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January 10, 2011
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The Cotton Bowl
LSU
defeated the Texas A&M Aggies 41-24 in the 75th
Cotton Bowl.
Going into the game,
LSU was a two point favorite.
As the
game began the Tigers spotted the Aggies a 10-0
lead, the same as they did Ohio State in the BCS
Championship game.
The Tigers, at that
point, woke up and started to be able to run the
ball.
In fact, they ran the
ball for 288 yards.
This opened up the
passing game on the early downs for Jordan
Jefferson, and he took advantage of it for three
touchdown passes to Terrance Tolliver.
With the
win, the Tigers finished for only the sixth time in
history with at least eleven victories.
I got
several things out of this game for LSU.
The first is that Les
Miles was right.
He wanted the Tigers to
be a power football team this season when a lot of
people thought they should be more of a finesse
team.
Well, Miles proved that
the Tigers could run the ball and that is how they
won the Cotton Bowl and any number of games this
season.
Also, at
the beginning of the year, who would have thought
that Stevan Ridley would have had the year he had?
That bodes well for the
Tigers next season.
That
leads to another observation: the Tigers will be
loaded at running back next season.
With Ridley back and
Spencer Ware having his coming out party against the
Aggies, then throw in Michael Ford and Alfred Blue
for good measure, and you can easily see that the
Tigers should have no problem with running backs
next season.
Also, I
have said that a senior quarterback is a prized
commodity.
Even if you think that
particular quarterback hasn't been that good in the
past.
Jordan Jefferson showed
that he is maturing, and if he can improve during
the off season he
should
be able to manage the offense well enough so that
others can bear most of the load.
Then Jefferson will be
able to pass and run when he wants to, not when he
has to.
All in
all, Tiger fans have to be pleased with this season.
Most people had eight
or maybe nine wins.
The Tigers exceeded
expectations which means the expectations for next
season will be sky high.
And remember, the BCS
Championship game next year returns to LSU's home
away from home, the Superdome.
The Saints
The
Saints lost to the Seahawks 41-36 in the first round
of the playoffs.
I take
away two main things from this season.
To win Super Bowls you
don't only have to be good, you have to be lucky.
Last year the breaks
went the way of the Saints.
This season the only
breaks the Saints got were to players bones.
Injuries hurt them
tremendously, and in the end they couldn't overcome
them.
Another
thing I took away from this season is to cherish the
Super Bowl win even more from last season.
The Saints are going to
have to reload with some new ammo next season.
You can look for Reggie
Bush, Pierre Thomas, Darren Sharper, and Jeremy
Shockey to be gone pecans next season.
That means that Drew
Brees will have to find some new helpmates.
It is tough to win the
Super Bowl with the parity that is the NFL.
As long as Drew Brees
is the QB, the Saints will be in the hunt, but they
will have to do it with some new players at
important positions and the breaks will have to
return to New Orleans.
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