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Why little details matter.

DTP

DTP

Commander of The Great Heathen Army
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How do you lose a game (pretty badly by the way) despite:

Out gaining the opponent 342-296
Having more first downs 18-17
Having better success on 3rd down 6-16 vs 3-16

It's because of the little things that coaches love to talk about but fans, for the most part, tend to ignore.

The kicking game.
One team goes 4-4 on field goals and had consistent results in the punt game giving up zero return yards and often putting the opponent in poor field position.
The other team goes 1-2 on field goals and has multiple shanked punts that gave the opponent excellent field position throughout the evening.

Penalties
One team had 11 for 85 yards. Including multiple drive killing false starts, a holding call that negated a big gain and multiple off-sides calls including one on a 4th down that could have impacted the game.
The other team had 6 for 62 yards but 4 of them occurred after they were already up thirty points. None that extended the opponents drives and none that killed major offensive gains.

Turnovers
One team had two interceptions, including one that was returned for a touchdown.
The other team had no turnovers, instead choosing to often play it safe and rely on the strengths of their team, kicking and defense.

You look at a box score and say "How the f**k did a team with under 300 total yards manage to put 33 points on the scoreboard? By doing the little things right. When you have what most people were predicting to be a defensive struggle, these are the things you NEED to do to win.
 
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There's a long list, but the punting is really ****ing me off. I was over Feagles last year.

You can't just consistently shank punts and give the other team good field position. Well, not unless you play for Miami.

When the other team is starting drives from near midfield because your punter kicks a duck more often than not, you're going to have major problems. And we do. That **** matters, man. I cannot believe our coaches allow it. I seriously can't believe it.
It isn't acceptable.
 
Same thing exactly last night for FSU except they had wide left field goal, blocked punt, fumble, interception. Wham, there's the game. It's called mistakes and it cost us/them the game.
 
We are the better team. That is why the fanbase is so upset right now. We had more talent, and the game was looking good for the first part there. The punting single handedly lost us the game. There is no other way to put it. LSU played with a short field the whole game. You will never win if a team is consistently starting at your 50. Those stats tell the story, but to watch the punting, completely killed our chances.

Not to mention. That targeting call was complete ****. Horrible freaking call.
 
When you throw the ball directly into 3 defenders, out of bounds on go/fade routes, badly overthrow wide open TEs, miss blocking assignments, attack the wrong gaps on D, fail to convert on 3rd downs, etc...
 
DTP said:
How do you lose a game (pretty badly by the way) despite:

Out gaining the opponent 342-296
Having more first downs 18-17
Having better success on 3rd down 6-16 vs 3-16

It's because of the little things that coaches love to talk about but fans, for the most part, tend to ignore.

The kicking game.
One team goes 4-4 on field goals and had consistent results in the punt game giving up zero return yards and often putting the opponent in poor field position.
The other team goes 1-2 on field goals and has multiple shanked punts that gave the opponent excellent field position throughout the evening.

Penalties
One team had 11 for 85 yards. Including multiple drive killing false starts, a holding call that negated a big gain and multiple off-sides calls including one on a 4th down that could have impacted the game.
The other team had 6 for 62 yards but 4 of them occurred after they were already up thirty points. None that extended the opponents drives and none that killed major offensive gains.

Turnovers
One team had two interceptions, including one that was returned for a touchdown.
The other team had no turnovers, instead choosing to often play it safe and rely on the strengths of their team, kicking and defense.

You look at a box score and say "How the f**k did a team with under 300 total yards manage to put 33 points on the scoreboard? By doing the little things right. When you have what most people were predicting to be a defensive struggle, these are the things you NEED to do to win.
Click to expand...
To add to this the disparity In the field position was glaring and played a big impact on that score for sure


We competed but beat our selves more than LSU beating Miami imo.

Everything that could go wrong went wrong in that game. We will be alright

We know our offensive players can compete with anyone in the country, they were open all night against an “elite” secondary and they caught the ball very well. Both deejay Dallas and Travis homer did some good things with the ball. The oline actually blocked well on most plays but did have some lapses but that’s expected blocking LSU’s front 7. All in all we won’t see a front 7 that physical until va tech game.

Our biggest issue on offense is obviously malik rosier
 
I believe it's called 'shooting oneself in the foot", but it shouldn't mask the other additional issues that people on here have been talking about for 2 days
 
Third down conversion needs to be taken in context. LSU made a couple key 3rd down conversions in the first half that led to points. Miami did not have one 3rd down conversion until the second half when the game was basically over. The devil is in the details. And LSU basically shut their offense down after the game was over. Only way they lose that game would have been over aggressive play calling that led to turnovers.
 
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DTP said:
How do you lose a game (pretty badly by the way) despite:

Out gaining the opponent 342-296
Having more first downs 18-17
Having better success on 3rd down 6-16 vs 3-16

It's because of the little things that coaches love to talk about but fans, for the most part, tend to ignore.

The kicking game.
One team goes 4-4 on field goals and had consistent results in the punt game giving up zero return yards and often putting the opponent in poor field position.
The other team goes 1-2 on field goals and has multiple shanked punts that gave the opponent excellent field position throughout the evening.

Penalties
One team had 11 for 85 yards. Including multiple drive killing false starts, a holding call that negated a big gain and multiple off-sides calls including one on a 4th down that could have impacted the game.
The other team had 6 for 62 yards but 4 of them occurred after they were already up thirty points. None that extended the opponents drives and none that killed major offensive gains.

Turnovers
One team had two interceptions, including one that was returned for a touchdown.
The other team had no turnovers, instead choosing to often play it safe and rely on the strengths of their team, kicking and defense.

You look at a box score and say "How the f**k did a team with under 300 total yards manage to put 33 points on the scoreboard? By doing the little things right. When you have what most people were predicting to be a defensive struggle, these are the things you NEED to do to win.
Click to expand...


I was looking at the box score and thinking the exact same thing. It was ****ing me off so bad knowing how bad those punts and completely avoidable penalties hurt us. Our OL play has been so bad for so long. Always STUPID penalties goes back years now.... Its so disappointing...
 
Other interesting tidbits:

Miami running backs averaged over 4.5 yards per carry against LSU but somehow only managed to get 15 total carries. (Why TF is Homer not getting the ball?) Meanwhile Richt had Rosier (clearly a the teams' weakness) throw the ball 35 times. Plus the numerous times a pass play was called and Rosier tucked it and ran. BTW, He had more carries than Homer and Dallas combined. Before anybody says anything, I get that they were playing from behind most of the game but they weren't bothering with the running game even when the game was close.

LSU handed the ball to Brosette 22 times. Yes, he finished with 125 yards but 50 of them were on one play. So, the other 21 carries he was averaging 3.5 ypc. That tells me that LSU knew who their bellcow was and they were going to force feed him and not rely on their inexperienced QB to win the game for them.
 
Noneedforaname said:
They would have outgained us had they not started almost every drive at midfield.
Click to expand...


So, you're of the opinion that the shanked punts and major field position discrepancy didn't really impact the game? Do you think LSU would have scored as many points if they were forced to move the ball 80 yards instead of 45? It's tough to play defense when your opponent only needs one first down to get into field goal range.
 
I keep thinking we aren't as bad as it seemed on Sunday and I keep smacking myself in the face and coming back to reality. If it was one game, fine. But this has been our MO for 4 straight games. I agree that this stuff really screwed us on a micro-level for LSU, but our inability to make an adjustment is beyond concerning. Whether it's personnel, play calling or philosophy, SOMETHING has got to be adjusted. To lose 4 straight games by double digits with this type of talent is unbelievable. Even worse is the fact that it all kind of looked the exact same
 
I have to agree with@brock we'll be alright. I'm not even mad we lost anymore. But can someone please explain to me why Diaz is always subbing players. I mean why can't he just put the best 11 out there and play til someone is tired??
 
Agree with this. We are clearly not a good enough team to leave points on the board (like on the missed FG), or to give the other team yards through special teams errors (like on the 3 terrible punts). I also don't understand how at halftime Homer had only 2 carries. We didn't get down 2 scores until about midway through the 2nd quarter, and even then, down 17-3, there is no reason to not get the ball to Homer.

Also, along the lines of the little things, the penalties killed us.
-On LSU's 1st TD drive (which was after the missed FG), DJax with the roughing the passer penalty on 2nd &10.
-Our next drive, pass to AR on 1st down gets 9 yards, then on 2nd down Malik runs for 12 and there is a holding penalty on St. Louis (punt after this series is for 34 yards).
-Next LSU drive, which resulted in a TD, had 2 4th down conversions, one of which was offsides by Tito.
-Our next drive, after DJ runs for 5 on 1st down, we have a false start on Donaldson, and then on 3rd and 3 DJ only gets 2 yards (Feagles next punt for 22 yards, LSU starts at its 44). LSU gets a FG on that drive.
-Our drive, after a 17 yard run by Homer, we then get Malik's INT for a TD.
- Then, before the half, we get the 2 penalties on their punts. The first one was just an absolutely atrocious call. The 2nd one I thought was absurd, but, even if it's the correct call, after getting a terrible penalty called the play before, why even pretend to rush the punter there when we're not erally going for the block? A blown chance there to get the ball with good field position before the half.

That series of 1st half drives was brutal, with our mistakes and terrible punts helping them substantially.

One other drive sticks with me. Not that it would have changed the outcome, but after we scored our first TD, we have a little life. We get LSU in 3rd and 10 on their own 11 with about 13.5 minutes in the game, with a chance to get the ball back in good field position and some momentum. And, like we've done so many other times, we allow Burrow to scramble for 11 yards. We end up forcing a punt, but they gain 19 yards and more importantly, run 3.5 minutes off the clock. We score on the next drive with 8:43 left to make it 33-17, but we could have potentially had at least another 3.5 minutes to work with in the attempt to come back.
 
1hurricane said:
I have to agree with@brock we'll be alright. I'm not even mad we lost anymore. But can someone please explain to me why Diaz is always subbing players. I mean why can't he just put the best 11 out there and play til someone is tired??
Click to expand...

Especially when there is a huge drop off between 1st and 2nd string at some positions (everyone knows who I'm talking about)
 
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Special teams have been bad for years and yet we don't make any change and expect it to get better, you can't explain that.
 
jmccomber5 said:
I keep thinking we aren't as bad as it seemed on Sunday and I keep smacking myself in the face and coming back to reality. If it was one game, fine. But this has been our MO for 4 straight games. I agree that this stuff really screwed us on a micro-level for LSU, but our inability to make an adjustment is beyond concerning. Whether it's personnel, play calling or philosophy, SOMETHING has got to be adjusted. To lose 4 straight games by double digits with this type of talent is unbelievable. Even worse is the fact that it all kind of looked the exact same
Click to expand...
It’s the same story all 4 games though...we did the same **** vs. Clemson
 
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