Dancing Between the Hedges and Other Top 25 Ramblings #LSU@Georgia

We have a lot to discuss so lets get right to it!

LSU@Georiga

Les Miles said before the game about Mettenberger: "He need not worry about anything but playing quarterback." As we shall see, he needed to worry about his young freshman defense on the road. The quote was in reference to Mettenberger trying to play for Georiga, his mom working for Georgia, Mettenberger got in trouble in Georiga....I don't really know and I don't really care, it had something to do with Georgia....well the entire LSU team had something to do with Georgia Saturday and I found that more interesting. The other thing I don't care about? The lack of pass interference penalties, they weren't called all game and I have no problem with that. They let the defensive backs do whatever they wanted out there and the offenses still threw for over 600 yards combined, almost 700 actually. Maybe they should have let the DB's use hammers and pistols. Hit the WR's in the knees with the hammer and shoot'em if they make the catch. 

The Good for LSU: 
1. That was probably the best quarterbacking performance I have seen out of LSU in easily 2 years, and probably longer. Anymore doubters of Mettenberger? Here's the line: 23/37 for 372 yards and 3 touchdowns. 
2. The LSU adjustments at halftime. LSU had Georgia right where they wanted in the second half behind their new found running game and better tackling on the defensive side. The LSU coaches did what they had to do to put these kids into a situation to win.
3. Jarvis Landry. Just wow. Plain wow. When-ever LSU needed a catch guess who showed up? This was highlighted by his catch in the 4th quarter when he made a falling backwards catch in traffic and got his helmet knocked off. My favorite WR in the entire country right here. 10 catches, 156 yards, and 1 touchdown
4. Jalen Mills. The ONLY LSU DB to make a play all day. He knocked down 2 passes on one drive and made a huge tackle on a running back on third down.

The GOOD for Georgia:
1. Craig Loston - S for LSU. He personally accounted for 3 of Georgia's touchdowns yesterday with his mental lapses. He let Michael Bennett get by him on the first drive for a touchdown, he then let Conley get behind him on the 3rd Georgia drive for a 25 yard touchdown off of play-action, and then he gave no help over the top to the LSU DB and let Scott Wesley run free for the game winning touchdown catch. I hope he got a Georgia game ball.
2. The offensive line play. I think Aaron Murray had a clean jersey. And the run blocking was a thing of beauty. Great back side seals, blowing players off the ball, etc, etc..
3. The Georgia offense. They played a damn near perfect game, which is what this team needed. There was 1 INT thrown early in the game off of a great play by LSU lineman Anthony Johnson, Murray almost fumbled a snap once, and other than that it was flawless. 
4. Georgia's play-making abilities on defense. They had 4 sacks and 2 of those were coverage sacks. As good as the LSU receivers are, the Georgia DB's wrapped them up tight a couple times...sometimes literally but this was happening on both sides. A lot of the players I called out in my defensive report on Georgia made plays today: Ray Drew had a tipped pass on the last LSU drive, Harvey Clemons was flying around all day, Jenkins had a big day and could have sealed it with an INT late, Floyd made a couple of big plays, and of course Herrera had his hand in this as well. 
5. I said special teams would play a part in this...who knew that Georgia's special teams would be flawless...

The BAD for LSU:
1. The defensive line. I don't think they played without passion, they just got man-handled by the Georgia offensive line. I counted a total of 5 times the entire game that LSU got any type of pressure on Murray. FIVE out of a whole game. And 4 of those 5 times resulted in incomplete passes. The better unit prevailed today.
2. The LSU defensive backfield. How many times can you fall asleep on your assignments? Do these kids understand when to play zone and when to play man coverage? Georgia's offense was very good on Saturday, but it's easy to make plays when your WR's are running LOOSE in the defensive backfield. On Michael Bennett's 20 yard TD catch in the 3rd quarter you literally see half of the LSU DB's playing man coverage, and half of them playing zone. The DB playing zone, I assume, was hoping for help over the top that wasn't there....probably because he was supposed to be playing man coverage. Result: Bennett wide open, Touchdown and a 34-27 Georgia lead. And this was on a third and 11 play after Barrow had blown up a run play and Georgia had a false start, it was a field goal at best.
3. LSU run defense in the first half. In watching the LSU defense try to plug up the running holes I was reminded of quote from Sheriff Buford T. Justice from Smokey and the Bandit when cops were trying to close a road block around the Bandit. Justice said, "You sum'bitches couldn't close an umbrella." Yeah, it was that bad. I could have ran through those holes. 
4. LSU special teams. It was like "Curse of the Reverse Hatter." I said last week that Odell Beckham worries me as a WR because he drops too many passes, but is one of the best returners in the country. On THIS day he didn't drop a pass but he dropped a punt....un-believable.
5. LSU only had 3 defensive stops all day. One was an INT, one resulted in a punt, and one resulted in a dropped punt. And I don't count dropped Georgia passes as the LSU defense making a stop.
6. LSU on their final drive. The offense had been running play-action crossing routes all day for huge gains. There is a minute and a half left, why did they stop running the crossing routes? Georgia was bringing the blitz, why did LSU not mass protect? They did it earlier in the game and had great success with only 2 or 3 route runners. Why not slip the backs out of the backfield like they did earlier in the game? And as good as he was all day, Mettenberger looked like he cracked. The rush wasn't THAT bad and he was over-throwing everybody. 
7. The prevent defense from LSU on Georgia's game winning drive. 

The Bad for Georgia
1. Gurley got a sprained ankle.

Final game notes:
The moment looked too big for LSU, especially at the end. The DB's made mental mistakes, the offensive line made mental mistakes and played lack-luster in the first half. Mettenberger looked rattled at the end. When was the last time Les Miles won a big game? He lost the national championship to Bama, lost to Bama again the next year, lost to Clemson in the bowl game....
Georgia looked pumped and ready from the word "Go." The defense gave up a lot of yards and a lot of points, but held when they needed too and made a lot more plays than LSU's. Murray didn't make the dumb mistakes that has sometimes haunted his career. When Georgia plays like this, they are damn near un-beatable. They needed the almost perfect game and they delivered.
Georgia's offense averages 345 passing yards a game on the season and 209 rushing, LSU held them 298 passing and 198 rushing, but couldn't keep them off the score-board when it mattered.
LSU's offense averages 281 passing and 192 rushing and Georgia allowed them 372 passing and only 77 rushing.
LSU has given up 519 yards rushing to Georgia, Auburn, and TCU combined.


Wisconsin@Ohio State

This was game was a lot more entertaining than I thought it would be.

Ohio State came out firing on all cylinders to start the game and scored the first touchdown of the night in a minute and seven seconds. So much for that Wisconsin defense. Carlos Hyde was a beast, breaking tackles, and pounding the Wisconsin defense. Miller looked sharp in his return, rolling out on boot-legs, throwing on the run, and firing strikes into the endzone.

Wisconsin looked like I expected them to early on, sloppy passing and not being able to run against a defense that was loaded against it. Then Wisconsin found their passing game. Does anyone remember in "Remember the Titans" when Denzel said something about only running a handful of plays but they were going to run them to perfection? Well that was Wisconsin's passing game. Play-action, roll out, throw it to Abbrederis. Play-action, roll out, throw it to Abbrederis. Play-action, roll out, throw it to Abbrederis. Abbrederis had 10 catches for 207 yards. At one point I was absolutely exasperated and could not understand why Ohio State was not doubling covering this guy. Hell sometimes, they didn't cover him at all. HE'S THE ONLY WR WISCONSIN HAS FOR GOD'S SAKE!!! COVER HIM!!!  The rest of Wisconsin only had 10 more catches for 92 more yards!!

On the next Ohio State drive it was more of the same, Hyde busting through people, Miller looking sharp and the Buckeyes were up 14-7.

From here on it turned into more a defensive struggle type of game. Wisconsin remembered who they were and started standing up against the run. Of course it seemed to me that there were times that Ohio State's play-calling was too cute and they lost sight of Hyde. As for the Wisconsin running backs, Ohio State came prepared to stop the run and that's what they did early on, and Abbrederis be damned! Wisconsin had some sloppy penalties that hurt. The Badgers got a huge break when Ohio State muffed a punt but a penalty negated the Wisconsin recovery and they had to re-kick.

I have to say I was more impressed with Wisconsin QB Joel Stave than I was 2 weeks ago at Arizona State. He was moving well, he was avoiding the rush, and he was a lot more accurate with his throws. I thought it was a different quarterback at one point. In his return, Braxton Miller had some gutsy runs, particularly on the last drive before half. On that last drive I was livid at Ohio State's third down call when they threw it into the endzone and ended up with a 4th down just outside of field goal range. Why would you not pick up the yards and make sure you got the 3 points? Miller then promptly threw a 40 yard strike to Corey Brown for a touchdown. Sorry Urban, you got this, my bad.

After halftime Ohio State decided to do their Wisconsin imitation and ground and pound. Wisconsin's defense was up to the challenge and held their own and limited the big plays. Wisconsin had one solid chance to really make a game out of this in the third quarter. The Badgers had just punted from deep in their own territory and Ohio State had the ball on the Wisconsin on 47 yard line. Wisconsin stuffed Ohio State's run game and forced a turnover on downs on 4th down and had GREAT field position. Stave then threw an interception. On the next Buckeye drive they scored a touchdown and made the score 31-14. The game ended 31-24 but I never really felt Wisconsin was going to win this game from this point on.

Wisconsin gained 295 yards passing and ran for 104. On the season they were averaging 217 passing and 300 running. I said on Wednesday that if they had to throw the ball it would not be good. They got yards, but they lost the game. I have to say I was somewhat impressed by what I saw from Ohio State. The speed on defense is great, they play with heart, and the offense is very dynamic and versatile. However, I still don't see them beating really tough competition. 

Other TOP 25 action:

Ole Miss@Alabama - I thought I was being smart when I picked the Rebels on Wednesday, and then I realized how trendy that pick was becoming. I hate trendy picks. I then remarked to my fiancee on Friday that it sucked because Alabama was probably hearing all of this crap and was going to come out pissed off and completely shut down Ole Miss....They held Ole Miss to 205 yards, and ran for 252 themselves....And as I said a few weeks ago, Alabama is STILL very much Alabama.

Texas A&M@Arkansas -
"I am proud of my Hogs tonight. We came out and did exactly what I expected. I am not disappointed in this loss. We gave A&M one heck of a fight and ultimately didn't capitalize on the few opportunities they gave us while we gave them 2 rather large ones. Great effort by the team and great play calling by the coaches!!! We may not have been able to pull off the W but I'm super proud to be a HOG today!!! The future looks bright!!! O yeah, and Floyd Mayweather lost $300k betting against my Hogs!!!" a quote from Aaron my Razorback insider.

"If our defense was capable of stopping a toddler with a nerf ball, I think we could win it all." a quote from Jules my Texas A&M insider.

This game was way too close for a Top 10 team like A&M. When are they going to start running the ball with those backs and KEEP THAT FREAKING DEFENSE OFF THE FIELD?!?!

Oklahoma State@West Virgina - Do I hear it? Is that someone saying "OVER-RATED" over there?!?! Welcome to the fold brother! Dana Holgerson the coach of WVU said about his team after the game, "Golly they sure played hard." I didn't realize West Virginia had Butters on staff to write press releases. That's cool.

South Carolina@UCF - I keep telling people the AAC is a tough conference, and they almost knocked off another SEC opponent this week. But the running of Mike Davis powered the Gamecocks to a win.

Arizona@Washington - Who would have thought this would be a defensive battle in the first half? Washington shows their versatility and runs the ball down Arizona's throat for the win.

Cal@Oregon - Mariota completes 44% of his passes, Oregon turns the ball over 4 times, De'Anthony Thomas gets hurt on the opening kick, and Oregon scores 55 and wins.

Va Tech@Georgia Tech - Until there's a quarterback at Georgia Tech that can not underthrow his receivers, this team will always be on the outside looking in. Penalties and dropped balls are a sign of an undisciplined team as well. 

How did my Teams to Watch do?

Miami - Morris left the game early again. Didn't matter, still a "W".

North Carolina - Destroyed by Eastern Carolina....drop that game to Va Tech next week and this season might be over

Notre Dame - lost at home to Oklahoma, nothing too surprising. Over-rated I know.

Florida State - What the hell happened to that Fla St defense? They gave up 34 points to BC and was down 14-3 on the road to start the game. The good news, Winston throws for over 300 and 4 TD's and FLA St found a way.

Here's how my predictions came out this week: 5 wins, 3 losses
So far for the season my record is 13-5.

Here's my prediction for the coaches' top ten later today:
1. Alabama
2. Oregon
3. Ohio State
4. Clemson
5. Stanford
6. Georgia
7. Louisville
8. Florida State
9. Texas A&M
10. Oklahoma

And last but not least these are MY Power Rankings after this week of football:

1. Oregon
2. Clemson
3. Alabama
4. Florida State
5. Georgia
6. Stanford
7. Ohio State
8. Louisville
9. Texas A&M
10. LSU

As always thanks for reading!! Please leave your comments at the bottom or email them to me. I am on twitter Aubrey Mos @simplyNCAAF
I will see you later with Part 3 of "Whatever Happened to Defense in the SEC?"