with A&M. We were one of the few offenses ahead of the D in game openers. The extra time has been helping defenses early on- with offenses getting better each week. Didnt faze Leach and we rolled to over 600 yards. I still think we need to run the 4-5-6 more times later in games. That pick we threw in the 2nd half up 10 changed the momentum of the game and got LSU back in it. The SEC has so many athletes. But thats not the Leach Way so we will roll with it. HailState!!
