St. Andrew's Day 2009

St. Andrew's Day is the feast day of Saint Andrew. It is celebrated on 30 November.

Saint Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland, and St. Andrew's Day is Scotland's official national day. In 2006, the Scottish Parliament designated St. Andrew's Day as an official bank holiday.

Although most commonly associated with Scotland, Saint Andrew is also the patron saint of Greece, Romania, Russia and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.

In Germany, the feast day is celebrated as Andreasnacht ("St. Andrew's Night"), in Austria with the custom of Andreasgebet ("St. Andrew's Prayer"), and in Poland as Andrzejki ("Andrews").

Check out the article at Wikiedia.

It would really be nice to be able to make the trip over there to celebrate one of these years!

Check out today's Google art:

Nike Reveals Pro Combat LSU Uniforms!

BATON ROUGE -- The LSU football team will have a new look when they take the field on Saturday against Arkansas as the Tigers will be wearing the Nike Pro Combat uniform for the season-finale.

LSU, along with Nike, unveiled the uniform at a pep rally on campus on Monday afternoon. Nike worked closely with coaches and administrators at LSU and took great care to bring inspiration to the Nike Pro Combat uniforms that the Tigers will wear on Saturday. The uniform will be worn only for this week’s game against Arkansas.

The Tigers will sport a new look from head to toe on Saturday as the Tigers will be outfitted with a new look in everything from the helmet, to cleats, to the gloves. The jersey is white with purple numbers and gold accents, while the pants are white with a purple “L” on the hip along with a purple and gold stripe down each side of the leg.

The Tigers will wear the Nike Zoom Vapor Fly cleats, which are white and gold and feature a purple Nike Swoosh. The bottom of the cleats are gold in color as well. The Tiger receivers will be outfitted with the Nike Vapor Trail gloves, which display the eye of the tiger on the palm of each glove.

“This is a great uniform, both from the look as well as how lightweight it is,” senior running back Charles Scott said. “I think the team is going to like wearing these new uniforms for our final home game of the season. I wish I could be out there with them in this uniform.”

Scott, along with Richard Murphy, modeled the uniforms at the unveiling on Monday. Both players are injured and will not play against Arkansas.

Head coach Les Miles showed the team the uniform for the first time on Monday afternoon in a team meeting.

LSU joins 10 other schools from across the country to take part in this venture with Nike. Other schools include: Clemson, Florida, Florida State, Miami, Virginia Tech, Missouri, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Texas and TCU.

Nike designed the Nike Pro Combat uniform to address the evolution of the game: Today’s players are stronger and faster and the collisions are more violent and explosive than ever before.

Superior Lightweight Innovation

The Nike Pro Combat uniform is 37 percent lighter than current designs (23.7 ounces vs. 37.4 ounces). Nike utilized a four-way stretch twill that does not hold sweat or water and as a result, the new uniforms are 46 percent lighter than the current designs when wet. Overall, the Nike Pro Combat uniform, when wet, is still lighter than the teams’ current designs when completely dry.

Designed from the inside out, the Nike Pro Combat uniform begins with the Nike Pro Combat padded base layer. Strategically placed padding zones in the Nike Pro Combat Deflex shorts cover the thighs, hips and tailbone. The padding zones are composed of dual-density foam cells that absorb, deflect and disperse the impact of on-field collisions. A foam grid intersects the cells to maximize impact absorption and increase flexibility. A hard plastic shield covers the thigh padding where impact frequently occurs.

The Nike Pro Combat Deflex shorts are made with Nike Dri-FIT technical fabric to provide superior moisture wicking, helping to keep players dry and cool.

With the padding incorporated into the base layer, players gain greater mobility over traditional padding and the outer uniform becomes a lightweight, breathable shell with a sleek, explosive look.

“Players need their uniforms to be as light as possible so they can play the game at top speed,” said Kris Aman, Global VP and General Manager for Nike Athletic Training, which includes football. “The Nike Pro Combat uniform is a modern system of dress that is dramatically lighter while providing durability and protection.”

Nike scrutinized every detail of the Nike Pro Combat uniform with the goal of shedding as much weight as possible, right down to D-ring on the belt. Nike opted for a titanium D-ring, which is extremely durable and 66 percent lighter than the standard steel belt enclosure.

Engineered high-tenacity yarn inspired by Nike Flywire is incorporated into the high-impact shoulder area. The belt loops have been padded to provide added protection to the hip area without the bulk of traditional hip pads.

The new uniforms also feature improved ventilation and breathability. Side ribbed piping on the uniform pant has been replaced with sublimated Nike Dri-FIT mesh, which not only shaves ounces off of the pant weight but also aids evaporation in key areas. Nike Dri-FIT mesh wraps behind the knees, a key cooling zone on the body. By adding innovative evaporation and cooling zones, the player’s body expends less energy regulating body temperature, leaving more energy for the game.

Completing this true system of dress for football is the new Nike Zoom Vapor Fly cleat, which Nike customized for each team featuring their team colors, team logo and chrome-plated outsole. This incredibly lightweight cleat at just 10 ounces is available in 2010. It features Zoom Air cushioning in the heel and Flywire engineering in the medial and lateral quarter panels.

Check out the article at LSU Sports.

Cool uniforms!!! Now, time for the cochon de lait to begin!

Geaux Tigers!!!

Happy Thanksgiving 2009

Thanksgiving Day in America is a time to offer thanks, of family gatherings and holiday meals. A time of turkeys, stuffing, and pumpkin pie. A time for Indian corn, holiday parades and giant balloons.

So here for your entertainment are some fun Holiday things for you and your family. We've got stories of the Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving, turkeys to take home, holiday pictures for the kids to print and color, tasty holiday recipes and e-greeting cards to send your friends and family. We hope you find something you like!

Thanksgiving is celebrated on the 4th Thursday of November, which this year (2009) is November 26th.

Check out the Thanksgiving page at Holidays.net.

Between all of the good food, good times, football games and afternoon naps... be sure to take a moment to give thanks!

Check out today's Google art:

Veterans Day 2009

For 90 years, the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month has been a remembrance of those who served America in time of war.

But the Nov. 11 Veterans Day commemoration began as a day to celebrate peace — the silencing of the guns of World War I, "The Great War," which claimed the lives of more than 15 million soldiers and civilians.

On that day in 1918, at the 11th hour, Germany signed an armistice with the Allied Powers — including the U.S., France, Britain, Japan and Italy — ending major hostilities in a war that nearly wiped out a generation of men.

A full peace was concluded the next year in France at the Palace of Versailles, and the first Armistice Day was proclaimed and celebrated by President Woodrow Wilson on the anniversary of the ceasefire: Nov. 11, 1919.

It was fully established by Congress as a legal holiday in 1938.

But Armistice Day honored veterans of only World War I, essentially ignoring millions of soldiers who served in peacetime or fought in World War II, Korea and other engagements.

So in 1954 Congress extended the holiday to honor all vets, giving it the name Veterans Day, which it has kept for 55 years.

Today, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are some 23.2 million veterans in the United States. That includes 2.6 million who served during World War II, 2.8 million who served in the Korean War, 7.8 million in the Vietnam War, 5.2 million in the Gulf War and about 1.7 million who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Nearly 120,000 are still stationed in Iraq, and about 68,000 will be deployed in Afghanistan by the end of the year, according to the Census.

Just one American veteran who served in World War I is still alive: 108-year-old Frank Buckles, who drove ambulances in England and France after enlisting at the age of 16. Buckles also fought in World War II and was taken prisoner by the Japanese.

Check out the article at Fox News.

Always honor our veterans... they have fought for our freedom and deserve our respect at all times!

For some more very interesting history and personal accounts of WWII, I highly recommend Band of Brothers, Pegasus Bridge, D-Day June 6, 1944, and Citizen Soldiers by Stephen Ambrose

Be sure to check out the Patriotic Fact Sheet at the Department of Veteran Affairs website.

Check out today's Google art:

Saban Bowl III

Around the Bowl and Down the Hole... Roll Tide Roll!

High on the list of strange but true facts about the LSU-Alabama series through the years, and especially this decade, is how little home-field advantage has meant.

Since 1970, the road team in this game is 27-11-1. The road team won every game between 1981-89 except 1985 when the Tigers and Tide fought to a 14-14 deadlock in Baton Rouge.

Since 1982, LSU is 10-3 against Alabama in either Birmingham or Tuscaloosa, with four wins in a row this decade in at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

LSU coach Les Miles has been the architect of the last two wins in Tuscaloosa — a 16-13 overtime thriller when the teams last met when both were ranked in the top 10 in 2005 and 41-34 in 2007 when the Tigers rallied with a pair of touchdowns in the game’s final 2:49.

“I think we’ve had good teams,” Miles said about the four-game wining streak at Bryant-Denny. “I think those guys know how to play on the road, play with poise, play with the confidence that they were going to be able to get it done and played well.”

As has Alabama. Two years ago the Crimson Tide was ranked No. 17 and on a three-game winning streak when LSU got to town.

The Tigers struggled when quarterback Matt Flynn got picked off three times in the first half, helping Alabama take a 27-17 lead late in the third quarter.

“I felt our team was very confident going into that game,” Miles said.

“I felt like certainly we recognized that was a great team we were playing. Every time we play Alabama — whether it’s on the road or at home — we recognize it’s going to be a very competitive game and matching two of the finest collegiate programs in college football.”

Alabama leads the series 44-23-5 and has a slim 9-8 edge in games played in Tuscaloosa. During Paul “Bear” Bryant’s tenure at Alabama, most games between the Tigers and Tide were played in Birmingham.

LSU and Alabama have also played occasional games in Mobile and Montgomery.

Check out the article at The Advocate.

Yeah, I know... the Saban vs. LSU hype is starting to die down a little now that it's been three years. But I don't care! To me, this game is Saban Bowl III... and it's going to be a tough one! If the Tigers can pull out a W tomorrow, they can go all the way!!!

Geaux Tigers!!!

USS New York

NEW YORK  —  The new Navy assault ship USS New York, built with World Trade Center steel, arrived in its namesake city Monday with a 21-gun salute near the site of the 2001 terrorist attack.

First responders, families of Sept. 11 victims and the public gathered Monday at a waterfront viewing area, where they could see the crew standing at attention along the deck of the battleship gray vessel.

The big ship paused. Then the shots were fired, with a cracking sound, in three bursts.

The bow of the $1 billion ship, built in Louisiana, contains about 7.5 tons of steel from the fallen towers.

"It's a transformation ... from something really twisted and ugly," said Rosaleen Tallon, who lost her firefighter brother, Sean, on 9/11. "I'm proud that our military is using that steel."

Tallon said her brother, who was also was a Marine, also would have been proud.

JoAnn Atlas, of Howells, N.Y., who lost her husband, fire Lt. Gregg Atlas, draped a flag-themed banner along the fence. The names of emergency workers who died were written on the red stripes.

"We have to remember. It's a way to honor them," she said.

Of the 361 sailors serving aboard the ship, around 13 percent are from New York state, which is higher than would normally be the case, Murphy said. There were many requests from Navy personnel to serve on the ship, which will carry some 250 Marines.

After the ground zero stop, the ship — ecorted by about two dozen tugboats and other vessels — headed up the Hudson River toward the George Washington Bridge. After a U-turn there, it was to head south to Pier 88. An official commissioning ceremony is scheduled for Saturday.

The New York will remain in the city through Veteran's Day and then head to Norfolk, Va., for about a year of crew training and exercises, Murphy said.

The ship is 684 feet long and can carry as many as 800 Marines. Its flight deck that can handle helicopters and the MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft.

It was scheduled to be built before the terrorist attacks. About a year later, the announcement came that the ship would bear the name New York to honor the city, state, and those who died.

It's the latest in a line of Navy ships to bear that name. The others included a Spanish-American War-era cruiser, a battleship that served in World Wars I and II and a nuclear submarine retired from the fleet in 1997.

The ship is technically known as a San Antonio-class amphibious dock vessel. Four vessels in that class are in service, the USS San Antonio, USS New Orleans, USS Mesa Verde and USS Green Bay. Four others are being built. Of those, two also have been named in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks.

The USS Arlington was named to honor the attack on the Pentagon. The USS Somerset was named after the county in Pennsylvania where United Airlines flight 93 crashed.

Check out the article at Fox News.

What an awesome ship... and an awesome tribute to those who perished in the terrorist attack. That steel will be put to good use fighting terror around the globe!

Check out these USS New York Links:

• USS New York website
• USS New York wiki
• USS New York photo gallery

Happy Halloween!

Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in).

The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.

To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities.

During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.

By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain.

The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints' Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints', All Saints', and All Souls', were called Hallowmas.

Check out the article at History.com.

Halloween is the best holiday of the year!!!

Geaux Tigers

Check out today's Google art:

Billy Cannon's Halloween Run - 50th Anniversary!

Billy Cannon’s Halloween Run. Just the mention of those four words is enough to bring a sense of pride and joy to any LSU football fan.

Saturday's game against Tulane marks the 50th anniversary of the legendary game on October 31, 1959 in which LSU running back Billy Cannon returned a punt 89 yards for a touchdown.

The return turned out to be the only touchdown of the game as the top-ranked Tigers defeated the No. 3 Ole Miss Rebels 7-3.

Cannon, now 72, admits that while he may be getting older, his memory of the run that Halloween night is still fresh in his mind.

“My mind is getting fuzzy but the run isn’t,” Cannon said. “The games that you win or lose big drift away. But the ones where the outcome of the game depends on every play, those are the games that you remember vividly.”

Both the Tigers and the Rebels were undefeated heading into the game, which only added to the hype surrounding the already heated rivalry.

“The week of the game it was just crazy,” Cannon recalled. “Everyone just wanted to talk football.”

The game also marked the first time that the stadium sold out since new bleachers were installed in the south end zone. Over 67,500 people crammed into Tiger Stadium to watch the much anticipated matchup.

“To be playing before that many people with them sitting in the aisles and everywhere else, it was quite a stir,” said Cannon.

LSU trailed 3-0 through three hard-fought quarters.  As Cannon stood at his own 11-yard line with just under 10 minutes remaining, he knew that in order for the Tigers to have a chance to win the game he was going to have to make something happen.

“It doesn’t take a genius to look at the scoreboard and figure out you are down and that you are running out of time,” Cannon said.  “Before the punt I said to myself that if I have a chance I’m going to take this one back up the field because if we are going to do something we are going to have to do it pretty quick.”

And Cannon did just that.

Ole Miss’ Jake Gibbs tried to punt the ball out of bounds, but instead the ball took a bounce at the 11-yard line right into Cannon’s hands.

“I got the perfect bounce,” Cannon said.  “If I had caught it on the fly I don’t think it would have worked out the same. I think the bounce made them relax a little bit and they were just surprised when the ball bounced straight to me. I was just as surprised as they were.”

After fielding the ball, the 6-foot-1, 225-pound Cannon fought his way through seven would-be tacklers before finally breaking free around the 50-yard line. He then galloped his way into the end zone and into LSU history as the Tiger Stadium crowd erupted.

“There was a guy in the stands that was in the box seats that jumped out onto the field,” Cannon said. “He jumped on my back and he was beating me to death. One of my teammates, Donnie Daye, came over and pulled him off of me. He was so happy and going crazy. He was just going crazy and the whole stands were going crazy.”

Every year during the week of the LSU-Ole Miss game the black-and-white replay is shown numerous times on TV. These replays provide not only nostalgia for the fans of LSU football, but also for Cannon and his teammates.

“Over the years it has become a contest of who can point out what,” Cannon joked. “We have a lot of fun with it.”

“When I’m with Lynn LeBlanc, Lynn always says ‘Watch this block! Watch this block right here!’ because it was him making the block that took three guys down,” Cannon said, laughing. “But I tell him ‘Lynn I was by that guy before you even blocked anybody!’”

“Red (Brodnax) makes a block late in the play and Lynn accuses him of clipping and putting the whole team in jeopardy with the clip, but of course Red denies it,” Cannon added.

Fifty years have now passed since that Halloween night and Cannon’s punt return is still a prominent part of LSU history. But Cannon said he doesn’t want it to be remembered as an individual effort because it was a team effort.

“Not one of us on that entire team would have ever told you we were going to do something that would be so remembered 50 years later. We were there for the day, the moment, the game, and that period of time. That is all we cared about.”

Check out the article at LSU Sports.

Classic!

Check out these articles on the famous punt return:

• The Halloween Run: 50 Years Later
• Run to Glory

Geaux Tigers!!!

Ares I Rocket Launch a Soaring Success!

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. —  At 11:30 a.m. Wednesday morning, the Ares 1-X experimental rocket — the next-generation of America's space flight program — blasted off flawlessly through clear skies at Cape Canaveral.

This launch shows how challenging rocket science really is: Blue skies over the launch pad in Florida hid a variety of challenges, including static-filled clouds and high-altitude winds.

Launching a rocket through these conditions isn't like a plane taking off from a landing strip: It's more like shooting a rubberband through a keyhole from across a parking lot.

At 11:26, NASA resumed the 4-minute launch countdown that had been on pause since 8 a.m Tuesday morning. The ignition system armed, the water and electrical systems activated, and at 11:30 a.m., the Ares 1-X experimental rocket blasted off through clear skies from NASA's launch pad in Florida.

The ship passed Mach 2, achieving speeds of over 1,540 mph. Then, at 22.2 nautical miles up in the air, "burnout" occurred, a stage at which the two segments of the rocket separate and the capsule falls back to Earth.

The test rocket includes a real solid-rocket first stage, with a mock second stage and dummy Orion crew capsule on top to simulate the intended weight and size of Ares I. Ares I-X is the tallest booster in service or about to fly and stands about 327 feet high — 14 stories taller than NASA's space shuttles.

This rocket could eventually take man into space, back to the moon. In an actual moon launch, the second stage of the rocket will contain the liquid propellant that carries the capsule further into space, and ultimately into orbit.

Clouds, snagged tethers and even a misdirected cargo ship within the danger area in the Atlantic Ocean contributed to an eventual postponement in Monday's scheduled launch of the Ares 1-X.

Check out the article at Fox News.

It's nice to see NASA's Constellation Program moving right along ahead of schedule. It would be really nice to see American astronauts avoid having to hitch a ride on Russian rockets!

Check out these interesting links:

• NASA Ares Launch Vehicles
• NASA Constellation Program
• NASA Constellation Program Wiki

Saints Getting It Done!!!

NEW ORLEANS — For the second consecutive game, the Saints’ high-scoring offense played a complementary role to its rejuvenated defense.

A week earlier, Drew Brees passed for fewer than 200 yards for the first time in 23 games as New Orleans defeated the Bills, 27-7, in Buffalo.

On Sunday in the Superdome, Brees against fell short of the 200-yard mark — the first time in four seasons with the Saints that he has played the entire game both times and failed to reach that plateau in consecutive weeks.

The NFL’s highest-scoring offense scored just 10 points to support the 14 scored by the defense in New Orleans’ 24-10 victory over the New York Jets.

The Saints received the opening kickoff and nine plays later they had a first down at the Jets’ 22. A holding penalty on center Jonathan Goodwin put the Saints behind schedule and the drive ended with John Carney kicking a 34-yard field goal.

After the defense’s first touchdown — a 99-yard interception return by Darren Sharper — New Orleans appeared poised to take a 17-0 lead when it drove to a first-and-goal at the one. Pierre Thomas lost a yard, Heath Evans got the yard back, and Brees threw two incompletions, giving the ball back to New York.

But the defense got the points the offense couldn’t when two plays later, Will Smith sacked Mark Sanchez and caused a fumble, which Remi Ayodele recovered for a touchdown.

The Saints failed in another short-yardage situation in the third quarter, when on fourth-and-1 from the Jets’ 28, Thomas was stopped for no gain.

“We drove down the field on the first possession of the game and got three points, very well could have had seven,” Brees said. “After that, it was about managing the football game. I look at missed opportunities to get points and penalties that stalled drives. We’re going to continue to try and get better offensively.”

The offense finally put the ball in the end zone when it needed to in order to secure the victory, driving 74 yards to a touchdown that gave New Orleans a 24-10 lead with 6:07 left in the game.

Along the way, the offense finally found a way to convert a fourth-and-1 into a first down for them instead of the Jets. They lined up at the New York 43 and enticed defensive tackle Kris Jenkins to jump offsides.

Goodwin said the Saints had no intention of snapping the ball. They said Jenkins was susceptible to jumping the snap count.

“All the linemen just started yelling a bunch of snap counts,” Goodwin said, “and I got a little lower to make it look like I was ready to snap it. Then Drew did a great job with a hard count.”

Six plays later, Thomas was running one yard for the offense’s only touchdown of the game.

“The defense played excellent all day and we just wanted to try and put the game away and take some pressure of the defense,” wide receiver Marques Colston said. “We wanted to try and distance ourselves a little bit.”

The Saints had 14 touchdown drives in their first three games and just one Sunday, but that represented just the third touchdown drive in 46 possessions against the Jets’ stingy defense.

“We did everything we needed to do, especially in the fourth quarter, to win the football game,” Brees said. “My job as quarterback is to lead that group of men and manage the game and put us in the best position to score points, take care of the football, and win games.

“I think the balance (153 yards rushing and 190 yards passing) — playing that complementary type of offense with the run and the pass — it’s good for the offense, it’s good for the players, it’s winning football games. In the end, it doesn’t matter how we get it done, it’s that we get it done.”

Check out the article at The Advocate.

Geaux Saints!!!

LSU Quiets Critics after Intense Win!

ATHENS, Ga. — Tired of getting ripped locally by fans and the media for being inept on offense?

Then drive 88 yards on 12 plays with the game on the line Between the Hedges.

Tired of hearing how the offense is underachieving?

Score twice in the final 2:53 to escape with a Southeastern Conference road win.

Tired of hearing how you can’t run the ball?

Then go to Sanford Stadium and bounce off a tackler like a Herschel Walker highlight reel en route to a 33-yard game winning touchdown in the last minute of a key SEC game.

That’s what LSU’s embattled offense did Saturday in a 20-13 win over Georgia.

It was a monkey off the back of offensive coordinator Gary Crowton, a vindication of quarterback Jordan Jefferson, an emergence of freshman Rueben Randle and a return to form for running back Charles Scott.

And it was a not-so-subtle “Shhhh” to the critics.

They did it by pulling through in the clutch and becoming all-of-the-sudden explosive when, for the first 53 minutes it had alternated between being unable to finish drives in the first half and unable to drive at all in the second half.

The Tigers had only one second-half first down before they went 88 yards on 12 plays to take a 12-7 lead on Charles Scott’s 2-yard touchdown with 2:53 left in the game. And when that wasn’t enough after the Bulldogs quickly answered with their own touchdown with 1:09 left in the game, LSU responded.

The Tigers went two plays and 38 yards for the winning touchdown. Scott, a 1,000-yard rusher last year who has hardly seemed to fit in with this year’s offense, ran over Georgia linebacker Marcus Dowtin on a 33-yard run for the game winner with 46 seconds left.

Yeah. Big, physical backs can be useful, even on a team full of spread-the-field athletes.

That’s 126 yards and two touchdowns in the final two possessions after managing 242 yards and no touchdowns in the first nine drives.

How on earth do you explain that?

“We can throw and catch it,” head coach Les Miles said.

With more than just the usual players. On the 88-yard drive, Jefferson converted third-and-10 by finding Randle, who had two first-down catches for 29 yards on a drive where the Tigers’ two reliable senior receivers, Brandon LaFell and Richard Dickson, both dropped passes.

This was a drive about an “emergence of a fine young player,” Miles said of Randle. And Jefferson not only converted a third-and-10, but also a first-and-15 after an illegal shift killed a 17-yard pass. But Jefferson scrambled 26 yards to keep the drive alive.

The final drive? It was about Scott giving LSU its longest run of the year not in an insignificant moment against a bad team, but on the road in the final minute against the No. 18 team in the country. In other words, when it counts.

So, sure, this offense sputters and stalls and drives you crazy, but it also knows how to win.

Check out the article at The Advocate.

I couldn't agree more with the above article... except that not ALL of the critics are quiet. But, who cares what they say? They sure talked their trash two years ago... how many times did we hear "overranked'? But they shut up after Ohio State went down in the NC game, didn't they? They don't know what they're talking about, anyway. Hell, we shouldn't even have rankings this early in the season.