By the Skin of Their Teeth...

* The best ending of the year in college football just took place in Baton Rouge, LA. LSU QB Matt Flynn completed a 22-yard touchdown pass to WR Demetrius Byrd with one second remaining on the clock to beat the Auburn Tigers 30-24. Though the action on the field was outstanding, the questionable decisions on both sidelines makes you question if the athletes can overcome some poor coaching the rest of this season.

Auburn led this game 17-7 at the half, dominating LSU's offense, with LSU's longest drive comprising 6 plays. Auburn capitalized on a Ryan Perriloux fumble deep in LSU territory, converting the turnover into a touchdown. LSU immediately asserted itself in the second half, scoring 16 unanswered points. On its last possession, Auburn put together its best drive of the game, taking the ball 82 yards in 9 plays, capping the drive with a 3 yard touchdown pass by QB Brandon Cox, leaving 2:32 on the clock.

Auburn, seeking to keep the ball away from the speed of LSU's returners, had employed a strategy of squibbing kicks along the ground to the upbacks on all their kickoffs. In this case, with little time remaining in the game, LSU having squandered two timeouts earlier in the half, facing an offense which had driven the field on several occasions in the second half with little resistance, you have to kick the ball deep, don't you? Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville did not deviate from his plan for the evening in a situation that absolutely called for a kick deep. In spite of the danger of kicking it to the talented returners of LSU, you have to put it upon LSU to make plays to win the game instead of shortening the field for that offense. Not only that, isn't this a situation where you have prepared your special teams, coaching them thoroughly to combat the scouting reports that indicated the speed of the LSU returners? Tuberville made a coaching decision that is sure to get him excoriated by the media at Auburn, resulting in LSU beginning their drive at their own 42. QB Matt Flynn quickly and easily drove the Tigers to the Auburn 22 (admittedly aided by a questionable first down that was awarded in spite of several replays that showed that WR Richard Murphy was down a half yard short of the first down on a 3rd and 3...how is that call not reviewed when, supposedly, every play is reviewed in college football? ESPN had time to show the replay twice with clear evidence that the receivers elbow was down short of the line of gain. Even Mike Patrick, with Britney Spears dancing in the back of his mind, was able to discern the proper call.), with about 45 seconds remaining in the game. Tuberville again makes a questionable coaching decision, not using either of his two remaining timeouts to try and save some time for his offense with LSU already in makeable field goal range. LSU chooses to run the clock down, trying to remove any chance for Auburn to get the ball back. Les Miles and his staff decide to run one play before attempting a game winning 39 yard field goal and, with one timeout, seem to have enough margin to do so. Except, they allow the clock to run down to 8 seconds before snapping the football. Flynn drops back and, with a three receiver set and Byrd split wide to the left with single coverage, floats a perfect pass to the back of the end zone that is narrowly missed by the Auburn DB, who has excellent coverage on the play but fails to get his head around in time to see the incoming pass, and gathered in by Byrd. As the referee signals touchdown, there are 2 seconds remaining in the game. Should that ball be bobbled or the referee take his time in blowing the whistle, there is a strong likelihood that the game would have been over and Tiger fans would have thrown Miles into Mike VI's million dollar habitat. Miles made a highly questionable and ill timed decision that, admittedly, has been in keeping with his gambler's stance this season. But, with so little time remaining on the clock at the snap of the ball, Miles nearly handed this game over to Tuberville, who was trying his best to give it away.

(On a side note, was Holly Rowe even watching the end of the game? In a situation where LSU did not use their final timeout and made the above mentioned questionable time management decision, she asks the following:

Rowe: Coach, you called timeout, what happened next? Take us through that process...your decision there.

Miles: On...what?

Is anyone else as confused as Miles must have been? And what timeout is Rowe talking about? Did the end of the game not conform to one of the canned questions that she always asks?)

For the second straight week, LSU's defense struggled, with the physical play of the SEC perhaps taking a toll. An Auburn team which has struggled mightily on offense all season put up 24 points on this defense in Baton Rouge. LSU next travels to Tuscaloosa to face former coach Nick Saban and an Alabama offense whose passing game improves each week and today decimated Tennessee's weak secondary. With Glenn Dorsey's status up in the air with a sprained knee, inflicted by a dirty and vicious chop block by Auburn's center, you have to wonder if LSU can get things together in time for next week's trip and whether or not Les Miles' streak of gambles will continue to pay off.

Does anyone want to win the national championship??????