Okay I will try again. I feel after the bye our D will be back to its old self. They did step up aganst Fla and SC as well as AU. It is hard to keep that level of play up.
Like i've said before... after 8 weeks straight and 5 top 17 ranked oppenents... this 2 weeks off will be the best thing for LSU. Look for our Offense and Defense to come back 100% and renewed. They know what's at stake now.
When I say there old self I mean as they were when the held Miss St. to zip and killed VT. They will step up the rest of the year. Our Offense showed what they can do sat night. LSU will be okay.
The defense has not been playing up to par lately, but I think the main problems are that they have played 2 pretty good QBs who are in the running for the heisman, and they are a little banged up, and a little fatigued after a rough 8 week stretch. I fully expect the true defense to return in Tuscallosa.
No, I think I'll "keep" them. It's just that I'm used to feeling extremely confident when our D is on the field, and if the game has been on the line, I usually felt more confident with our defensive unit (these past few years.) Recently, the offense has felt more "clutch."
Id still take our D over any other. I do think the line might not be quite what they were expected to be though. The consistent penetration isnt there with the exception of Dorsey. Jackson and Zenon have done a great job all year, most passes are caught on safeties or LBs in coverage or because of pass protection. Another big factor is the O has been so inconsistent in the last 4 games. The D is on the field for too long, so they are tiring down some. Which has lead to some of the longer drives. The D needs to have more stunts, blitzs, or whatever to get to the QB more. All in all, they step up when we need them, because without the D, LSU would have more losses.
We made the offenses look silly early on because Bo threw numerous blitzes at them and different types of blitzes which made the OL miss assignments and the QB make mistakes. Even at USC they blitzed a lot and made the QB's look silly. I can understand not doing this to UF because Tebow will just run. But to run a plain vanilla 4-3 with very little to no blitzing against these stationary pocket passer QB's is terrible scheming. It is not the style of play that has made the defense great. The last 3 games, the opposing offenses have moved the ball consistently. The Auburn offense isn't that great and Cox will not move in the pocket. He is easy pickens for a blitz. Disupt the timing routes and the rhthym of the offense. The OL will miss assignments several times and you will get an easy sack. The times that Bo brought blitzes in the UK and AU game, the plays weren't successful most of the time. The OU guys said there was a similar pattern when he was at OU. Started out great then he would go away from what worked early in the year. If he doesn't scheme a lot of blitzes against Wilson, then I will be once again disappointed. These types of QB's were easy pickens early in the season but now they aren't because no blitzing is occuring.
Two of the last three quarterbacks we faced have been Heisman-caliber. The team has played the hardest schedule in the nation with no breaks and play in the toughest conference in the country. We've lost Charles Alexander to injury and may have lost our All-American defensive captain...and all you have to say is that it's been "terrible scheming" lately. :dis: Here's a newsflash...the other team wants to win too. They look at film, adjust, and try to take away our strenghths. You sound like some computer geek who wouldn't know a football from a grapefruit.
I've complimented this team time and time again. There is nothing wrong with critiquing play calling and schemes. It is done all the time in here so don't tell me I'm out of line and know nothing about football. We've lost a game to UK, a big part of it due to the defense scheme and almost lost the AU game because of them able to move the ball well on passing plays. Of course teams try to scheme against your defense by watching tapes. AU obciously watched the UK and UF game and figured they could make 10 yd passes because LSU has stopped blitzing and we could get LB's matched on WR's with them running the 4-3. Occassionally LSU did at least run a nickel package with a 5-2 setup. I was saying they should run nickel sometimes after the UK game because of the way they passed on us. You watch the UK and AU game and when they brought a blitz they many times disrupted the plays. I'm just saying that has been their bread and butter in the first half of the season but Pelini has gone away from the approach against teams that have stationary pocket QB's that get shaken easily. USC blitzed UK and won and forced Woodson to make some bad decisions and the passing game suffered. As far as Heisman candidates, Tebow and Woodson....yes they are. Cox is not and yet Bo didn't go after him. He had a lot of time to throw and pick apart a zone defense. Even a QB like Cox will pick it apart if given time. I'm just saying that the defense scheme should've been to blitz him and get to him and shake him up mentally a little bit.
