What does last night’s D performance tell us?

So, look, I work in a field that uses a lot of analytics to make decisions. Outliers and weird one-off scenarios are appropriately weighted to ensure that we don’t over-extrapolate data that’s broadly outside of the norm.

Ole Miss’ offensive style is a nightmare for the DNA of this defense. That said, you’d hope that you can scheme appropriately to mitigate the situation. But I don’t know just how much of an outlier this production is — the defense has not been elite all year.

It’s pretty clear Aranda deserves some blame. How much, I don’t know. But Chaisson has been a disaster as far as not doing his job (edge contain), and others (linebackers, d-line, and Delpit) played poorly as well. Outside of Stingley and CF, the whole unit has severely disappointed.

But given the uniqueness of the OM QB and that system, what does last night imply — in a predictive sense — for the future? I no longer think LSU will curb-stomp TAMU, although I still hope for it. The SECc should be a solid style matchup, which ought to mask some of the inherent stylistic weaknesses of this particular defense.

But beyond that, I wonder what sort of fits OSU or OK will give this team. Rest should help Delpit, but the larger issues remain. It’s wild that at this point in the season I still am not confident about just how good this defensive unit can be.