FB Final G9: Louisiana 21, Georgia State 17

[IHateLaState]

I will say, there was a point last night where i was unsure if Levi was going to come back out on the field. I'm not a "Levi is terrible and he's always been terrible" kind of guy, but last night was pretty bad. The fact that we've lost two games in the last two years, and there's doubt about whether a fifth year senior quarterback is the best option tells you a lot about where things are.

That said, I think it would have to be even worse than that for Napier to actually pull him. I'm excited about the future of Fields, but realistically that's like handing a 15 year old kid with a learners permit the keys to a big rig. Better to just let the professional trucker get you there, even if he's swerving a little.

You have to trust a 5th year Senior QB that has lost only a small handful of games over his career in a tough spot... despite his not balling out the way RP posters want.

I remember Drew Brees stinking it up for a quarter of two and then rallying the Saints to win.... Trust BN.. we did.. we won...

[Scott Malkinson]

Why doesn’t Levi throw it up on 4th and goal??? Really?? Have we never seen a 100 yard pick 6. And if it happened y’all would have his head. Levi can’t win with most of y’all.

Good win. Tough game. My biggest suprise was giving up so many yards right up the centers butt all night and not being able to do it ourselves.

We are 1 out of 85 on fade routes to the endzone... take the points your kicker was 3 of 4 last week

[Scott Malkinson]

You have to trust a 5th year Senior QB that has lost only a small handful of games over his career in a tough spot... despite his not balling out the way RP posters want.

I remember Drew Brees stinking it up for a quarter of two and then rallying the Saints to win.... Trust BN.. we did.. we won...

Drew Brees stinking is only throwing 3 tuddies and saints defense giving up 30 before half

[shof]

Credit to our guys for finding a way to win. I felt GAST was way more physical than us on both sides of the ball (outside of P Butler who was stacking lumber) and we lost the turnover battle. Lacy had two big drops that I think at least 1 probably cost TD. Either the short week or the weather seemed to have an effect on the offense. Despite all of that we found a way to move the ball and score in crunch time and the defense closed the door. Great team had an off night. I’ll take the W and clinching the West and move on to the next.

Haven’t read the rest of the thread yet, but I’ll chime in here anyway.
Several people have mentioned the short week as a reason for us coming out the gate slow. But let’s not forget Georgia State had the same short week AND had to travel. And I think they were on the road last week albeit only to GS.
Levi was not sharp early on. Yes, Lacy did have a drop or 2; but the potential TD pass to him was hot and behind him. We were fortunate to win this game given some of our mistakes; but the TEAM never gave up and kept fighting to the end. D came up big a lot last night. And Percy was a STUD last night.
Give GSU credit. They played hard and seemed to have a good game plan for us. Will be fun to see how they finish out the year, and specifically how they match up with Coastal.

Edit: I’ve been in the upper deck when cold and windy. Not fun. I think it was the night we received our 1st or 2nd NOLA Bowl bid. Was in the 40’s and breezy. Froze my tush off. Thankfully we had gumbo warmed up at the tailgate!!

[Cajunrunner]

I will say, there was a point last night where i was unsure if Levi was going to come back out on the field. I'm not a "Levi is terrible and he's always been terrible" kind of guy, but last night was pretty bad.

I’ve defended Levi against the non-stop Levi haters on here, and I thought after that INT that we might see Fields the next possession just to see if he could do anything, and Levi back in if he couldn’t.

But LL definitely responded like you’d expect the high character leader of a team to do. Nice stiff arm to the helmet of a much bigger defender to convert a 3rd down, then a nice TD throw to LeBlanc on 4th & Goal.

And that there shows why Coach Napier is going to ride him out this season. Again, Coach potentially has a $8 Million + job offer waiting for him if this season continues the way it’s going during this winning streak. He’s going to play the guy he trusts the most to win the game.

[IHateLaState]

Drew Brees stinking is only throwing 3 tuddies and saints defense giving up 30 before half

Agreed...but the point was you have to stick with a 5th year senior to pull out a tough one. We did.. and we did

[CajunVic]

Same thing I said last night. Why did Elliot stop running the ball? After the 16 play drive he ran it on the first play of the last drive for 12 yards. Then 3 straight passes.

Every Coach no matter the pedigree wants to utilize the element of surprise.

Surprise, surprise, surprise . . . It more often than not ends in a fail . ..

[Scott Malkinson]

Agreed...but the point was you have to stick with a 5th year senior to pull out a tough one. We did.. and we did

We were fortunate that our defense played lights out the 1st half. Offense has struggled in more games than not. We keep finding ways but your luck will run out eventually.

My biggest knock against Lewis 5 years and there still no consistency in his game.

[ragin50]

The unsportsmanlike was also a horrible call after a Cajun player was complaining to the referee about how he was roughed up on what should have been a personal foul.

I have to rethink my cap tipping to GSU. They had several dirty plays in the game. But they did play hard.

Maybe with the new additions to the SBC, we might see better zebras. They were atrocious last night. They are usually bad on both sides of the ball, but were totally giving GSU all the calls. The block on the punt return was totally legal, Vallot's holding was ridiculously late, and their ignoring GSU's personal fouls may have been the most egregious.

[CajunVic]

We were fortunate that our defense played lights out the 1st half. Offense has struggled in more games than not. We keep finding ways but your luck will run out eventually.

It’s been almost three years. Apparently BN has a rabbit’ foot in each pocket . . . Or just maybe he has had his chosen QB in the game . . .

[Scott Malkinson]

It’s been almost three years. Apparently BN has a rabbit’ foot in each pocket . . . Or just maybe he has had his chosen QB in the game . . .

Yet no out right championship...

[RaginDave]

So I stayed out of this game day conversation all night, but man what a game. First and foremost, for those of you that don't know it, Georgia State is a much better than average G5 football team and Shawn Elliot is a good coach. 2 of the games that Georgia State lost this season were with Quad Brown at QB in the first 2 games of the season and he was terrible, that is why they made a switch at QB. They lost badly to Army and UNC early in the season with Quad at QB, since then they have been really good. They beat a better than average Charlotte team handily and had Auburn beat, until a terrible call cost them the game. They lost badly to App State, but then beat ULM, Texas State and Georgia Southern. Take out the Quad Brown games and they are technically 4-2, for some unknown reason they put Brown back in to play against App State and got crushed. In the games that Darren Grainger has played they only have 2 losses and that is vs Auburn and us, both Top 25 teams. This is a team that can be good, if they figure out their passing game. They are good on defense and have a great running attack. I picked them 3rd in the East before the season behind App and Coastal, I still believe that is who they are, but the gap is not that far behind.

Secondly, we did not look good in the first half, but I have to give a ton of credit to our defense, while it was not always pretty, they played their asses off in that game to keep it close. By the way, GSU only had 307 yards of total offense, that means they were doing something well. We shut them down when we needed to. We don't all love the bend don't break defense but that is who we are.

Thirdly, Mr. Lewis did not look good early, but when it counted he came through. We may not all love his game, but he is a very cool and collected leader when he needs to be. He makes mistakes and frustrates everyone of us, but again, when needed he played big, same goes for the O-Line and also for our WR/TE's, specifically Mr. Leblan(c).

Lastly, all of the credit needs to go to Billy "Scared Money, don't Make Money" Napier. He is the king of 2nd half adjustments. I am starting to get where I just trust that we are going to be the better 2nd half team than almost anybody we play. If the game is close, CBN is going to win 9 times out of 10.

We might not love winning 21-17, 20-18, 27-24, 28-20 or 28-27, but man I would take that any day over being any other record this year but 9-0.

Just win baby and just do what needs to be done. If people think on this board that GSU is a bad team because they are 4-5, they just don't understand football. This team could easily be 6-3 and who knows had they started Grainger all season what might have happened. There is a really good chance that this team beats Coastal next week.

Finally, I have no idea what GSU and Shawn Elliot were thinking on that last drive. You were running the ball well all game, why change it up at the end. That was their biggest mistake vs us, trying to be something you are not.

Anyway, Geaux Cajuns and I am pumped up to be the 8-1, 24th ranked (I don't care what the CFP says) SUNBELT WESTERN DIVISION CHAMPIONS FOR THE 4TH YEAR IN A ROW.