D-line review

by nepomo on Sep 29, 2008 9:39 PM CDT

After watching the game again, I saw a couple things of note.

Im not that impressed with Al Woods. He was a big big recruit coming out of high school and he is just not very dominant. Given his body type and the hype about his abilities, he should be of the Albert Haynesworth type of DT that just cant be stopped with one Olineman. Quite the contrary. I dont know if he's lazy, but the guy just doesnt do much and gets pushed back a fair amount.

Drake Nevis is an animal. Non stop motor. That guy is super quick , gets the Olineman all out of position and makes good penetration. Not an overpowering guy, but strong enough. Reminds me of Dorsey just not as strong. (And doesnt have the awesome bushwacker sack dance.)

Charles Alexander is just an immovable rock. He got rolled up on by Al Woods but actually came back in in the second quarter and played a series. Was noticeably not 100% and came out until the goalline plays in the fourth quarter. I think it was his better knee that got rolled up on. Not sure if that is better or worse.

Marlon Favorite is alright in most categories. Not weak not super strong. Not quick not slow. Just a pretty good backup to have in the rotation. Dont expect too much from this guy.

Rahim Alem - seems quick. The thing I noticed is that he losses contain and Miss St succesfully ran off tackle to his side a few times. Doesnt have great strength.

Tyson Jackson is hot or cold with me. He is either throwing someone around or he is not really doing much. Im not really sure why he is considered a 1st rounder. It would probably benefit him to lose 10-15 pounds and gain some quickness because he seems a little on the slow side. reminds me of charles grant a little.

Pittman - see alem

RJF - all out badass. Super strong and fast

A non d line thing of note was this stupid pass to the running back that we couldnt seem to stop. Here is how they set up. (In this play, I think we are in man coverage.)

PR KS JE CJ CH

HC KP MF AW TJ

TE OT OG C OG OT WR WR WR

Note: Coleman picks up the tight end here and Perry Riley picks up the running back. (coleman is further off the line of scrimmage than depicted here, but not as far back as PR) What Miss St kept doing was releasing the TE upfield and the RB in the flats to the left. HC and the TE would end up setting a pick on Perry Riley before he could get to the RB who would then get the pass to the left (weak side). They did this or a variation of this over and over. What Im nervous about is that if the rb is harvin and he gets a step on riley. Game over.

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I agree

Our D Coaches seemed content to let MSU dink and dunk us in the second half. I don’t know if that was by design, b/c we didn’t blitz and maybe our coaches wanted to work the D some. Or it we simply didn’t make adjustments and were getting beat.

I definitely think we will have to have a different scheme against UF. It seems obvious to me that we need to find creative ways to blitz Tebow and put him under pressure and that we also need to spy or focus on Harvin as best we can.

However, I fully expect Urban Meyer to implement some wrinkles into his offense for our game. I think we were somewhat lucky on D last year w/ the turnovers to pull us back into that game. This year, I hope our D can put some pressure on their O.

by Zandor435 on Sep 30, 2008 8:17 AM CDT 0 recs

Woods/Jackson

I’ve heard it said that Al Woods just isn’t a great fit for the defense that LSU runs. He may be a better fit as a NT in the 3-4. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but others have him listed pretty high on draft boards. I often see him doubled, which allows other guys to make plays. I can say that he doesn’t loaf or take plays off, as I see him hustling downfield and sideline to sideline to make or assist on tackles. He also led the team in fumble recoveries last year, and I vividly remember one of those coming after he’d busted his tail to get to the play downfield and jump on the ball. I think he’s a more active and effective player than his stats or his TV mentions indicate.

Tyson Jackson had 10.5 sacks his sophomore year, which raised expectations a great deal. He comes back with 3.5 last year and people jumped all over him. Even with Dorsey on the field, teams found a way to double 93. He led the team in QB hurries and batted down a lot of balls at the line. He’s an excellent run defender for a DE. I’ve seen him hold the corner and seal off the outside dozens of times. With his size, he may be another guy who is a good fit for the 3-4. He’s not going to regularly blow by the OT and get the sack. He’s more of a mauler than a speedster.

Pittman led the team in sacks last year, benefiting from Dorsey and Jackson on the left side. He’s better against the run that would be expected from a guy who plays in the 250s. Good at chasing down plays.

There’s not really a singular force on the d-line that will dominate a game. The coaches will rotate 8-10 of them in a continuous barrage against the offensive line.

by dan iqua on Oct 1, 2008 3:55 PM CDT 0 recs

I can see Woods being more of a NT than a DT. To your comment that there is not a singular force on the dline.. I was thinking woods would be one. Just a one man wrecking crew. Perhaps he is being double teamed a lot. I looked for it in the Miss St game and couldnt tell.

We are going to be a 4th quarter team this year because our our depth at dline. To me, the dline is the most important component of any team offense or defense. If you have a dominant dline, you control the run and you can disrupt the passing. Dlines can make fair defensive backfield’s good defensive backfields and good ones great. If they cant run or pass they cant score. I’d put offensive line next on level of importance. But having this rotation of dlineman is like having a really good anchor leg in a relay. If its close, you’ll probably win and if you are behind you have a good chance of coming back. Assuming the offensive is working.

Tyson is good against the run and I could see him in a 3-4 defense due to his body type. He has done a lot better about penalties. No stupid late hits like last year vs bama. Our Oline has been much better about penalties too. Much fewer false starts. Might be because Carnell Stewart is gone.

by nepomo on Oct 3, 2008 9:42 AM CDT 0 recs

We are now 11th in the SEC in sacks...

We may have the best run stuffing line on the planet, however we are probably only average at putting pressure on the QB.

by LSU Jonno on Oct 8, 2008 2:52 PM CDT 0 recs

Keep in mind

One of the reasons we are 11th in total sacks is because we’ve played one fewer game than anyone else in the SEC, and 2 fewer games than some. We’re getting 1.5 sacks per game so far, which isn’t great, but is within the margin of error of the #7 team in sacks, Alabama. Not great, of course, but not awful. Still, I agree we need to get more pressure.

Richard Pittman

by Richard Pittman on Oct 8, 2008 9:11 PM CDT up 0 recs

Concur, that's why I said "average" instead of "suck"

I think our stats are a little misleading though because we haven’t blitzed as much (like Zandor is talking about below) and our line seemed to be very close a couple of times in the AU game, but nevertheless we need more sacks.

by LSU Jonno on Oct 9, 2008 8:11 AM CDT up 0 recs

Our lack of pass pressure....

How much of our lack of sacks do you guys attribute to scheming? Or do you think it is more likely that we don’t sack the QB simply b/c almost every single one of our D-linemen are over 280 lbs? I think we only have 2 linemen who weigh in under 280 lbs. Alem and Pitman both play at around 250lbs.

All the other guys in the rotation are heavy dudes. This would make sense why we are so stout against the run as well.

by Zandor435 on Oct 8, 2008 7:14 PM CDT 0 recs

I think its both

Here are the sack stats( I inc Harry Coleman and Chad Jones because they will use the SS on blitzes fairly often) :

Player Sack-Yards
Harry Coleman: 0-0
Perry Riley : 0.5-4
Danny McCray: 0-0
Jacob Cutrera: 0-0
Kelvin Sheppard: 0-0
Chad Jones: 0-0
Tyson Jackson: 0.5-4
Kirston Pittman: 0-0
Marlon Favorite: 0.5-2
Trem. Johnson: 0-0
Rahim Alem: 2-22
Drake Nevis: 0-0
Ch. Alexander: 0-0
Al Woods: 0-0
R Jean-Francois: 1-5
Ron Brooks: 0-0
Darry Beckwith: 0.5-3
Laz. Levingston: 1-1
Kent. Aubrey: 0-0
Total 6-41

What stands out to me is that Pittman has 0. He is supposed to be the quick end rusher. 0 is not acceptable. I dont mind Charles
Alexander having 0 because he’s in there to stop the run. Its also suprising that between our linebackers and SS’s we have 1 sack.
To me, that says our blitz packages arent working. What happened to the Laron Landry type blitzes where he would just destroy the
qb? I kind of miss ol Muschamp sending the house all the time. (he did have better corners.. webster and daniels)

Alem is on pace to have 6 sacks as a backup. Not bad. But he is the only one you can point to and say that about.

Tyson Jackson is just too slow. The guy is almost a DT. He gets close, but just cant get there. Maybe lose some weight. I dont know.
Size and speed aren’t always mutually exclusive. Marcus Spears was a big DE but he still had good speed. DeMarcus Ware is big
and has great speed. But they might be mutually exclusive for Tyson. If he was just a step quicker, I bet he has 3 sacks. He might
be a little tentative because of all his stupid roughing the passer penalties last year.

Charles Alexander – big, slower, hurt

RJF – double teamed a lot. give him time, he’ll produce.

Favorite – slow

Woods – slow

Nevis – not slow but doesnt play alot. He’s going to be a good one.

All this being said. You can get pressure on the qb without a lot of speed. There are plenty of bull rushers that just push their way
back to the qb, but we’re not getting that often either. More qb’s nowadays are the dual threat type. So, the bull rushers at DE might be
at a disadvantage to the speed rushers in terms of performance. If the ends arent collapsing the pocket around the qb forcing him to
step forward. Its pretty hard for our bigger DT’s to get a sack even if they get a good push.

by nepomo on Oct 9, 2008 11:15 AM CDT up 0 recs

Broken out per game

App State
We were all over Armanti Edwards. Chasing him this way and that way the whole game, but only got 3 sacks and 5 hurries. Which is a lot, but if Jared Lorenzen was back there, we would of had 7 or 8 sacks. Armanti is just freaky elusive and quick.

North Texas
No sacks. 5 qb hurries. This is piss poor. We should have at least 2-3 sacks. I know they did a lot of dink and dunk passes but still.

Auburn
2 sacks. 6 qb hurries. Not too bad. Alem with the huge, clutch, game ending 15 yard sack… after his 15 yard roughing the passer penalty (which was questionable)

Miss St.
1 sack by RJF. 4 qb hurries.This is lame. I will admit their qb was quick.

Tyson Jackson has a good portion of these hurries. The secondary has a fair amount too coming from blitzes.

by nepomo on Oct 9, 2008 11:17 AM CDT 0 recs

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