are we better on defense? I keep hearing that we are, but the stats show different

can't just go by stats man, this ain't Money Ball. You may get a DV for the title though.

Meh. Im not wasting time with another 'lsu defensive rankings' title.

How do you not go off of stats? We fired every defensive coach last year off of stats.

I fixed your thread title to exactly what it should have been...

Because it's football man. I see what the stats are and I see that there is nothing out there that screams that the D is better OR worse. What I see from 3 games in is a LSU team that has played sloppy D at times, had a chance to get teams off the field on 3rd and didn't and had a major letdown to an obviously inferior opponent in Nicholls. The Saturday game was on where SC played lights out, we missed on major plays that gave them points and didn't score when necessary.

Game of emotions unlike any other. That stat ain't measured.

As others have said, this year we’re creating turnovers and getting stops on 3rd down to at least partially offset the chunk plays we give up.

Still nowhere close to championship level but they are absolutely improved over last year. I’m excited to see what Baker can do with a couple of top 5-10 recruiting classes.

I guess I'll bite and give you an actual response.

1) Yes, we all wish the defense would play better than it has.

2) The defense is still vastly improved from last year even if its still not where we'd want it to be.

The proof is there is you actually watch the game. The bad is that the defense is still missing run fits and allowing deep catches in one on one coverage. The good is that its not happening every play. Last year our defense gave up chunk play after chunk play and seemingly never got off the field on 3rd down. This years defense is getting off the field and giving the offense the ball back. Sure we gave up 2 huge runs vs SC but outside of those 2 bad run fits, we played pretty darn well against the run. Hell our offense threw a pick with like 6 minutes left in the game and the defense was able to 3 and out them and get the ball back for our offense to win the game. No shot that happens a year ago. Our defense also held a Lincoln Riley offense below 30 points which rarely happens. We are also forcing TOs or at least forcing TO worthy plays which sometimes haven't bounced our way. I haven't seen any real busted coverages this season either. When we get beat in the pass game, its because someone lost a 1 on 1 battle or because the offense found a hole in a zone.

Moral of the story is that yards aren't everything and while there is a ways to go, the defense is light years ahead of where they were a year ago.

Congrats on learning about this "statistic" for the first time and just reposting it over and over. Is our defense better? No.

We are definitely better. Much more tenacious and competitive. You need to be confident enough to use your eyes and make your own conclusions as opposed to going solely by stats....3 games into a season.