Les Miles has consistently said for the past few weeks that he was going to stick with the hot hand at quarterback.
That was his modus operandi, and he was sticking to it. It wasn’t going to be a sharing, cooperative enterprise like we learned in kindergarten. It was going to be a “he who plays best plays most” system.
And, for the most part, it was working. Jarrett Lee was taking a lot of snaps because he was playing well. If you are going to work a two-quarterback system, that’s the way it should run, and I was completely behind Les’ decision to do it.
That is, as long as he stuck with what he said.
But he veered away from his own game plan in LSU’s 24-17 loss to Auburn on Saturday.
Miles should have stuck with Jordan Jefferson in the second half. Instead, he worked both quarterbacks into the game in the deciding drives. On the final offensive possession for LSU, it was Lee who was under center.
That was a mistake.
Call me a Monday morning quarterback all you want, but I was saying it the entire second half. I even had it up as a Facebook status. Book it.
Jefferson had an early interception when he slightly overthrew wide receiver Rueben Randle (arguably a catchable ball, since he did get two hands on it).
But he was effectively moving the ball down the field. On that drive with the interception, Jefferson took the LSU offense 51 yards down the field. It was the most effective Jefferson looked in quite some time.
All told in the first half, Jefferson helped the Tigers score 10 points with drives of 51, 40 and 69 yards. The Tiger offense was moving the ball with Jefferson at the helm.
Lee, on the other hand, was not. That’s fine. Everyone has bad games, and Lee sprained his wrist in the second quarter.
Miles should have kept him out of the game. But for whatever reason, he just didn’t.
Lee had drives of 14 and nine yards before coming out with the injury. Jefferson would later finish that drive, leading LSU 69 yards down the field and finishing it off with a short touchdown scamper.
In the second half, Jefferson didn’t do that well with drives of 9, 18, 50 and negative 5 yards. But Lee wasn’t much better. He had drives of 4 and negative 2 heading into that final drive. Let me do the math. That’s 2 yards. Yet he was in for the final drive.
What’s worse is that on that last offensive play for LSU, Lee ran the ball. The reason Lee was supposed to be in was to throw the ball. But he didn’t.
On that last play, the offense was confused coming out of a timeout, which is completely uncalled for. Lee didn’t know what to do, and nobody was open, so he ran. Bad play call, bad decision.
I get that Les was likely thinking that Lee could remake the Florida game from earlier this season and lead the Tigers down the field for a last minute score. But the way he had been playing throughout the game, that just wasn’t going to happen.
Miles has stuck behind his own call to keep a two quarterback system to much criticism. Fans wanted Jefferson gone just as much as they wanted Lee gone two years ago. Yet Les stuck with his man.
But when it came down to it, he went against what he had been saying, and he kicked to the curb the man he had been ardently defending.
The “Mad Hatter” must have left some of his magic back in Baton Rouge.
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Contact Andy Schwehm at [email protected]