1. Limit/minimize the damage by Brandon James on special teams. He's Skyler Green and Trindon Holiday all in one. Our punting team has been excellent so far this season. That must continue. 2. On defense, LSU will not allow Florida to go 80 yards on 12 plays. On the flip side, Florida has struggled going on long time consuming drives this season. Therefore, it's paramount we don't give up the big play. 3. On offense, LSU will probably be going up against a defense who will bring the safety in the box more times than not. LSU must be aggressive and make them pay with intermediate to long passes to our outside receivers as well as the tight end over the vacated spots in the middle of the field. 4. Florida has started off slowly all year long. LSU must help Florida continue that trend to take the crowd out early. This will have a profound effect on our young QBs. 5. Darry Beckwith must come up big. He's the QB of our defense and he must have an effect, especially in passing situations. Just the fact that we can now get Sheppard off the field on obvious passing downs makes this defense that much more formidable.
I'd add to this list: 6. DE play. Blitzing Tebow and Harvin is risky. If the DEs can remain fresh and aggressive without letting Tebow and Harvin get around the corner very often, this will make blitzing less predictable and therefore more effective. Tebow is FAR less effective when contained and under pressure.
1 Key to the game. LSU MUST be able to pound the ball at will. If so that will open up the big passing play for the big score and it will keep Tebow and Harvin off the field. Game over. LSU wins big.
The biggest issue to me is defensive communication. If we limit our mistakes & miscommunications, we can stop their offense.
I'd add this too: 7. Watch out for that gay-ass jump pass (not that there's anything wrong with that...). Good point on James. I would not punt to that dude. He's awesome. We also probably shouldn't go Man-D on Harvin if we have a linebacker covering him. Use some kind of zone or he'll burn us over and over on those crossing routes. Oh, and don't let Tebow run over our D like he ran over Landry that year. I think that covers it.
Honestly, there's no really sound way to stop Harvin. Just gotta keep the ball out of his hands as much as possible. That means long offensive drives with few mistakes, and (as CParso points out) WAY fewer miscues on defensive play calling. If Tebow has time to throw (which probably means they're also running well on us) it could be a long night.
I think we have to have some success running the ball early. That would take some pressure off of Lee. On the opposite side, I think we need to get some heat on Tebow early. If we can't get in his face it could be a long night.
