There wasn’t a more baffling end to a game Saturday than what happened between LSU and Tennessee in Baton Rouge. LSU had a 1st and 2 at the Tennessee 2 with 36 seconds left, down 14-10. They had no timeouts and needed a touchdown to take the lead. Jarrett Lee threw an incompletion but the play only took up four seconds off the clock. With time stopped, LSU waved on quarterback Jordan Jefferson to many boos. Jefferson ran to the right on second down and was stopped for no gain, but the clock kept running.
LSU did not know what to do and let the click keep ticking. The clock went all the way down to four seconds before LSU snapped the ball. The ball was snapped past quarterback Jordan Jefferson and Tennessee won the game 14-10.
So they thought.
Despite the celebration, the referees reviewed the play and penalized Tennessee for having 13 men on the field. LSU lined up for another chance at victory and Stevan Ridley punched it in for the game-winning score. LSU lucked out with a 16-10 win, and they can only thank Tennessee’s too many men on the field penalty for the reason.
UPDATE: Video of the LSU/Tennessee ending
Once again Les Miles proved he can’t manage the clock in crunch time. Just like last year in a loss to Ole Miss, they let the clock run down and almost cost themselves the game. Now all that remains to be seen is if google’s famous idiot blames his quarterback for the problems again. The Tigers need to ignore the outcome and focus on the horrible clock management problems.
Photo Credit: AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
