A View from the Stands – Troy 20 Vs Louisiana State University 24

Last week I said “I’m sure LSU watched this game (Arkansas State) and thanked their Athletics Director for scheduling us for their homecoming.” This week I’m sure LSU won’t invite us back. Once again we were marching into a big noisy stadium where we were expected to take a beating and provide homecoming entertainment for a large crowd. However, as most of us know, Troy seems to play two different games of football. One where we plug away and don’t really do anything exciting, and another were we fly around the football and play with “heart” and determination. We brought the latter game into Death Valley and almost upset the defending National Champions. We were ahead with only a couple minutes left when LSU threw a touchdown pass on the only pass play that I saw our defense let a receiver get by them.

My game-day started with long ride to a nice tailgate party held in center field of LSU’s baseball stadium. How someone arranged that I don’t know, but you couldn’t have found a nicer gathering any place on the LSU campus. There I learned that this was the largest crowd to ever travel to a Troy game on the road. As we filed into the stadium there were a few tiger bait calls answered by my wife with kitty litter but when I asked for directions an LSU fan was certainly polite and helpful. We had a good noisy crowd that let everyone know we came to win a football game.

Once again on paper we didn’t have a chance. I think LSU must have a player in competition for every award a college football player can receive. Plus they have recruited the top high school players in the Southeast. I was hoping for two things. One, that our offense would put some points on the board; and two, that our defense could hold LSU to a low scoring game. Both happened, but not like I thought they would.

Although our defense stopped the run and long passes, we couldn’t seem to stop the short pass and LSU marched down the field on several drives. LSU had a slippery quarterback that could avoid sacks and turn busted plays into a modest gain. It was frustrating to see him trapped time after time only to slip out and dash back to the line of scrimmage and beyond. However, our defense had four turnovers that gave the ball to our offense with a short field and excellent scoring opportunities. I only saw one gift when LSU’s quarterback threw into triple coverage and Ansley intercepted and ran it to the two yard line; the rest were the result of hard hitting and good pass coverage.

Special teams were great and we clearly beat LSU in that area. Olmstead put them deep in their own territory four times and once forced the Tigers to face 98 yards of Trojan defense. On the fake field goal that LSU tried (everyone on the field and in the stands seemed to know it was happening) the Trojans met the recipient of a poor pass from the holder at the line of scrimmage. Our only mistake was on our last kickoff where we allowed it to be returned to midfield to set up LSU’s go-ahead touchdown.

Offensively we started our freshman quarterback and D.T. McDowell ran the show. Tough position in a tough game, but he fared well. DT showed signs well beyond his experience and he also showed the normal freshman anxieties. After some bad passes and some hard hits, he settled down in the third quarter and moved the offense in the second half. Our longest scoring drive was 47 yards but luckily our defense handed us opportunities in or close to the LSU red zone and we took advantage of those opportunities. Although I don’t like to, I will say a few things about the officials. I know lots of calls are judgment calls and have to be made in a split second. I also know that some officials allow a little more leeway than others. However, I expect consistency throughout the game on both sides of the ball and with both teams. We changed formations alternating the end and wide receiver at the line of scrimmage throughout the game. However, on the last scoring drive it was suddenly called (because he wasn’t set long enough) and negated a touchdown pass. Our defender leaped over the LSU receiver to bat down a pass and was called for interference; however when the LSU defender had his hand on the back of our receiver well before the ball arrived and leaped over him to bat down a pass it was just a good defensive play. On one sack of DT McDowell the defender clearly grabbed DT’s face mask but wasn’t called. If everyone in the stands can see these why don’t the officials? They were blatant and obvious to all. These calls seemed to come at very critical times in the game to stop our drives or allow LSU’s to continue. I watched the replay on TV and even the announcers said they were bad calls. I absolutely hate to have officials sway the game on missed or bad calls. If there is a complaint process then Coach Blakeney should pursue it.