First, two quick thoughts: (1) A&M deserved to win; (2) LSU did not deserve to lose.
(Yeah, that's confusing. But I am conflicted.)
Make all the excuses you want, place all the blame -- on officiating, on the highly paid defensive coordinator -- and whine forever. Not into that personally.
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| LSU linebacker Devin White (40), from Springhill was outstanding in this game, as he has been all season, but he and his teammates could not keep their grip on A&M QB Kellen Mond or the victory. |
LSU fans are upset -- mad? crazy? -- and you could say rightfully so. They feel robbed -- by the officials -- and I could make a case for that.
But a fact: The final result ain't changing. And, frankly, the whining/excuse-making is tiring. Give A&M credit for not giving up, for making play after play after play, and for having lots of luck.
Give the LSU kids credit -- despite some odds -- for never giving up, for proving that this is a football team that has given all it for most of this season. It is not a great team, but it is a darned competitive one.
Aggies fans are elated and, gosh, they needed this victory ... because they are Aggies.
Look, I root for LSU -- and Louisiana Tech -- in every instance. I also have a bunch of friends with A&M ties, some good longtime friends, and it is a wonderful university (as almost all universities/colleges are). The tradition there is outstanding ... and some of the traditions are, well, weird.
Sorry, Aggies, not about to apologize for feeling that way. You are proud of your place; we just shake our heads.
Oh, heck, back to the football game. Posted this on Facebook, and will repeat it here:
A helluva football game. Great win for Aggies, no shame for Tigers. Both teams fought their hearts out. (more below)
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There were several debatable calls in the final minute of regulation and in the overtimes. Officiating is what it is -- never going to be perfect.
But here is a fact: LSU had a dozen chances to end this game. Could not do it. One play in any of those situations -- offensively or defensively -- would have done it.
Starting with the 3rd-and-4 play when a first down -- with A&M out of timeouts -- would have clinched it at the 2-minute mark. The Tigers' play call was too predictable, too conservative -- a run to the right by QB Joe Burrow -- and easily stopped. Forced a punt.
(I think Steve Ensminger has done a really nice job with play-calling all season, and in his stint two years ago, too. But not a perfect job.)
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| A&M's Kellen Mond (11) made so many big plays late in this game. (Associated Press photo by David J. Phillip) |
Five plays made by A&M QB Kellen Mond and his corps of receivers, who got better and better as the game wore on.
(And it did wear on.)
In the overtimes, the Aggies -- especially Mond, scrambling away from LSU's attempted defensive pressure -- had gains of 12, 9, 17, 25 (TD pass), 10, 21, 13, a tying PAT pass, and a 4th-and-6 tying TD pass (and spectacular, one-handed catch by Kendrick Rogers -- the play of the game, in my opinion).
No way to win a game defensively.
Yes, a couple of very tough calls went against LSU -- the targeting/ejection call, and the last pass interference against Shreveport's Greedy Williams. (Greedy can play, and he's going to be a first-round NFL draft pick. But he did get beat on the 1-second-remaining tying TD pass.)
But, darned it, here's a couple of defensive points for the LSU defense:
(1) Aggies ran 6 plays inside the LSU 4 during the overtimes, did not score; that is a heroic effort;
(2) LSU played this game without five defensive starters (a linebacker, a down lineman, two cornerbacks, the free safety) -- all hurt, a couple out for the season. Then the starting middle linebacker is ejected in overtime.
So, you have the fifth-through-seventh best defensive backs on the team on the field for most of the game. And little depth or experience to replace them. (And this is my excuse for LSU; you don't have to buy it.)
Those kids played their butts off. You want to blame the defensive coordinator, who is one of the nation's best (and highest paid), you do so. I won't.
As for blaming the officials or the replay official, it is too easy, too convenient. Yes, I question putting the one second back on the clock -- that's what Coach O and the LSU staff were furious about afterward -- and I thought A&M's nine-man line of scrimmage was pretty obvious before the spike play (think it is a 5-yard penalty, but no clock runoff). But that's life in athletics, folks.
It was A&M's great fortune that a screwup, Mond fumbling the snap, picking it up and then throwing a deflected pass that was intercepted, became a giant break when his knee touched the ground as he picked up the fumble. Think the replay was clear on that.
Another fumble, the muffed punt return by LSU, recovered by A&M in the third quarter was a real momentum-breaker at the time for LSU. After the Tigers' defense, not too stout in the first half, had settled in and forced two Aggies' punts, that fumble hurt and gave A&M a short field (29 yards) for a tying-breaking touchdown.
Practically forgotten in all the overtime drama.
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The rest of my original postgame Facebook post: There is a reason why for years I have said and written that overtime is BS. Coaches do not have to "go for it" at the end of games, they can settle for another OT. Jimbo took the easy way out twice, Coach O once. No guts. Some games should just be ties.
John James Marshall will vouch for this: Since 1985, I have written and said -- repeatedly -- that overtime is unnecessary for regular-season high school and college football. Playoffs, yes, there has to be a way (if the old first downs or penetrations method was unacceptable).
It is a long and separate argument (and blogs), and one of my friends (Jimmy Manasseh put a proposal on Facebook today that I like) ... but back to Saturday's game.
Jimbo Fisher could have made the decision at the end of regulation, when it was 31-30, LSU, to have his team go for a two-point PAT -- win or lose, right there. But he chose the tying PAT kick, and even refused an offside penalty on LSU that would have put the ball at the 1 1/2-yard-line on a retry.
Worked out for Jimbo and A&M, but it was a chicken-spit way out.
At the end of the second overtime, LSU scored and was one point behind. Coach O chose to go for the tying PAT kick (and a third overtime). He could have had the Tigers go for two -- win or lose, right there. Nope. Chicken-spit way out.(Hey, Paul Dietzel would have gone for two.)
These head coaches are paid millions a year to make those tough calls. But the rules, at the end of regulation and the first two OTs, give them an easy out -- a "no guts" out. Make the so-tired kids play some more overtime(s).
Yes, it is great theater. What happened in this game, the tremendous do-it-or-lose scenarios, was riveting. (Of course, I did not watch; I refuse to watch the OTs in college or high school football, my own statement of protest. No guts.)
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One more angle on A&M-LSU football, the sentiment that it was not a rivalry. How stupid and short-sighted a thought.
The Bryan Eagle web site headline: "Texas A&M needs to beat LSU to help the series become a rivalry." Heard that in the pregame comment on TV, too.
In memory of John David Crow, Ken Beck and Richard Gay -- North Louisiana football fans will remember -- A&M-LSU long has been a rivalry, always will be. The on-field games have been going for more than a century; the recruiting battle is fierce in many areas -- especially around Houston.
So what if LSU had won the previous seven games? Never easy, always competitive. Think it wasn't a rivalry when A&M won six out of seven in the 1990s, five in a row from 1991-95. Think that Cotton Bowl at the end of the 2010 season (LSU, 41-24) wasn't tough?
Think that A&M did not kind of resent playing 16 times in a row in Baton Rouge -- and rarely ever won? Think that one of those rare Aggies' victories, 20-18 in 1970, on a 78-yard pass from Lex James to Bucky McElroy with 13 seconds remaining, wasn't devastating for LSU?
Look, Alabama has beaten LSU eight times in a row, and Bama coach Paul "Bear" Bryant beat his former player and then-LSU coach Charlie McClendon 14 out of 16 (the only Tigers' wins were in 1969 and '70), but -- darn it -- it is still a rivalry. And it was when LSU beat Bama seven out of eight starting in 2000 (Nick Saban's first season as LSU coach).
Too many "not a rivalry" experts out there. Too many fans second-guessing everything that didn't go their way.
LSU fans should be proud of this season's team. Stop complaining. Yes, a 9-3 regular season could have/should have been 10-2. Still, these Tigers were a pleasant surprise, fought hard and achieved a great deal, and -- my opinion, again -- deserve a New Year's Day bowl game.
I have gone overtime in this blog, several overtimes. I should gave gone for a two-point PAT much sooner.
