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Story Archives: LSU needs pit stop


LSU needs pit stop
by Joey Martin - posted Thursday, October 15th, 2009 @ 10:50 pmE-mail Story E-mail Story | Print Story Print Story 
A very good racing truck needs a good pit crew and a team manager.

It's the same for Charles "Chuck the Truck" Scott.

Everyone asks, "What's wrong with Charles Scott this year?"

Scott has not rushed for more than 100 yards this season after rushing for 1,174 yards last season.
He averaged 90.3 yards a game last season. Through six games, Scott has rushed for 327 yards, averaging 54.5 yards a game. And 95 of that came against Georgia. And most of it has been all on his own.

Check the pit crew - in this case, the offensive line. Check the team manager, in this case offensive coordinator Gary Crowton.

When Scott does have a little bit of room to run, he bursts for about 15 to 20 yards. Unfortunately, that room has been harder to find than Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Darrell Waltrip together at a NASCAR party.
And when the defense knows Scott is going to get the ball off tackle on first down most of the time in the first half, well, the going is going to be tougher.

The pit crew has also been part of the problem for quarterback Jordan Jefferson, who does hold the ball too long at times and does make bad decisions.

But bad decisions doesn't start there. Running the option with Jefferson is a BAD DECISION.

Why they don't let Jefferson roll out more and throw on the run which he seems more comfortable doing is a mystery.

And Jefferson didn't drop three or four passes, which was also the case Saturday night.

You can get away with that against Louisiana-Lafayette and even Vanderbilt, but not Florida, Alabama or Ole Miss.

Reuben Randle made two great plays against Georgia the week before, including a tough clutch catch behind him during a crucial drive.

Randle never got on the race track against Florida.

Also, Russell Sheppard was probably the best athlete who didn't make the playing field.

Les Miles went on and on about how well the defense played Saturday. I think he should have said most of the defense.

LSU should have known Tim Tebow was going to hand the ball off early in the contest, but there was 5-foot-8 Jeffery Demps gaining six and seven yards, and even pushing guys who weighed 100 pounds more back five more yards.

And speaking of Miles, there appears to be way too much confusion on the field in critical situations. Players lining up wrong, looking to the sideline in bewilderment, not running routes properly. And please ditch the calling plays from the line of scrimmage.

I'm also still trying to figure out why they waited until the second half to hit Florida center Markise Pouncey, who twitched his head before every play in the first half to let his line know when he was snapping the ball. He was hit after doing so in the first play of the second half and Florida was called for illegal procedure.

But the fact is, LSU's interior lines have been the Achilles' heel for the Tigers this season.
And it's making the rest of the unit sputter instead of driving at the head of the pack.

Hopefully the Tigers can get back on track the rest of the season and we don't have a repeat of last season where when the wheels came off and never got back on.
Of course, a lot of that depends on the pit crew.
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