I did it to shut down the whole “who have they played narrative”. There is a fan of another team on the other board disregarding LSU’s Offense because we haven’t faced a challenging defense yet....... A common narrative by opposing fans right now, because they’re not happy we found an offense. They’re harping on things they can and disregarding that LSU most certainly passes the eye test and has the single most impressive victory in ALL of college football through 5 weeks. No win is better than going on the road and beating Texas in their house. Of course that will change but until then it’s the best win to date.
The other thing I’ve heard and keep hearing is people overreacting to our defense. That’s fine. I won’t deny we have some issues there. But if you’re going to doubt LSU because of our defense, then you should most definitely doubt Alabama as well. If they get a pass because of injuries then LSU should too. They’re missing 4 starters, we’re missing 4 starters.
Our defense gave up 24 points to Vandy on the road. Bama gave up 31 to Ole Miss at home to a QB making his 1st career start. For both Bama and LSU it’s not necessarily a lack of talent or coaching either. Which leads me to believe these issues are fixable, especially when the injured starters return.
Yet Bama bias moves them up a spot, while we drop a spot because they're Bama, and well, we are not. I’m not mad, I’m used to the Bama bias. Honestly it doesn’t matter because we get to settle that on the field.
And It’s not like we’re squeaking by. Texas scored with 0:30 on the clock to make its respectable, but in my mind, we beat them by 2 TD’s and my UT buddies and wife who are UT alumni all agree. LSU kicked their ass.
My point posting the rankings was two fold. 1) That all teams (not just LSU’s) offense/defense rankings and opposing teams rankings are skewed right now due to teams playing mostly cupcakes and cupcakes getting beat up on by good teams the 1st few weeks. 2) That I don’t put stock into total offense/defense rankings really all that much because there are entirely too many elements that factor into these types of stats/rankings. Injuries, suspensions, weather, trap games, let down games, tough schedules (back to back tough games) home field, etc.
At the end of the day, just win! Because I don’t care if LSU ranks #80 in offense and #80 in defense. If they’re 12-0 they’re in. Nobody cares how they stack up in total offense or defense at that point.
If anything outside of wins/losses matters, it’s the eye test. And the eye test says LSU’s offense is legit. I don’t care about the cupcakes we’ve feasted on. Just like LSU it goes for OU and Bama. The #1, #2 and #3 Offenses. None have faced great defenses, but we can all agree, they still have the 3 most potent offenses in college football right now (based on the eye test). The eye test matters so much they went away from BCS computers and installed a human committee to determine the best 4 teams.
From what I can see, haters are gonna hate and right now LSU has put the college football world on notice. We don’t just finally have an offense, we have an explosive and scary offense. And folks are scared! All we’ve ever heard, if LSU could just get an offense. Well they have one. Now all we’re hearing is well, that defense is suspect........ People don’t like it. So expect the haters and doubters to be out in droves.
EDIT:
I’m not proclaiming LSU is unbeatable, the best team in college football and/or that we will win a championship this year. I’m simply defending LSU against the lazy narrative that our offenses success is based on weak competition and the notion that our defense is now so bad it will prevent us from making a run (which in all honesty, the part about our defense could still be true, as panful as that is to type).
Let’s just let the season play out. I am going to shut down my overreactions for the year.
