When Chavis has lineman who can dominate like Henderson, Haynesworth, and so on, his defense will pressure, but mainly from the front four. Otherwise, he takes the long run approach to defensive strategy. Speaking as a Bama fan, with your LB's and DB's talent level, thank goodness.
The best friend of a defense for putting up stats is a good offense. If our offense stayed on the field more consistently and ran the ball better and sustained long drives and dominated time of possession, the other teams offense would have fewer opportunities. It seemed like our D was out there a lot, and when our O got the ball, it was not too long, and then our D was back out there and getting tired. I felt sorry for our D, that the offense didn't hold up their end of the deal. Yes, we saw a bend but don't break D, and as the season wore on, a little more blitzing, but the impact of an anemic offense shows up in the D giving up a lot of yards just due to "being out there a lot".
We were told that Chavis defense, of bend but don't break would drive us nuts. If he can keep opposing offenses out of the endzone, and we get an offense that can score than I'm ok with that. The one stat that does drive me nuts is the inability to stop teams on 3rd down and get off the field. I think that this is a by product of an offense that continues to go 3 and out though. I think next season we will see even more improvement on the defensive side of the ball, as well as the offensive.
We are also dealing with defensive linemen who weren't being coached by Earl Lane for several years.
Doesn't matter... by the time the 4th quarter rolls around your defense's is tired and worn out. It's a choice. Chavis's style is to play in front and force the offense to work down the field, this limits big plays for scores and limits the number of possessions per game. It depends on your style...and if you have the personnel. To me "lights out" would mean challenging every yard on virtually every play, challenging receivers on every pattern on every down. That is not is not Chavis's style, I really don't know what there is argue about... I would say Chavis would tell you the same thing. Chavis plays "bend don't break", go talk to any Vols fan that watch it over a decade. If you want a "lights out" defense you go buy yourself a "lights out" DC, LSU bought a "bend don't break" DC. If that is your think that is fine, I am not faulting the guy... he has never misrepresented his coaching strategy.
Man If I wasnt an LSU (which some of you poser are not) I would come here and think LSU went 3-9 instead of 9-3.
I disagree. While yes, there are times we just got beat on plays, I am sure most of us can say that our D was in position to make the stop, however a good number of guys just missed the tackle. I also think a lack of D-line force plays a big role. Last year we coulda have said our D lost us games. Thats not the case this year. We could have won 2 of the 3 games lost with just 2 scores. "Bend but dont break" or "Lights out" Both can win games and not one game this year has Chavis put LSU in a place to lose a game. I'm not the biggest fan of Chavis, but he is providing LSU the Chance to win games.
The guys are mostly playing way back. The QB would dump it off 3 yards and the WRs/RBs would take 8-15 yards in front of the coverage... happened all year. 3rd and longs were gained constantly because the defense is playing "bend don't break". Look, if you don't believe me go watch film from the Vols from the last 10-15 years, I assure all their fans will say the same thing. Why are we even talking about this? Chavis in fact plays a "bend and don't break" scheme... he always has. The rest of what you said, must not be directed at me... you act like I said Chavis blew games... actually playing "bend not break rarely blows games", that is why he uses it. The offense just has to be more patient, if they are patient then it will be long day for the defense because it's usually easy to move the ball down the field against. It's a style or choice, if you choose a "bend and don't break" DC, you certainly can't be surprised when the other team is moving the ball down the field on you when they are patient. I have no problem is that is the direction they want to go, it's not what I would choose but when people are out here thinking things will be drastically different next year are in for a rude awakening.
i'm waiting to reserve final judgement until the offense can stay on the field. these guys are gassed at the end of the game. i'm a big fan of any DC in college who pressures the QB. the best pass coverage comes from a good pass rush. there aren't many qb's in college who can handle constant pressure effectively like there are in the pros. it's the main reason why i liked saban and muschamp when he was here. my main gripes with saban was his offensive style and playing conservative and sometimes playing to not lose instead of playing to win. playing to win is something miles has done very well. back to chavis, i think at times he brings great pressure packages. but when one completion happens sometimes he gets timid and backs off the rest of the game. the flipside of not getting pressure is that most QB's even in high school can find an open receiver if given enough time. gregg williams last night mixed very effectively bend and don't break and "lights out" or whatever you call it in this thread. it's also when chavis is at his best. there were times when he mixed well against arky but in the 2nd half the pressure seemed to stop, the hogs moved the ball a lot. either way you slice it he held mallet who'd been torching teams to 3 offensive TD's. pretty good considering the curve of playing against a hot qb in a system like petrino's. you would think the LSU offense could get at least 3 TD's but of course that wasn't the case and we needed trindon to add one on a return. at least the offense delivered when time was winding down and JJ may have come of age on that last drive. my biggest problem with chavis is it seems our guys don't tackle well. but they didn't under malveto and they started not to under pelini. may be personnel. i definitely agree it's the philosphy of players wanting to get a hit more than tackle. harry coleman is walking personification of that. edit: i think i'm one of the very few who think LSU gets better next year by the ole addition by subtraction. there are a few players on both sides of the ball i can't wait to see graduate.
