Les Is More Bob Loblaw
			Those who saw the Auburn-LSU game on Saturday night know that it was one of the best games of the year.  A full stadium in Baton Rouge, surely smelling of Jambalaya, sweat, tears, and Bourbon, and a game that literally went down to the last seconds all combined to produce another scintillating Saturday night on the Bayou.  To recap for those of you who missed it, were too drunk to remember, or were so excited after Michigan’s huge road win over Illinois that you had to go out and celebrate and missed the end, here is what occurred:     Both teams went back and forth all night, with Auburn scoring to take the lead 24-23 with less than 4 minutes to go.  It looked like Tommy Tuberville would win yet another high-profile SEC road game.  Hopefully the Auburn faithful are not still hoping Bobby Petrino will secretly fly down in December to interview for the job again.  LSU got the ball and drove down the field, and with about 30 seconds to go they got into field goal range.  Now lots of coaches, especially if you watch the NFL (yes Tennessee and Philly we are talking to you), love to sit back and play for the field goal and oftentimes it works.  Les Miles did not do this.  With the clock running under 10 seconds, he had Matt Flynn throw it up to the end zone where it was caught for a touchdown that ended up winning the game with 1 second left.  Was this a good move you ask?  YES.      If you sit and play for the field goal, things can go wrong: the kick can get blocked, the snap can be bobbled, or the kicker might just miss it.  Ask Bobby Bowden what he thinks of field goals from the 1990s.  A field goal is settling; you want 7 but you take 3 if you have too.  Unless, of course, you coach in the rugged NFC where 3 points is the Holy Grail and that is why you lose games 16-12 or 10-9.  Like Les Miles did, you play for the touchdown then settle for the field goal.     Now to the more pressing topic that got me motivated to write this article: for the past 2 days on talk radio and TV, the so called “experts” (the I-work-at-ESPN-so-I-am-an-expert types) have been questioning the play, saying that had the receiver not caught the ball the clock would have run out and LSU would have lost without ever trying the field goal.  How could Miles have jeopardized the season with such a risky play?  HE DIDN’T.  If you watch the replay there were 3 seconds on the clock when the ball was caught, 2 more seconds ticked off (home team clock operator perhaps?) and then it stopped at 1.  I would bet all the frayed Dalton Hilliard Saints jerseys in the stands that night that had the ball been dropped, the ref would have signaled incomplete and the clock would have been stopped IMMEDIATELY.  There still would have been 3 seconds on the clock and they would have gotten the field goal try off.  LSU even had a timeout left to use as well.  Hopefully, this will uncover some of the mystery and the talking heads will stop acting as though Miles threw caution to the wind and had no idea what he was doing with the clock that night.  The media wouldn’t want to stir up controversy around a winning team would they?  Never.      LSU is the only 1-loss team within sniffing distance of the top 2 right now in the BCS.  With gutsy calls like that one, they could very well be playing in the national title game in January. HOME                                                                                                                      MORE ARTICLES