Showcase Showdown in Death Valley!

After five weeks of LSU football, many questions remain about the 2009 Tigers. What has been consistent is a completely inept offensive that ranks 99^th in the nation in overall production, although they are stacked with four years of top-five recruiting classes. In the 20-13 victory over Georgia in Athens, fans and coaches alike strongly felt that the Tigers should have easily led by 17 to 21 points going into the locker room after holding the Bulldogs to 98 yards and 1 first down the entire first half. 

However, the offense failed to convert many opportunities in the red zone and settled for three field goals.  But, as Les Miles has stated, this team’s identity is evolving into “just win baby”. The offense showed hopefully a coming out party when put into the grind on the road in the SEC and answered the call to pull out the victory. Hopefully, the offense “became a team” in that fourth quarter and its true coming out party will be against the #1 ranked Florida Gators.

            Defensively, the Tigers have made drastic improvement from week to week under John Chavis’ new system. The only flaw, albeit a major one, is that the Bayou Bengals rank last in the SEC in sacks having only 5 through 5 games. The talent in this brutal conference is too elite to allow quarterbacks too much time find their playmakers. The Tigers must find a way to get pressure and force the Gators into many check-downs and errant passes.  Outside of that, the defense has really come together as a unit and has produced several key turnovers and stops in the last several games (i.e. goaline stand in Starkville). Their defining moment will be Saturday night in trying to contain a very formidable foe.

            So, in come the Gators ranked #1 and on everyone’s preseason list to not only win it all in Pasadena, but to perhaps be one of the greatest teams of all time. They have not disappointed; the Gators are #1 in rushing, #2 in scoring, #1 in overall defense and #2 in scoring defense in the nation. That is a very intimidating balance that speaks volumes for the task ahead. However, Florida has yet to play a team with a winning record and yes these very disappointing Tigers are 5-0 overall and 3-0 in the SEC. “Just Win Baby!”

What to Watch For: 

1. Can the offensive line carry over their fourth quarter production from last week and provide the backs with enough holes to average 3 to 4 yards a carry against the Gators’ ferocious defense. Tennessee used a ball control approach against Florida and it worked very well in holding the Gator’s offense to its lowest output of the season, 23 points.

Related posts:

1. Sloppy Tigers fall to Penn St to close out season
2. SEC West Champs…Ole Miss?
3. LSU and Bama will be a battle
4. Falcons gear up for rare Sunday night showdown against Bears
5. LSU’s 31-23 win not all bad Tiger fans