POST GAME THOUGHTS: LSU BEATS TEXAS A&M

It feels like I've written the same post game recap every time we've lost this season. It's the same damn recipe... defense does enough, offense doesn't carry their weight. Plenty of teams have moved the ball against this LSU defense, yet we were completely inept tonight. If I told you before the game that we'd hold LSU to less than 200 yards rushing...you'd think that was a guaranteed win, right? But no. Somehow we lose. This is déjà vu and it's getting really really frustrating.

LSU is not a good team. We could have won. But we're not a very good team and we lost. The end.

Defense did fine. They deserve nothing but praise. We're running a true freshman at linebacker, a converted RB at CB and we played hard. They carried the team this game. I have nothing bad to say about them. Hell, I feel like John Chavis is the only coach that earned his check.

Special teams were a mess. I'm willing to give Jeff Banks a pass here because this game was an anomaly.

Offensively, we've got 5-stars at QB and WR and yet we can't get any consistent production. We've got talent across the line yet we can't protect our QB. Our RB is a hoss and runs his ass off and yet our playcalling is so disjointed that we never let him shine. The offense is a damn mess. An absolute mess.

And sure the easy solution is to fire Jake Spavital. He has done little to deserve another year as the OC of a team with this much talent. But offense is Kevin Sumlin's specialty. And this makes two years running where our offense has underperformed late in the year. Spav shoulders some of the blame, but Sumlin deserves the lion's share at this point.

Yeah, we won 8 games. And we could finish with 9 wins this year. But a 9 win season where we lost to Ole Miss, Alabama, Auburn, and LSU is not acceptable. Sumlin has been given every single thing he's asked for. Every single thing. And here we are.

So yeah. The future is uncertain right now. We'll make a good hire on offense. We'll hopefully win our bowl. We'll sign some damn good recruits. But we are entering into what feels like the decline of the Kevin Sumlin era at Texas A&M. Maybe I'm wrong, and maybe next year is our breakout year... but so far this era seems like one marked by a lot of promise but little performance.