5 Reasons Why LSU's Barely Beat Miss St. 30-26

Whew. Talk about nail-biters.
LSU's 30-26 win against Mississippi State last week probably looked worse on paper than it did in person.
I was there.
LSU had some key mistakes in the game, but somehow, someway it all still looks highly correctable. Here are 5 reasons why they barely beat Mississippi State.

It was raining cats and dogs before the game
Let it be known: The field conditions weren't an excuse for how LSU played; Mississippi State obviously played in the same conditions, but it was soggy and wet as marshland out there during the game. Why? Because there was somewhat of a torrential downpour before the game (as it's been all week throughout the South). The ball, although wiped off, wiped down and wiped clean continually, was still wet as a bar of soap. The Bulldogs mostly did handoffs and laterals, so they weren't as affected. LSU on the other hand had to curtail some things as a result. You saw the consequences. Again, not an excuse, but just a reason.

2. LSU's Running Game is So Last Year
Senior Charles Scott has seen bigger holes in donuts than he's seen in his offensive line this year. It's not just Scott either. Kieland Williams and track star Trindon Holliday won't be seeing daylight this year with the line not performing. So what's the matter you say? Nothing, except that the Tigers are missing the biggest baby ever born in the state of Louisiana, Herman Johnson.

3. Jordan Jefferson's Role has Changed When Jefferson won the starting signal caller role this spring he was basically going to be a game "manager" who picked his spots and basically watched the running game amass untold yardage and touchdowns. But now that the groundgame has been, well, grounded, Jefferson is actually being asked to, well, win games. That takes talent but it takes moreso leadership, something the sophomore hasn't acquired yet. Will he get it this year? Time will tell.

4. 3rd and Chavis Okay, you know i had to touch upon the defense. To be truthful, no way LSU is 4-0 without their defense, which won at least 2 games single-handedly. The rap on Chavis is that when he was at U-T he wouldn't adjust until way after halftime, sometime between the after-game showers and the drive home. And he seemed genuinely stumped when it came to the Florida games. Mississippi State runs a version of, you guessed it, Florida's offense. Chavis was genuinely stumped ... for a while, but evidently he settled down and adjusted (or did Chad Jones just ignore his assignments and single-handedly and instinctly react in the heat of the moment to win the game?) I'll take the former for 300, Alex.

5. Mississippi State is kinda good? Yeah, Miss. State is darn decent. They will beat a top 10 team this year, and I'm just glad it's not the Tigers ... this year. It's the SEC, baby, anything can happen. Give it time, and it will. Watch.

LSU beats ULL 31-3, but was it kinda lame?

The LSU Tigers won another ballgame Saturday night.
I mean, they won by 28 points, but where's the surge of offensive power?
The dusting off of University of Louisiana-Lafayette 31-3 only raised questions for many Tiger fans.
Senior Brandon LaFell, who some say could be the No. 1 receiver taken in the NFL draft, caught two touchdowns Saturday, but other than that, the other weaponry must've been on safety.
In other words, we're all a little concerned with the lack of O.
See, LSU has not scored more than 32 points this season, which they did in the season opener against Washington.
The Ragin' Cajuns didn't really offer much competition aside from one decent drive in the second drive that ended in a goal line stop by the Tigers.
The Tigers were never in trouble, but if they face any semblance of an offense, and the game tightened up, would LSU's offense respond?
Sophomore Jordan Jefferson still seems tentative under center. Senior Charles Scott just isn't getting the same yards he got last year, and the receivers seem to be dying from lack of attention.
If it wasn't for Chad Jones, who had two picks against Louisiana-Lafayette, who knows what would have happened?
LSU, who moved up to No. 7 in the top 25 this week, will be exposed for what they are next week when they travel to Mississippi State next week.

Gators won, but Vols didn't back down

Let's be honest, Tennessee brought that wood.
Florida was still the superior team, and quarterback Tim Tebow still had control ... but not by much.
Tebow, for the first time this season, was running for his life.
Due to his athleticism, he can make that look pretty easy, but it wasn't. The Gators 23-13 victory Saturday over the Tennessee Volunteers was a moral victory for UT in their long journey back to SEC elistism.
For Florida, the mystique may be broken.
With the hard running of tailback Montario Hardesty (96 yards on 20 carries) the Vols almost had a 100-yard rusher for the afternoon.
Tim Tebow's streak of at least one touchdown pass in 30 straight games came to a resounding stop.
First-year Vols coach Lane Kiffin, who can talk smack with the best of them, was impressed him Superman. “I probably said it three times on the headsets, ‘Is the guy ever gonna wear out?’"
Note to Kiffin: Um, no, Lane. He's not unlike a Terminator, he's not going to stop.
"It’s unbelievable. Not only physically, when you hit him, but some of those (short, crucial) gains, he runs 50 yards to get them. He doesn’t wear out."
But alas the Volunteer defense -- which played admirably -- finally began to.
Tennessee held Florida to 323, which was good considering the Gators ran up 663 yards
on Troy and 624 in the season opener against Charleston Southern.
When the Gators smashed the Vols in the mouth, the Vols smacked back.
Symbolic of the teams' play was when Tebow and UT All-American safety Eric Berry closed in on each other in the first half - POW!
“I just bit down on my mouthpiece and tried to give it everything I had,” Berry said of the train-like collision. “All the power cleans and the squats from the summer, I had to use everything I had. At first I was like ‘dang, he done got me y’all.’ But I looked up at the JumboTron and we kind of hit each other and fell to the side ...You can call it what you want, but it was a good collision.”
Tennessee will win the rest of their games, it seems, if they can get pass Georgia.