The defense will definitely carry us this year. The real question, IMO, is whether our offense can develop consistency and keep our D off the field. We won't be able to just run up the gut against the elite teams on our schedule...
Look at our defense, and why it's so good, and that will answer the question. Our corners ... they can handle any receivers we will see in 1v1 coverage. Most teams will have at most 1 outstanding receiver and we have them covered even if they have 2-3. This is like having a Revis Island ... for all their receivers. What does that do? That allows us to bring up the safety blitz more often, that allows our linebackers to cheat up some to help on the run ... hell it even allows our corners to help cheat up on the run. The only area in the passing game where we can get hit is nickeled over and over on a quick slant ... or heaven forbid screen passes (like the one that Bama used to come back on us a few years ago). This is true regardless of who we are playing. The only 2 teams that should scare our defense is Georgia and Bama, and since we won't see Georgia we don't have to worry about Gurley (they aren't winning the East). Bama we will have to stop a power run game that mirrors our own. This is going to seriously put our MLB's to the test, and we are going to need to be athletic and smart ... so we need Beckwith to step it up because that other guy isn't going to get more athletic before Bama. Our offense still shows signs of their skill, we just need it to be more consistent. The only area our defense is lacking ... we don't have the turnover machine that we did in 2011 (nor would we ever again but still). Our O is going to have to be amazing and safe with the ball since we cannot count on the D or Special teams taking the ball away like they have in the past for us. Speaking of special teams ... we have a pretty good outing there. The kicking was back to form, and coverage was great.
Doesn't matter. I'm not saying they're the greatest offensive power ever, but they're more than capable of moving the ball consistently and we held them to 93 total yards. That's difficult to do no matter who you're playing.
The sad thing is that 93 yards is misleading as fuck. It was at 61 yards whenever the game was already over and we sent in the Baton Rouge High School third stringers to end the game and they got 32 more yards on the high school kids.
I'm sorry man. I can't get into racking up numbers against the likes of SHSU & LMU. Let's get into the meat of the SEC schedule and see what we do.
I agree but if I have 1 issue with Chavis it's his love of trying to get pressure with the front 4, even after it's clear that won't work. Now he does send people every once in awhile, but our db's are actually more effective blitzing than our LB's are. The dude I'm impressed with from this last game. Tashaun Bower. The guy is quick, he's hard to back peddle and run down the field without him catching that corner and at least putting a lick on the qb. Now COTiger will tell you we played West Monroe High and he's right, but at worst we have a good team.
I agree, but until then we can only use the performances that we've seen to date to try and gauge how good they are.
Offense I see what you're saying. Defense ... people are going to get yards. It happens. LSU 2011 vs Northwestern State - 95 yards. LSU 2011 vs Western Kentucky 226 yards .... What I'm saying even truly dominate defenses give up yards. What we did tonight was pretty damn dominant, even reminded me of 2011 but without the turnovers.
