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Hot Read - LSU 20, Arkansas 13
Well, that's over.
My...ahem, familiar refrain...throughout the game was that I hate it. I hate this game nearly every single year? Why? Same reason why the Ole Miss game is usually more interesting than it should be. Game's a rivalry to the opponent, not to the Tigers. LSU looked like they wanted to be in Fayetteville about as much as John L. Smith likes his financial advisors. No desire. Sucky game. Let's not do that again.
About the only thing that went LSU's way was the play of Jarvis Landry, but honestly, that surprises no one. His circus catch of the month of the year of the decade is the only saving grace of this game and it took that to make LSU fans not totally want to purge every memory of this game.
LSU was absolutely and thoroughly outplayed by Arkansas in every way you can think, except for coaching. The coaches gave absolutely no shit about this game and made conservative call after conservative call, continually letting LSU off the hook. 4th and 1, down a touchdown late in the game, Arkansas kicks a field goal. It was conservative calls like that that gave LSU any chance to win the game because by themselves they had no business winning it. Punting with 6 minutes left in the game when you're down? Yeah, that's a give up call if I ever saw one.
This game is over with and LSU won inspite of themselves. That's the best thing an LSU fan can say about this trip to Fayetteville. It's best we just move on and dream of a possible BCS birth. We know the outcome of an LSU BCS game not against a divisional opponen: It's a satisfying beatdown of a pretty good team that sets up some nice lofty expectations for the next season and a high preseason ranking. Let's just forget this whole thing and move on to that.
I agree with you 1,000%, I hate the Ole Miss & Ark game every year because beating LSU for those two teams is like winning the SEC Championship for them that season and for LSU it is just another SEC West game, yes we want to win the game but we don't get up to play them where they get up big time to beat us.
Looking at the last 3 games the LSU has played the defense has officially come apart at the seams and I think people have figured out that the way to beat LSU is to pass because our defensive backfield is not what it has been for the past 3 years. Simon as good as he is, has not proven to be the lockdown corner that completely shuts down a side of the field like Claiborne and Peterson did. And Collins and Mills were just too inexperienced "all though they got a lot this year" and were picked on all season. I am still worried about our defensive backfield next year because I just don't see any true shut down corners in the group we have "except for Simon" but there is a lot of time between now and then I guess we have been so spoiled expectation are way out of line with reality Claiborne and Peterson are the exceptions in life, not the norm.
The early read on where we will be going bowling is the Chick-Fil-A Bowl and probably playing Clemson if that is the case you can bet Tahj Boyd and Dabo will be slinging the ball around a lot that day, let's just hope that if that is the case Chavis closes the holes in the defense that lately have looked bigger than holes in a piece of swiss cheese.
I completely agree with you. This team just did not want to be in Fayetteville on Friday.
LSU just did not look the same after the Alabama loss. The offense had some good games, but the defense looked more and more vulnerable as the season went on. We missed so many tackles Friday, it's difficult to realize this is an LSU defense. That didn't just crop up Friday. It has been "normal" since the Alabama game. The offense came to life for 3 games, but they sure didn't distinguish themselves Friday. Thank goodness for Jarvis Landry!
All in all, it has been a frustrating season. The future does look good with all the talent we have returning for 2013. We should definitely be in the title hunt. First things first ... I sure hope we put it together and have a great bowl game. A bowl win could put us in the top 5 for the final poll. But we have to show up with the real LSU football if we want to end this year with an 11-2 record.
