re: I see some complaints about the defensive scheme.

I believe Chavis's gameplan was a direct result of our special teams ability to pin them deep.

The defense was willing to allow the small passes, because it is very hard to sustain a long drive(90+ yards) with small dink and dunk passes. It leaves very little room for error on the offense's part when you have zero running game. A strong short passing game can be stupefying when coupled with a decent running game. WVU couldn't establish the run, so LSU concentrated on taking away the deep ball.

These drives, while succesful statistically, would eventually fizzle and lead to no points. Whether by turnover, punt, or turnover on downs, the defense did their job.

The WVU offense was spectacular, yet only found the endzone 3 times.

Chavis noticed early on that the extra man (i.e. blitz) was not getting to Smith, though he was hurried a couple times.

We stopped blitzing right around the same time we started pinning them against their own goal line for every possession.

Though we got beat a couple times for big plays, for the most part our defensive scheme was content to allow them to move the chains, knowing that unless WVU executed perfectly, the drive would eventually stall.


And no, I don't believe we played a great defensive game. We missed some tackles, which has been one of the most impressive components of the defense this season. I just think this might be one reason we called off the blitz and played soft coverage underneath.