re: Kevin Steele hire revisted

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Still they are averaging 20+ points on our defense. I don't see anything special yet. I'll reserve judgement until later.

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a lot of those points should be attributed to special teams.

LSU is 26th in the country and third in the SEC (behind Alabama and Florida) in yards per play allowed at 4.65.

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well our offense pretty much sucked under chavis and the defense usually held up

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Chavis was absolutely shite when we had our best offense possibly ever.. What was the excuse there? Not enough elite talent.. no excuse.. we are young this year..

Chavis was shite against the run at times.. Chavis always had elite talent here to work with.. even last year with the heavily inflated #1 yards given up D he got abused by spread offenses and running.. that defense is not as good as this D overall. plus this defense hasn't even hit mid-season yet.

The defense this year is getting more turnovers.. only given up 19ppg.. how on earth are you not pleased by that.. Steele's D is shutting out opponents in the first half allowing us to mount leads.. we play better with a lead..

Remember Chavis was known as making great adjustments.. but that usually meant teams were running on us early on in the game. Steele has us up in games.. which is actually better for Miles.. Again, I'm telling you.. If you go back and watch the games this year.. The drives in the second half were off bad field position.. and when we had normal field position off kickoffs.. we pretty much forced punts.. not 3 and outs.. but after a first down or two we are forcing punts.. rather than with poor field position a 1st down or two is putting teams in position to score.. We are getting after it better with better field position..

But again, how on earth can you be upset about 3rd in the entire SEC in yards per play.. think about that. This defense is doing more than the defense last year who had heavily inflated stats from inferior competition which does not even matter.. and where we just ran the ball and ate up most of the clock.. This defense is far more disciplined, wrapping up better, forcing turnovers, period.. They are right on par with yards given up among the best defenses in the SEC..

Passing D is still 4th best in the SEC.. and we get Mills back now..

We also have 6 INTs already.. where was this last year?
Deion Jones has a pick 6 because of the pressure we are getting. Getting Mills back should only increase our INTs.



Rushing D is #3 in the entire SEC..



look at South Carolina, and Auburn and even a&m at the bottom with rushing D.. That is the sign of a shite D.. and it will catch up to a&m when they face better rushing teams.. Almost cost them against Arkansas (who was banged up and not fully healthy in their running game)

How are people not pleased with this.. It blows my mind.. I couldn't stand the Steele hire, but the guy has the guys playing fundamentally sound. Yes, with our more scoring.. we are going to give up some points.. but overall it's impressive..

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Bottom line, LSU is #14 in the country in total defense, with 3 of its 5 games being vs. SEC opponents. You never would have guessed that if you listen to some of the criticism of the defense.

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That's because elite defenses don't let Jeremy Johnson run for 65 yard touchdowns, give up three passing touchdowns to Syracuse's quarterback who can barely hit 35 yards on the fly, and let Pharoh Cooper get matched up on your worst cover guy on 8 of the game's first 12 plays. There is a problem that is likely depth on this team that should be concerning. If Mills can't fix it in the secondary and Bower on the line, we're going to need to keep scoring in the 30s to win out.

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Peliclown

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moron.

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Steele is winning with Chavis' players.

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Steele is winning with LSU's players.

I don't follow recruiting that close, but according to quite a few of the posters here on the rant, Chavis wouldn't drag his fat lazy arse off campus to recruit anyone. And it's easy to believe when you look at the depth we have at the linebacker and defensive line positions.

Steele's defense leads the SEC in Power 5 competition. Fix the darn ST issues and the Tiger defense will look even better.

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No, I'm basing it on the entire body of work this year, comparing it with previous years, and identifying three examples of systemic problems with the defense. Don't be so simple-minded. Also, why is it relevant that the score is 24-0 when Johnson gashed our defense? You can't always plan your busts, lack of focus, or fatigue when you are blowing people out. LSU is 10th in the conference in scoring defense. Last year they finished 2nd. Also, the yards thing is nice, but LSU is also 12th in the conference in kick returns given up. We were fourth last year. That eats up yards that your defense isn't giving up. LSU is last in punt returns given up in the nation (127th), 23 yards per return (which is crazy in how terrible it is).

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If we are actually talking about total bodies of work, how about you stop cherry picking from Chavis' tenure and get honest there, as well. Go back and look at our sack and turnover numbers last year. We were bottom third in one and in the bottom 30 in the other. When you have a weaker offense, you can't just gloss over that. Short fields and great special teams fed a slightly above average LSU offense in 2011.

Then go back to 2013 and go through the passing numbers. All terrible, across the board. You talk about giving up big plays this year? We hemorrhaged yards and points through the air to everyone we played that year. UGA, Bama, State and Ole Miss all ate us alive.

As for the depth issues, that falls on Chavis, too. The man signed 2 LBs in 2 years, and 1 is now gone. He had one legit target last year and didn't get him, so we end up with 0 bodies at our biggest position of need. On what planet is it ok for the DC to allow that to happen on a unit over which the head coach has allowed him almost complete authority? The chickens of Chavis and Brick's lazy recruiting have come home to roost. We have a good to great starting lineup, but the biggest talent drop off to the reserves since Saban's early years. And If Chavis were still here, we would be even more vanilla this year than last out of sheer necessity. I can GUARANTEE that we are not playing as aggressive a scheme as Steele and O would prefer. Oh, and Brick would still be here, and would still have 0 accountability, and would continue to be here indefinitely.