• By GARY LANEY
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Nov 22, 2009

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OXFORD, Miss — Ever hear the one about the Louisianian that tried to call timeout?

Evidently, it takes a full 17 seconds — 17 seconds — to call timeout on the Bayou.

How about the one about the Louisianians being in range for a game-winning field goal and taking a sack — of all things, a sack — to knock themselves out of range?

That was Saturday in a nutshell. A last minute of near-heroics turned into Louisiana and LSU giving the world a new batch of Cajun jokes in a 25-23 Ole Miss escape.

Like the one you’re probably telling right now about spiking the ball with one second left on the clock.

But let’s set the record straight. When Jordan Jefferson spiked the ball with the clock on zero, it didn’t count as a play. Time ran out first. So even if LSU had the play of the century to run there, it didn’t have time to line up and snap it.

As for the rest of it …

I’d hate to be LSU offensive coordinator Gary Crowton today.

For the record, Les Miles took the blame afterward, saying “I take blame without question.”

But it’s the whole organization that fell apart.

After the 26-yard Jordan Jefferson-to-Brandon LaFell pass put LSU in field goal range at the Ole Miss 32-yard line with just more than a minute left, conventional wisdom said the Tigers should have gotten conservative. Run the ball with Stevan Ridley, set up kicker Josh Jasper in the middle of the field. The American flag was dead still in the end zone, so conditions were good. And he had already nailed a 50-yarder, with plenty of leg to spare, in the first half.

Remember the last time LSU ran to set up the game-winning field goal?

Remember Georgia having a one-point lead between the hedges when a kick return by Trindon Holliday, plus a penalty on Georgia, set LSU up at the Bulldogs’ 38? LSU ran it twice and on the second one, Charles Scott broke free for a 33-yard touchdown and a 20-13 LSU win.