Saturday, November 12, 2011
HP SPECIAL REPORT: GO BIG RED!
This is a Heath Post Special Report ... With 1:26 to play in the first quarter, Western Kentucky University's football team has tied No. 1 Louisiana State in Batpn Rouge, 7-7.
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AND THE TOPPERS HAVE RECOVERED A FUMBLE ON THE ENSUING KICKOFF!
ReplyDeleteStill 7-7, 9:12 to go in first half ... Tops pick up first down on fourth-and-1 at LSU 38 ...
ReplyDeleteOoooh ... brutal field-goal miss ... WKU is four of 16 on the season on field-goal tries.
ReplyDeleteLSU responds with a very impressive drive, and the top-ranked Tigers have scored a touchdown to retake the lead, 14-7, with 3:32 to play in the first half ...
ReplyDeleteWell, LSU dominated the second half and ended up actually looking as thought it might yet cover the spread. That didn't happen, but the final was a blowout, 42-9.
ReplyDeleteAfter LSU increased their lead to 21-7, WKU's Antonio Andrews (a former Fort Campbell Falcon) returned the kickoff 73 yards. The Tops got the ball to the 1 but failed to score. The next three plays, there was a glimmer that something crazy might be happening in Baton Rouge.
WKU constrained LSU to a total of three yards on first- and second-down runs. This was impressive; the of-course-LSU-is-going-to-blow-out-WKU part of me had figured that now-paying-attention LSU would simply get off its goal line blasting out inside runs of six and eight yards or so to touch off a long, demoralizing touchdown drive.
Now on third down and seven from the 4, I expected WKU to play some vaguely safe containment defense. I don't know enough about football stuff to say what coverage they were in, but, whatever, it was aggressive enough that they had a couple of linebackers zipping up through the lanes of traffic right in the middle of the line. And one of them reached the LSU quarterback in the end zone, and the quarterback appeared to get flustered and simply flail the ball away from him to avoid the safety. I thought it was a fumble, and so did some LSU teammate who scooped up the bouncing ball and carried it out to the 3 or 4. Instead, the officials ruled it an incomplete pass, intentional grounding from the end zone and--hooray!--a safety.
Now it was 21-9, with the Tops getting the ball back and LSU perhaps discombobulated by the indication that it could simply decide to overwhelm and discard the visitors whenever it collectively decided to. But, alas, three plays after the free kick, WKU threw a tipped interception, and that was pretty much it.
So, the five-game winning streak is over, and the Tops are 5-5 with two to play. It's back to Sun Belt Conference action, with a trip next week to North Texas (my wife's cousin might be going there next fall) and, on Nov. 26, back to Bowling Green for Troy (with the Lone Oak quarterback).
Willie Taggart is going to get a lot of love (and deservedly so) for how he got his Hilltoppers to compete at No. 1 LSU (because they really did compete). But I would venture that Taggart's harder coaching job is now. WKU's roster is populated by guys who presumably believe all of the Southeastern Conference coaches were wrong for not giving them grants-in-aid; at LSU was a great opportunity to prove the haters wrong. Getting each of these guys individually motivated to work together to actually win two games that no aunts or uncles are going to ask about when they all disperse for their Thanksgiving dinners ... well, that sounds hard to me. Good luck, Coach Taggart!
Well, heck.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry but you have got to fire that coach.
ReplyDeleteWKU disagrees.
ReplyDelete