Post by Mojave Gator on Sept 6, 2022 23:21:14 GMT -5
LSU's Brian Kelly wears the loss to FSU as much as any player on the field - perhaps more. I will explain.
For most of the night, Florida State outplayed LSU. LSU's special teams in particular were a total fiasco. Two muffed punts, both recovered by FSU, a blocked field goal and a blocked extra point. The latter speaks to my point.
LSU's special teams put them in a spot where they were down 14 in the fourth quarter. After LSU scored to cut the lead to 24-17 and they got their first three-and-out of the night, their second muffed punt set FSU up first and goal at the LSU eight. Inexplicably, with a chance to close the door FSU ran a pitch play from inside the LSU one (easily as boneheaded as anything that Kelly did), the pitch was fumbled and LSU got the ball back 99 yards away from the end zone with 1:20 left. Odds were heavily against them, but they weren't zero, as they would have been had Florida State scored.
Against these same odds, LSU drove 99 yards and scored a touchdown as the clock expired in regulation. They could have attempted a two point conversion for the win. If they made it, game over. If they missed it, their fans would at least appreciate that they tried to win the game to cap off an incredible comeback. Instead, Kelly played for overtime in a game that his squad was on the wrong end of for almost the entire night. He was at a disadvantage most of the time, yet given a choice between going for the win and extending the game, he chose the latter.
Worse yet, and perhaps most egregious, he put the task of sending the game to overtime into the hands of his special teams unit, which had been awful all night. It should not have been a tremendous surprise, then, that a blocked extra point ruined an improbable LSU comeback.
For only $10M per year, you can buy these kinds of decisions.
For most of the night, Florida State outplayed LSU. LSU's special teams in particular were a total fiasco. Two muffed punts, both recovered by FSU, a blocked field goal and a blocked extra point. The latter speaks to my point.
LSU's special teams put them in a spot where they were down 14 in the fourth quarter. After LSU scored to cut the lead to 24-17 and they got their first three-and-out of the night, their second muffed punt set FSU up first and goal at the LSU eight. Inexplicably, with a chance to close the door FSU ran a pitch play from inside the LSU one (easily as boneheaded as anything that Kelly did), the pitch was fumbled and LSU got the ball back 99 yards away from the end zone with 1:20 left. Odds were heavily against them, but they weren't zero, as they would have been had Florida State scored.
Against these same odds, LSU drove 99 yards and scored a touchdown as the clock expired in regulation. They could have attempted a two point conversion for the win. If they made it, game over. If they missed it, their fans would at least appreciate that they tried to win the game to cap off an incredible comeback. Instead, Kelly played for overtime in a game that his squad was on the wrong end of for almost the entire night. He was at a disadvantage most of the time, yet given a choice between going for the win and extending the game, he chose the latter.
Worse yet, and perhaps most egregious, he put the task of sending the game to overtime into the hands of his special teams unit, which had been awful all night. It should not have been a tremendous surprise, then, that a blocked extra point ruined an improbable LSU comeback.
For only $10M per year, you can buy these kinds of decisions.
