re: What's the deal with the o-line play

Some of it is scheme & design. Don't know how much, but some.

Yesterday Wisky S & LBs looked like Bama 5*'s. Because of playing the %'s, they thought they could risk being up close to LoS, or creeping up anyway. In many cases a running start, they just crashed the line. [scheme]

If an OL vacated a gap (by pulling or going for 2nd level), the LBer never worried about play action or having to cover a TE (DE's did some btw). Since they were already close & creeping, or crashing, they were able to both eliminate cut back lanes and disrupt running plays. Often they only got a piece of LF7, but that's all it took because everyone else was waiting on him at the point of attack.

I mention Bama above because they did the exact same thing against us last year. S & LB's chasing LF down from behind on a run play behind the LoS because where the OL pulled to was clogged up.

Creeping and crashing is very effective against zone blocking schemes too. If you're willing to take the risk. With LSU's fear of throwing across the middle and no established threat from the QB to run, hence the run-pass-option schemes in vogue today, the D knows until you do something different then it's probably worth it 1 time a first down to get you off of schedule or behind the sticks. Also severely degrades and OLs ability to adjust to anything else new.