The idiots on The Rant are our Updykes, and every fan base has them. Ours are just easier to find because of Chicken's wonderful format on this message board which you post at.

No matter who we are playing, The Rant will be filled with optimists. It's only natural. In order to be relevant, we have to beat Alabama. If we want to believe we're relevant, then we want to believe we can beat Alabama. After a few weeks of echo-chamber combined with some good performances against very solid football teams like Georgia, those who want to believe begin to believe their own hype. Once again, every fan base does this, but TD makes it really easy to watch the build up and melt-down in real time.

On the other hand, I absolutely am embarrassed at the way our team performed. The defense routinely gave up critical 3rd and long conversions, the offense looked completely inept except for the rare instances when they switched to running the Tempo West Coast passing that so completely stumped Georgia and Auburn, but as soon as it started gaining yards, they stopped! Everyone in the stadium knew they were going to run the ball on first down. I gave this team so much credit all season for finally throwing on first downs, taking shots deep down field off of play action, throwing to the tight end, not taking sacks, and hitting quick slants in stride. We saw none of that from LSU this weekend. Even when your line is getting hammered up front, a QB still has enough time to throw a 5 yard slant from the shotgun. HUNH negates the defense's depth advantage and tires them out. When you're averaging negative yards per carry and you're running it every 1st down for no more than 2 yards late in the 3rd quarter down more than 3 scores, maybe STOP DOING THAT!

I saw no urgency, no adjustments when things weren't working, and no sticking with plays that seemed to actually work. Just an absolutely pathetic game plan which squandered a great crowd and yeoman's work by the defense and special teams which routinely gave the offense decent field position.