http://theadvocate.com/sports/
http://theadvocate.com/sports/
HOUSTON — You can say what you want about this LSU football program.
All the good. All the bad. All the head-scratching insanity.
A delay-of-game penalty on the second half-opening kickoff? That doesn’t happen in Pop Warner football.
This only happens with Les Miles football, baby.
Welcome to his world.
Welcome to his theater of the absurd.
Outplayed most of the night by Wisconsin here in Saturday’s season opener, LSU was down to a last flicker of hope trailing 24-7 midway through the third quarter.
Then a little cunning. A little cuteness. Some brilliant plays by a team that despite its kookiness is talented.
Always talented.
Almost always winning, too, this time by a 28-24 score.
This has been a decade of this craziness under Miles, from the very first game when LSU came back from the dead on a fourth-down, 39-yard touchdown pass from JaMarcus Russell to Early Doucet at Arizona State.
That night, thousands of Hurricane Katrina refugees were here in this city, no doubt glued to TV sets and radios, coming unglued by what their Tigers did out in the desert.
They gave the people hope.
The Tigers always give their people hope.
And ulcers.
Saturday night, the Tigers fans in Houston, LSU’s biggest non-Louisiana alumni base, got to see the comeback first-hand.
It was quite a sight, almost worth waiting 31 years for since the last time the Tigers played here.
Wisconsin had to be absolutely dumbstruck.
Join the club, Badgers. The club of teams that were convinced that they had Miles and his Tigers cornered, outcoached, beaten. The same look all those smart villains had on “Columbo” all those years, unable to comprehend how this underwhelming man got the cuffs on them.
Substitute a high white hat for a rumpled trench coat and you’re still in theme.
The Badgers will head back north still certain they did virtually everything you want to do to control the game and ultimately win.
They rumbled for rushing yardage like Patton’s tanks charging through French hedgerow country. Their defense, paying little respect to an LSU passing game that had to subtract 3,000-yard passer Zach Mettenberger and 1,000-yard receivers Jarvis Landry and Odell Beckham Jr. from last year’s offensive equation, stacked something resembling a Galveston seawall against LSU’s running game and dared the Tigers to crack it.
For most of the night they couldn’t. All LSU had to show for its offensive efforts the entire first half was a fortunate 80-yard touchdown pass from Anthony Jennings to Travin “The Touchdown Maker” Dural. All things considered, it could have been worse for the Tigers than to be down 17-7 at halftime.
For most of the night, this was an offense in crisis. A doubled-over, head-on-your-knees, rocking-back-and-forth-while-
Read more...http://theadvocate.com/
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http://theadvocate.com/sports/
Scott Rabalais|
srabalais@theadvocate.com
srabalais@theadvocate.com
Aug. 31, 2014
All the good. All the bad. All the head-scratching insanity.
A delay-of-game penalty on the second half-opening kickoff? That doesn’t happen in Pop Warner football.
This only happens with Les Miles football, baby.
Welcome to his world.
Welcome to his theater of the absurd.
Outplayed most of the night by Wisconsin here in Saturday’s season opener, LSU was down to a last flicker of hope trailing 24-7 midway through the third quarter.
Then a little cunning. A little cuteness. Some brilliant plays by a team that despite its kookiness is talented.
Always talented.
Almost always winning, too, this time by a 28-24 score.
This has been a decade of this craziness under Miles, from the very first game when LSU came back from the dead on a fourth-down, 39-yard touchdown pass from JaMarcus Russell to Early Doucet at Arizona State.
That night, thousands of Hurricane Katrina refugees were here in this city, no doubt glued to TV sets and radios, coming unglued by what their Tigers did out in the desert.
They gave the people hope.
The Tigers always give their people hope.
And ulcers.
Saturday night, the Tigers fans in Houston, LSU’s biggest non-Louisiana alumni base, got to see the comeback first-hand.
It was quite a sight, almost worth waiting 31 years for since the last time the Tigers played here.
Wisconsin had to be absolutely dumbstruck.
Join the club, Badgers. The club of teams that were convinced that they had Miles and his Tigers cornered, outcoached, beaten. The same look all those smart villains had on “Columbo” all those years, unable to comprehend how this underwhelming man got the cuffs on them.
Substitute a high white hat for a rumpled trench coat and you’re still in theme.
The Badgers will head back north still certain they did virtually everything you want to do to control the game and ultimately win.
They rumbled for rushing yardage like Patton’s tanks charging through French hedgerow country. Their defense, paying little respect to an LSU passing game that had to subtract 3,000-yard passer Zach Mettenberger and 1,000-yard receivers Jarvis Landry and Odell Beckham Jr. from last year’s offensive equation, stacked something resembling a Galveston seawall against LSU’s running game and dared the Tigers to crack it.
For most of the night they couldn’t. All LSU had to show for its offensive efforts the entire first half was a fortunate 80-yard touchdown pass from Anthony Jennings to Travin “The Touchdown Maker” Dural. All things considered, it could have been worse for the Tigers than to be down 17-7 at halftime.
For most of the night, this was an offense in crisis. A doubled-over, head-on-your-knees, rocking-back-and-forth-while-
Read more...http://theadvocate.com/
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Posting as Thomas Williams (Not you?)
Thomas Williams · Top Commenter · To many to list after high school I went into the U.S. Army
When
the half ended I was grieving trying to consoling myself into
understanding that even with all of LSU raw talent they seem to not know
who to block or tackle.
And were just playing a bad game.
And I felt like that I have been lied to my LSU coaching staff because they were telling everyone that this 2014 LSU football teams lineman was indeed better than before.
Well the second half saw this same LSU football team who couldn't get the job done in the first half come back to win the important first LSU college football game, against a very good opponent, in the second half.
That in itself really said a lot about this LSU football team don't you think? Wisconsin must be asking themselves how they let that game get away from themselves.
And were just playing a bad game.
And I felt like that I have been lied to my LSU coaching staff because they were telling everyone that this 2014 LSU football teams lineman was indeed better than before.
Well the second half saw this same LSU football team who couldn't get the job done in the first half come back to win the important first LSU college football game, against a very good opponent, in the second half.
That in itself really said a lot about this LSU football team don't you think? Wisconsin must be asking themselves how they let that game get away from themselves.
And if they are honest with their answer they know like I do that LSU just took it away from them at the end.
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