http://www.andthevalleyshook.com/2008/9/1/605636/revisiting-my-five-things
On Thursday last week, I wrote about five things I was looking for in Saturday’s game.. Unfortunately, due to the time and channel change, I was unable to watch the whole game (we don’t have ESPN Classic where I work), so this will be incomplete. Hopefully that will be a one-time occurence this season. Take this for what it’s worth.
1) The quarterbacks. Well, Les Miles and Gary Crowton played this one about as down the middle as one could. It’s frustrating really because neither quarterback stepped up. The bit I saw of each was very average. Clearly, Hatch provided more options with his running ability, but outside of that, he’s the Chad Pennington of the LSU quarterback race. Lee looked lost, like a freshman should, in his first game. He clearly has more upside, but defenses from Troy and Auburn will be much more opportunistic in the coming weeks. I didn’t think Jordan Jefferson would play unless it was a blowout. It was a blowout, but Jefferson still didn’t see the field, likely because Hatch and Lee were so average.
I imagine Saturday against Troy will look a lot like this past Saturday with each quarterback splitting the snaps. If Jefferson doesn’t play again, I would be shocked. If he’s as talented and performed as well as some have reported, you’d think there would at least be a “Tebow Package” for him. If he doesn’t play Saturday, my guess is he won’t this year barring some catastrophy.
Either way, the addage, “if you have two quarterbacks, you have no quarterbacks” appears to be true right now. Luckily, Auburn appears to have the same issue so we may be able to win that one without a quarterback.
2) The secondary. Jai Eugene, Harry Coleman and Chad Jones all started for the first time on Saturday. Patrick Peterson also saw action. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to watch the defense as much as I would have liked so I didn’t really get a grasp on how they performed and whether the corners were left on islands much.
That said, the numbers are encouraging. Appalachian State quarterbacks went 14-for-33 with only 187 yards passing. However, the defense wasn’t able to turn it over at all, which is troubling. And then there was the busted coverage for a touchdown. You can’t do that against the big boys.
3) Ricky Jean-Francois and Charles Alexander. Alexander didn’t play and Francois wasn’t credited for a single tackle. I doubt that will be the case in any other game this season.
AndTheValleyShook
9/1/08
