LSU Smack Talk
LSU coach Les Miles made his feelings known about USC's case to be No. 1 during an interview on The Best Damn Sports Show.
``I don’t want to create a South vs. West issue here but you have to play the whole season and, you know, there were some unexplainable losses there that they really had a difficult time getting beyond,'' Miles said.
While I would like nothing better than to meet "Less" on the field and shove it... this sounds like straight talk to me. can't really argue. Move on to 08!
Well Les, we have to play EVERYBODY in our conference and if you were to ask the conference the one team they would want to beat, it would be SC. So while SC has to get up for games every week, we don't get sleepers like Tulane, N. Texas, Baton Rouge JC, etc.
So Sgt Carter does not want to start any wars between the East & West. Come Sgt Carter, isn't Gomer Pyle giving you enough headaches to get you fired up, so that can face some real teams. Fight On!
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What does he mean unexplainable "losses"? The only loss that was unexplainable was the Stanford debacle, and even then, SC had a QB with a broken finger on his throwing hand, which contributed to 4 INTs. The other loss was on the road to the #2 (at one time) team in the country with our backup QB. Even though I like Sanchez better, having a QB go into arguably the toughest place in the nation with only 2 starts under his belt is not the recipe for success. Especially with Sark calling such a vanilla game plan and with the coaching staff making a mockery of time management on the final drive.
What’s unexplainable to me, is giving up 50 points to an Arkansas team that got walloped in their bowl game.
And by the way Les, playing in the toughest conference in America (and I do believe the SEC is the best from top to bottom) doesn't mean as much when you don't have to play teams like Georgia. That'd be like SC missing Oregon this year, which coincidentally, would have meant that SC (and not LSU) would have played OSU in the NC game.
Sureshot:
Time after time Wolfy takes heat on this site for making statements out of context (and sometimes rightfully so)…so I think it’s important to point out that while LSU gave up 50 points to Arkansas the game went 3 OTs…the teams were tied 28-28 at the end of regulation.
It should also be pointed out that SC should’ve beat Stanford regardless of Booty’s broken finger…if he’s hurt, take him out…Carroll left him in so SC got exactly what they deserved…anyways, Booty wasn’t on the field during Stanford’s last drive when those two fourth down conversions took place. This is the national championship that got away and there is no one to blame but ourselves.
I know it seems like forever ago but Oregon was putting it on SC pretty good in that game…I believe they were up two td’s halfway through the 4th quarter. SC deserves kudos for nearly pulling off a great comeback but it was pretty clear when that game was over who played the best that day…if we are being honest.
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I hate Les Miles, but he is right.....To be honest, we looked like a National Title contender only twice this year (Arizona State and Illinois). Any coincidence that those are the 2 games not played on Saturday? Perhaps we are leaving our A game on the Competition Tuesday practice field.
SC1:
So giving up 22 points in 3 OT periods shows that your defense is actually better or worse? I'm confused.
As for the Oregon game: yes, I'd agree that they put it on us for a time in the middle of the game, but you can't forget about the
a. missed opportunity for points on the opening drive
b. questionable holding call on the McKnight TD run
c. failure to stop a Stewart run on 3rd and forever
d. horrid clock management on the final drive (30 seconds were wasted deciding on the 4th and a yard play call)
All of that, combined with the fact the SC seemed to play (and call the game) not to lose, and that loss was very explainable. Especially since Oregon was a very good team at the time. Not a single time this year did LSU go on the road to play a team as good as Oregon was with Dixon. They were handed several games by poor coaching and poor execution (see Alabama QB fumbling near his own goal line in the final minutes as exhibit 1).
I'm not saying SC deserved to be in the NC game because they didn't. The Stanford debacle and the 2 losses assured that they wouldn't, but for Les to go around spouting off about "unexplainable losses" in regards to SC is just plain stupid. His squad was VERY lucky in some games and VERY lucky to avoid Georgia.
So in short:
Stanford loss – completely, utterly, unavoidably inexplainable
Oregon loss – not only explainable, but expected
Fight On!