blacksaint

LSU receivers struggle with dropped passes

Sunday, October 21, 2007
By Jim Kleinpeter

BATON ROUGE -- LSU quarterback Matt Flynn answered any critics he might have had after the Kentucky game.

Flynn, who was off target often in last week's loss in Lexington, Ky., came through in the clutch in LSU's 30-24 victory against Auburn on Saturday night.

Flynn completed 22 of 34 passes for a career-high 319 yards and three touchdowns. He drilled a perfect pass to Demetrius Byrd for the game-winning touchdown with one second remaining on a play where the whole stadium was expecting a running play to set up a potential game-winning field goal.

Flynn had to overcome his own receivers, who dropped six passes. One of those was by Byrd, the junior college transfer from Miami.

Last week against Kentucky, Flynn was 17 of 35 for 130 yards. He threw an interception that led to a game-tying field goal by the Wildcats.

DROPSIES AGAIN: LSU's problems with dropped passes continued and became even laughable.

Not only did LSU wide outs drop six passes, but Brandon LaFell turned one of his two drops into an interception. LaFell was wide open behind Auburn cornerback Patrick Lee but had to stop and wait for the ball. LaFell reached low for the catch, and while trying to pull up the ball, he flipped it into the air. The ball went right to Lee.

Terrance Toliver dropped two and Byrd and Early Doucet one each.

INJURIES: LSU's All-American tackle Glenn Dorsey left the game with a leg injury on the sixth play. He was replaced by sophomore Al Woods, and Auburn drove for a touchdown five plays later. Dorsey missed the next defensive series but returned and made a tackle for a 2-yard loss on his first play back. Dorsey was injured again with 3:53 remaining in the third quarter.

Linebacker Darry Beckwith injured his right arm and went to the locker room for X-rays but later returned. Lee left the game after a head-on collision with LSU running back Jacob Hester in the first quarter, but he also returned.

TRICK PLAY: Auburn's ever-creative coach Tommy Tuberville came up with another unusual trick play, this one on an LSU kickoff in the third quarter. Auburn's Ben Tate bobbled the kick but picked it up and quickly got into a line with Brad Lester, Jerraud Powers and Lee on the 5-yard line with their backs to the coverage team. Tate passed the ball over to Lee out of sight of the LSU players, and the four broke out in different directions. While LSU players tried to figure out which player had the ball, Lee took off down the left side and got to the Auburn 40-yard line for a 35-yard return.

PAT ANSWER: Colt David became LSU's all-time leader in successful extra-point attempts with his second kick, the 130th of his career. It broke a tie with former LSU kicker John Corbello (1999-02).

TIME OUTS: LSU struggled with timeouts. A personnel mixup forced Flynn to angrily call for a timeout in the second quarter. LSU wasted two in the third quarter, the first while waiting for Auburn to punt. The second was the result of another offensive personnel mistake.

NICE EFFORT: Trindon Holliday delayed a touchdown when he chased down Jerraud Powers after Powers picked up a fumble and appeared to be in the clear. Holliday, who is 5 feet 5 and the SEC's 100-meters champion, caught Powers at the 3-yard line and forced him out of bounds. Auburn scored three plays later.

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