My Observations

#1
cotton

cotton

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#1
After sitting through yet another great college football contest at Neyland in which the falls fell short, I thought I would post my thoughts on the game. At the risk of being redundant, as some of these have their own threads, here are my observations:

1. LSU has better players than we do, especially at the line of scrimmage. Maybe it would be a different story if Harrell, Johnson, Coker, Ainge, a full strength Swain, and even Rob Smith were suited up and playing for us, but right now, their personel is better than ours.

2. Coaching schemes, taking care of the football (except for the 1 int,) and a lack of penalties on our side, combined with TOs and penalties by LSU (some of which were forced,) came within a breath of overcoming the talent difference.

3. There was a noticeable lack of electricity in the stadium until the 4th quarter. This was a big game, but LSU doesn't generate the excitement of Florida or Bama.

4. Johnathon Heffney is a very, very good football player.

5. The late-night incident which resulted in 3 players being arrested smells of frustration. I fear a meltdown in attitude more than I fear the lack of 3 key players.

6. You can't keep your defense on the field for 41 minutes and expect them to rally for a stop late in the game against a quality opponent. It was reminiscent of the Florida game.

7. This team plays with a lot more heart than last year's team.
 
#2
#2
Very accurate observations. Watching on tv I was kinda dissapointed in the crowd noise, I thought it was just me maybe.
 
#3
#3
cotton said:
After sitting through yet another great college football contest at Neyland in which the falls fell short, I thought I would post my thoughts on the game. At the risk of being redundant, as some of these have their own threads, here are my observations:

1. LSU has better players than we do, especially at the line of scrimmage. Maybe it would be a different story if Harrell, Johnson, Coker, Ainge, a full strength Swain, and even Rob Smith were suited up and playing for us, but right now, their personel is better than ours.

2. Coaching schemes, taking care of the football (except for the 1 int,) and a lack of penalties on our side, combined with TOs and penalties by LSU (some of which were forced,) came within a breath of overcoming the talent difference.

3. There was a noticeable lack of electricity in the stadium until the 4th quarter. This was a big game, but LSU doesn't generate the excitement of Florida or Bama.

4. Johnathon Heffney is a very, very good football player.

5. The late-night incident which resulted in 3 players being arrested smells of frustration. I fear a meltdown in attitude more than I fear the lack of 3 key players.

6. You can't keep your defense on the field for 41 minutes and expect them to rally for a stop late in the game against a quality opponent. It was reminiscent of the Florida game.

7. This team plays with a lot more heart than last year's team.
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1. Agreed.

2. Agreed.

3. Not sure about that one. It really doesn't really show on the tv.

4. Definitely.

5. I've got nothing to say on that one until I hear the whole story.

6. Sometimes, a defense has to get itself off the field by stopping the other team on 3rd and 4th down. More often than not, that didn't happen last night.

7. Agreed. And that's what makes this loss so disappointing. They all played their guts out, from what I could see, and it sucks that they weren't able to come out with a win.
 
#4
#4
JAllen18MVP said:
6. Sometimes, a defense has to get itself off the field by stopping the other team on 3rd and 4th down. More often than not, that didn't happen last night.
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I agree completely, and I didn't mean to lay that totally on the offense. The offense opened the game with three-and-outs, and was unable to establish a running game all night. They contributed to the problem.

The defense also gave up a 3rd and 8, 3rd and 15, and a 3rd and 20, along with the fake punt and the key first down on 4th downs. It is a combination of problems, but the bottom line is the D played too long.
 
#5
#5
cotton said:
I agree completely, and I didn't mean to lay that totally on the offense. The offense opened the game with three-and-outs, and was unable to establish a running game all night. They contributed to the problem.

The defense also gave up a 3rd and 8, 3rd and 15, and a 3rd and 20, along with the fake punt and the key first down on 4th downs. It is a combination of problems, but the bottom line is the D played too long.
Click to expand...

I agree. It was painful to watch.
 
#6
#6
Thanks. Good take. 41 minutes by any D is too long.....bad call by CPF to start EA. One extra 1st down in the 1st half might have saved us.
 
#7
#7
that all sounds good to me. i dont know about the stadium atmosphere i wasnt there. and i dont know about the arrests cause i wasnt there.

i will say if the defense had tackled better they might not have been on the field for 41 minutes. we also underestimated russell's ability to run the d-line at no point looked like they were trying to contain him, it was all pressure which they didnt get cause lsu's line was better than ours. on both sides. like you said. we do play with heart this year and that is why we beat the teams that we are better than and we play close games with the teams better than us.
 
#8
#8
I was at the game and I thought the crowd noise and electricity in the stadium was fantastic. In fact, my brother and I were commenting how we thought it was even more alive than in the Florida game this year.
 
#9
#9
Key observation: The defense was on the field for way too many plays. While Crompton performed well, he wasn't able to lead very many big drives. He relied on the big play.
 
#10
#10
Just got home to missouri from the game..

UT capitalizing on LSU mistakes was impressive...

Defense needs to work on tackling!!

Crompton was impressive considering all the worrying everybody did about him playing....for the short time UT had the ball he moved it very well....

play calling was to conservative most of the time...seams were pretty open most of the game...didn't seem like it was taken advantage of that often.

why no pressure on russell on the final TD?!? D-Line looked like they were just standing there.

Had a great time as always..Brought a friend to see what a game was like at Neyland...Impressed, atomosphere was nothing like he has seen b4, Never dreamed it would be that loud and orange!
 
#11
#11
Crompton's decision making will come with time. I thought the crowd was jacked up considering UT was getting their butts handed to them. It was like rooting for a Christian who had just been thrown to the lions. I kept looking for Nero in the pressbox for the thumbs up or down.

This is the most resourceful UT team I have seen in some time. The defensive line and linebackers just aren't ready for primetime.
 
#13
#13
SCSmokey said:
I was at the game and I thought the crowd noise and electricity in the stadium was fantastic. In fact, my brother and I were commenting how we thought it was even more alive than in the Florida game this year.
Click to expand...

I disagree, I thought it was a notch or two less than Florida. Cal was pretty loud as well, maybe it was because we knew it would affect them and we wanted to show what the SEC can do.

As for Cotton's comments, agree all around. Good post.:good!:
 
#14
#14
SCSmokey said:
In fact, my brother and I were commenting how we thought it was even more alive than in the Florida game this year.
Click to expand...

It wasn't even close to the UF game for the first 3 quarters. The 4th quarter was close.
 
#15
#15
Anyone notice LSU running out on the field before we ran thru the T. Like Miami did a few years ago. That p'd me off! Such disrespect! I really never cared about LSU one way or the other but for me personally, between this and Coach Miles' reaction at the half, screw 'em all!
 
#16
#16
Gcrop said:
As for Cotton's comments, agree all around. Good post.:good!:
Click to expand...

Thanks for the compliment--I just try to call 'em like I see 'em.

I guess the disturbing thing to me was seeing us get out-manned at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball for the second time this year (I was also in attendance for the Florida game.) Right now, that is the difference in us being a very good football team and a championship team.

On the positive side, I do see a lot of good things in this team, and the difference between this year and last is remarkable. We are one first down against UF and a 4th down stop against LSU from being undefeated, and credit has to go to all of the coaches and players to taking the Vols back to that level.
 
#17
#17
cotton said:
On the positive side, I do see a lot of good things in this team, and the difference between this year and last is remarkable. We are one first down against UF and a 4th down stop against LSU from being undefeated, and credit has to go to all of the coaches and players to taking the Vols back to that level.
Click to expand...
Exactly what I have been thinking..
 
#18
#18
cotton said:
After sitting through yet another great college football contest at Neyland in which the falls fell short, I thought I would post my thoughts on the game. At the risk of being redundant, as some of these have their own threads, here are my observations:

1. LSU has better players than we do, especially at the line of scrimmage. Maybe it would be a different story if Harrell, Johnson, Coker, Ainge, a full strength Swain, and even Rob Smith were suited up and playing for us, but right now, their personel is better than ours.

2. Coaching schemes, taking care of the football (except for the 1 int,) and a lack of penalties on our side, combined with TOs and penalties by LSU (some of which were forced,) came within a breath of overcoming the talent difference.

3. There was a noticeable lack of electricity in the stadium until the 4th quarter. This was a big game, but LSU doesn't generate the excitement of Florida or Bama.

4. Johnathon Heffney is a very, very good football player.

5. The late-night incident which resulted in 3 players being arrested smells of frustration. I fear a meltdown in attitude more than I fear the lack of 3 key players.

6. You can't keep your defense on the field for 41 minutes and expect them to rally for a stop late in the game against a quality opponent. It was reminiscent of the Florida game.

7. This team plays with a lot more heart than last year's team.
Click to expand...
I don't buy this. I was at the 2001 SEC Championship when we has two first round NFL draft choices in Haynesworth and Henderson and Chavis couldn't figure out how to stop a true freshman backup QB running the draw play. I think our talent is at least as good as Auburn's. Our schemes were wrong!
 
#19
#19
rockydoc said:
I don't buy this. I was at the 2001 SEC Championship when we has two first round NFL draft choices in Haynesworth and Henderson and Chavis couldn't figure out how to stop a true freshman backup QB running the draw play. I think our talent is at least as good as Auburn's. Our schemes were wrong!
Click to expand...

UT was severely outmanned, and is playing with a makeshift defensive line.

Turnovers cost UT the ballgame in 01.
 
#21
#21
Lexvol said:
Crompton's decision making will come with time. I thought the crowd was jacked up considering UT was getting their butts handed to them. It was like rooting for a Christian who had just been thrown to the lions. I kept looking for Nero in the pressbox for the thumbs up or down.

This is the most resourceful UT team I have seen in some time. The defensive line and linebackers just aren't ready for primetime.
Click to expand...

I think the linebackers are the highpoint of our defense. Mayo and Mitchell have been really solid. Ryan Karl has been pretty great at times.
 
#22
#22
if we had LSU's talent, we're undefeated and heading toward a game against Ohio State. Miles is a complete idiot, his name is appropriate as he does less with more than anybody since Johnny Majors
 
#23
#23
We made fewer turnovers in '01 than LSU did in '06, none of which were TD turnovers like the Morely INT. The LSU offense in '01 still had to drive the ball into the endzone using a backup freshman QB and a backup TB after we had knocked out their starters in the first half. My point is that LSU was as overmatched in the SEC championship game as we were Saturday night and our defense could not make the adjustments to stop the QB draw despite having the best two defensive tackles in the SEC and possibly the nation that year.

When is this sacred cow, Chavis, going to accept any responsibility?
 
#24
#24
Our defense is Dr Jekyl/Mr. Hyde! I hate that "its not a prevent,its a mustang package" defense! How does a Qb have that much time and have 2 wrs in the same spot wide open?
 
#25
#25
kptvol said:
I think the linebackers are the highpoint of our defense. Mayo and Mitchell have been really solid. Ryan Karl has been pretty great at times.
Click to expand...

I think the defensive backs and safeties have been way too involved in stopping the run, and that the linebackers are having a hard time scraping to the right spots because they have offensive linemen draped all over them.
 
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