Tigers demolish Vols @ Rocky Top, 38-7

It wasn't pretty. There were few style points, but  top-ranked LSU still mopped the floor with Tennessee, 38-7 in front of more than 101,000 at Rocky Top.

For the first time, perhaps, we saw a less-than-confident Jarrett Lee, who looked shaky at times. He finished with 115 yards and two touchdowns but they were both short passes that didn't require a lot of moxie.

Don't get me wrong, we'll take it.

The win was the Tigers' sixth straight SEC victory and their seventh consecutive win by double digits.

"I felt like we did what we needed to do," LSU coach Les Miles told reporters after the game. "It wasn't our best game, but we did what we had to do to ensure victory. Our defense gave us turnovers and the opportunities to take the opponent out. Our offense late in the game gave us the football and ate up the time of possession and scored."

Matt Simms, making his first start in place of the injured Tyler Bray, was 6 of 20 for 128 yards and two interceptions, one of them being the play of the game by LSU cornerback Morris Claiborne. His 89-yard return to the 5 yard line put the Tigers in the driver's seat with their first score.

"It wasn't a really complex game," Tennessee coach Derek Dooley said. "In the first half, I thought we competed our tails off and had a couple of real bad mistakes that was ultimately the difference in the first half. In the second half, we had a couple of third-down opportunities where we didn't execute and they pounded us. I don't know any other way to say it."

Next up for the Tigers: The always-tough Auburn Tigers.

Tennessee wary of Ware, LSU running game

Derek Dooley and the Tennessee Volunteers know they need to be concerned with LSU's stable of running backs, especially Spencer Ware.
Leading the No. 1-ranked Tigers with 432 yards rushing and five scores, Ware is looking to punish the Vols defenders, like he does other opponents.


“If you come as hard as you can, full throttle, with it in your mind that, ‘You can’t tackle me,’ then you will break a tackle,” Ware told the Washington Post recently. “Every time you have the ball you have to have the mentality that you want to score, not just, ‘Oh, it’s a defender in front of me and I might get tackled.’”
For the second week in a row, the Tigers face an SEC team without their starting quarterback. Last week, John Brantley was out for Florid as LSU cruised to a 41-11 win.
This week the Vols are without starter signal caller Tyler Bray, who has a hand injury. Tennessee coach Dooley says there won't be any excuses.

"I don't care how many guys we lose, we're still Tennessee," Dooley said, according to the Times Picayune newspaper. "We fought (LSU) good last year. I know this: If we don't come believing we can win and playing to our capacity, then it's going to look like what happened last week. They are going to embarrass you."

“We just don’t look good, and we’ve just got to go out there and hit people and stick our pads down and run,” Dooley was quoted as saying. “That’s what good running teams do, and we’re just going to keep working on it.”

But the Vols better beware of Ware.

“Spencer just wears people down,” LSU offensive guard Will Blackwell told the Post. “He might be 225 pounds, but I swear he runs like he’s about 260 and when you’ve got a guy coming at you full-speed 20 times a game you’re going to get tired.”