I’m more than happy to give credit where credit is due, but again, the film does not lie. Fromm just missed the reads. These guys were breaking open before Fromm delivered the pass, not "when the ball is downfield" as you said. I know LSU has NFL players. Many teams in the SEC have NFL players. Like I said, pick any single pass play in the first half. Any one of them. I'll list them below. Please tell me on which of these plays the open man would have been covered. The play was there in every single case:

1st pass - complete to Nauta, high throw but good job by Nauta going up and getting it.
2nd pass - drop by Nauta, open, had both hands on it, should have caught it for 5 yards
3rd pass - drop by Swift in L flat, open, Ridley was uncovered across the middle for 15 yards, Godwin had beaten his man for a TD
4th pass - Hardman had beaten his man for a TD and Fromm overthrew him
5th pass - Fromm overthrew a covered Hardman, but Godwin - his #1 read on the play - had broken free in the L of the endzone
6th pass - threw incomplete to a covered Mecole, Nauta was breaking open in the endzone, and Holloman(?) had beaten his man down the L sideline for TD
this brought up the ill-fated 4th & 9 fake FG.
7th pass - threw out of bounds over Holloman on L sideline, Nauta was open on the R seam, Ridley open near R hash
8th pass - awkward throw to Herrien, looks like ball slipped out of Fromm’s hand as he threw, he was pressured but ball was NOT tipped.
Could not tell from either live shot or replay if anyone else was open.
9th pass - Pitiful effort to a covered Ridley on the R sideline. Both Nauta and Hardman were open on R & L seams
At this point, at the very least the game should be 7-10 with us driving (if us not already in the lead). But we punt and their 1st play was that busted coverage pass to our 20.
10th pass - 3rd & 4, overthrew covered Godwin down L sideline, Holyfield uncovered for 1st, Ridley wide open on R sideline, Hardman had beaten his man across the seam.
11th pass - 3rd & 5, scrambles, breaks free, threw a yard or two behind an uncovered Swift for easy 1st, and a big gainer.
12th pass - complete to Holloman for 9 yards. Good read and throw. His 2nd of the game.
13th pass - complete to Swift over middle for 1st down. Good read and throw.
14th pass - complete to Nauta on R sideline for 5 yards & stop the clock. Good throw.
15th pass - pressured, incomplete to Ridley on R sideline. Before the pressure, Godwin was WIDE open in the middle of the field for 20+ yards. Fromm somehow didn’t see him.
16th pass - 3rd & 5, bad looking throw L into coverage near Simmons(?), nearly intercepted, Nauta had slipped open across the L seam for 1st down.

Like I said, pick ANY one of these plays (particularly the incompletes) and I'll be more than happy to discuss why the pass would/should have been completed. Yes, LSU has good players and good coaches. But despite having NFL caliber players, and good coaching, there are only so many coverages out there. LSU played some man, some cloud, and some cover 3. The notion that they came up with some magic defensive scheme that no one else has come up with in the last two years, well, that’s more than just a little presumptuous.
[Post edited by RedDawg at 10/21/2018 2:28PM]