Where the LSU defense needs to improve heading into Week 4
The LSU defense has improved thus far under first-year defensive coordinator Blake Baker, but the group still clearly has a ways to go.
Through three games the Tigers are allowing 27 points and 380 yards of offense per game. Shea Dixon of The Bengal Tiger recently spoke on the On3 Roundtable about where LSU still needs to improve moving forward.
“I think the two big things you point to in this game are two plays that were busted plays essentially that went for 75 and [60]-something yards,” Dixon said. “Rocket Sanders with his run and then obviously Sellers with his 75-yard run in the first half. When a guy at quarterback goes 75 yards untouched, kudos to the quarterback. Untouched is the key word. How do you go untouched? Well, the defense gets washed out of the play, the d-line. And then the linebacker doesn’t contain. And there’s nobody on that side and he’s gone.”
In the first two games of the season against USC and Nicholls, Dixon felt that LSU did a solid job of limiting big plays but allowed too many long drives.
However, the Tigers had the opposite problem against South Carolina. The Gamecocks struggled to sustain drives at times, but they also had touchdowns of 75 and 66 yards.
“Outside of that run in the first half, they had held [Sellers] to 9 carries for 13 yards. He was at 50-percent passing. He had turned the ball over once on an interception. He had turned the ball over on a fumble. So they were getting after him to the point where we have not seen an LSU defense force turnovers yet and actually capitalize,” Dixon said. “At the same time, you can’t give up those huge plays that sort of feel like backbreakers at times.”
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Dixon expects Baker to be good at LSU in the long run, but he added that it’s going to take some time for the defense to get to where it needs to be.
LSU had too many holes for Baker to come in and immediately field a stout defense, per Dixon.
“I think there’s a little bit of everything mixed in and this happens. You’ve got a first-year defensive coordinator in Blake Baker who proved his worth at Missouri. … He’s a great coach. It’s still first year,” Dixon said. “Remember, everybody on this defensive staff was fired from a year ago. So everybody on this defensive staff is working through the first few games with a defense that’s by and large the same defense they had a year ago. There’s not a bunch of new pieces out there that you’ve got to work with.
“I’m really looking in Year 4 of, ‘Hey, this is when they’ve got a chance to be a lot better at DB. Maybe a lot better at d-line.’ And those are the two deficient spots for them right now. I’m not sure anything other than development and coaching is going to change that. … I think we kind of know what they have now. … I’m telling LSU fans, expect a lot more of these types of games.”