Ugly wins still count. Thank God. After an ugly first half and overcoming a 10 point deficit at half time, LSU pulled out a 30-24 over Auburn Saturday night in Tiger Stadium. Also, the Saints, who were equally ugly, pulled out a 22-16 win over the Atlanta Falcons yesterday afternoon in the Superdome. Here are a few thoughts on LSU as there will be no discussion of the Saints today.

LSU

“I swear you are the dumbest smart kid I know..” If you’ve seen the movie Varsity Blues, you know this is quote from it. Moving forward, this is how I will now refer to LSU coach Les Miles - “The dumbest smart coach I’ve seen.” First thing first though - I like Miles. I’m not the guy that’s been clammoring for him to fail, take the Michigan job should it become available, or take any time out of my day to make fun of his hat. That said, the win over Auburn Saturday night was just plain lucky. Or I should say, the way it happened was pure luck.

During the first half of the game, I watched a beat up, tired and flat LSU team. That’s what showed up and I guess it’s to be expected after the Florida and Kentucky games. Now, with that being said and you see that it could be one of those games, why not play someone who can provide that needed “spark” to get the team around and get things moving. Someone like? Keiland Williams or Charles Scott? After Keiland Williams scampered 60 yards for a touchdown, he disappeared from the offense. Why? I like Jacob Hester just fine, but when it’s obvious that the team needs something from somebody, why not let Williams just take the majority of carries at that point.

Here are some more questions:

Is Richard Murphy now the Mariano Rivera of the LSU football team? Evidently, LSU trusts him enough (for 2 consecutive games) and the offensive line to block like Navy and run the option to perfection with a game who hasn’t touched the ball since the week before.

Why doesn’t Charles Scott see more playing time?

Is it possible for Ryan Perriloux to throw the football in games where he doesn’t start?

Does Brandon Lafell and the rest of the Tiger wide receivers washing their hands with KY jelly instead of stick ‘em?

Now in regarding the ending to the game. For those of you who want to say it was a great call or Miles has larger than normal testicles, I will say “Good for you, have a nice day” and move on with my day. There was absolutely no reason for that to happen the way that it did. Of the 92,000 people in Tiger Stadium Saturday night, 91,999 went crazy after the catch, I stood there, arms folded muttering many, many times “That is the DUMBEST thing I’ve ever seen.”

The play itself was not a great a call it was a completely careless one that happened to have a positive outcome happen for LSU. Case closed. It appeared that the play came in entirely too late. Now that said, why risk an interception, a sack, a fumble while being sacked, Carnell Stewart not to commit a false start penalty, etc. A million things could have gone wrong on that play, but luckily for LSU it didn’t.

Also, the “there was still one second left on the clock, so we could’ve kicked a field goal anyway if the pass was incomplete” logic doesn’t fly with me. Miles said after the game that there were “18 seconds left and we still had a timeout..” Miles is half right here. LSU did still have a time out, however the ball was snapped with about 8 seconds left, not 18. How on earth does he not know this? There is a rather large scoreboard that stands over the North end zone to his left that he could just glance at to see the time. Just a glance, not a stare. You know it is something that the head coach would want to know in that situation. Just saying.

I could go on here, but I won’t. As an LSU fan, I’m very happy they won and that they still control their destiny to get to Atlanta for the SEC Championship game. But, what happened Saturday night pretty much proved to me that LSU really does have the “dumbest smart kid I’ve seen.” on the sidelines.