Everyone Has a Plan...

I heard a sportswriter out of New Orleans that follows the Saints and LSU say that LSU’s achilles heel on defense was overpursuit leaving wide-open cutback lanes. He said if he’s seen it, Saban has seen it and will plan to take advantage of it. I hope we’ve adjusted.

This article is pretty much the truest thing ever written about Saban’s defenses. Does anyone remember the few times Saban’s defenses have been exposed? Remember RBs and TEs running free down the middle of the field into the empty space left behind by blitzing LBs and Safeties? All David Greene or Chris Leak had to do was hit the wide open receiver. Like the article says: simple, right? Difference was, Chris Leak was on his feet long enough to make that pass; David Greene, not so much. David Greene got hit. A lot.

The 3-4 he runs at Bama features less all-out blitzes, but is also susceptible to giving opposing QBs time when facing a strong O-line. That’s when the blitz packages will have to come out, and — looky! — there’s that open spot down the middle again. Question is, will either Lee or Jefferson be upright long enough to hit Peterson/Ware/etc. with a catchable pass?

Andrew is the name of his chest tat

ATVS: If you have a pending piece for offense, then could you please include the ATVSQBPI for all the SEC QBs? I haven’t seen one of these all year. Be nice to compare Lee with McCarron and the others. Also, the bama site has a nice article on LSU and Bama versus common opponents. There were some expected groans about having to play against Brantly though. Could ATVS take it a step further and normalize the table of data for six quarters? Not that I think Brantly makes much of a difference, but they did have to play against them for 1H. Thx.

Every time I see Richardson fake protection and then release late for a screen pass, I groan. Whether by design or whether its on a checkdown, Bama has used it effectively. It’s also something LSU is just about tailor-made to whiff on.

And that’s not a knock on us. Just one of our tradeoffs.

And this goes back to my post in Billy’s interview with Kleph, but I think people are playing up the crazy aggressive coach too much. In 09 when we had Chavis, I remember everyone complaining about how Chad Jones would play 25 yards off the line of scrimmage, and we gave up too much underneath. That year teams actually did move on us a little bit between the 20’s, but our red zone defense was unbelievable.

That makes me disagree with the risk/reward, living and dying off of turnovers thing. We have absolutely shut down opponents AND forced big plays and turnovers. If LSU was such a gambling team, LaMichael James would’ve broken a big run, as would Vick Ballard, etc. The statistic that we have more interceptions than completions allowed on pass plays of 15+ yards backs this up. The only big plays I can think of that we’ve allowed are first when Tavon Austin (I think it was him) had that big catch and run, and secondly when Claiborne fell down and Florida got their touchdown on us.

I guess my overall point is, we’re doing what our talent allows us to do. Yes we bring heavy blitzes, but our secondary allows us to do that without it being considered risky. We’ve played much better offenses than Alabama’s, and haven’t been burned, risked a lot, or died by going for big plays. This is a dominant shut down defense that ALSO makes big plays.

I think people are trying to highlight the differences between the two teams too much. On a scale of 1-100 on shut down defenses, I’d say Alabama is 100 and LSU is 98. And on forcing turnovers and big plays, LSU is 100 and Alabama 98. They both do each extremely well, but people are trying to make the differences out to be more than they are.

Maybe we’ll be exposed Saturday – but I doubt it. And it’s not like Miles’ defenses have usually been high-risk/high-reward. The last two years people have constantly complained about 3rd and Chavis. And like others have said, it’s Saban that always seems to have a big blitz on 3rd and long – and he sometimes gets burned for it.

I think it’s more accurate to say that our scheme is not high-risk / high-reward, but that the coaches allow the players to take risks to make big plays. T-rex gives up an extra five yards trying to force a fumble. Miles says good job. If that was Saban’s player, he’d probably be screaming at him. Mingo overpursues on a play immediately after making a great sack – Miles says good job, don’t worry about it.

Similarly, if a player makes an aggressive play a split second late and gets called for a late hit or an out of bounds hit – Miles knows what hewere trying to do and leaves him in there. Saban screams at him and pulls him out.

But schematically, I think Saban’s defenses are much higher risk than Miles/Chavis. Claiborne will probably be on an island sometimes, but I wouldn’t be surprised if ODB is almost always in man-to-man.

Couldn’t agree more. He is absolutely the MVP of the defense, helping the young guys get lined up correctly so they can make big plays and cleaning up after everyone on the back end. With him back there I never worry about the big play.

If I am remembering correctly he was out for the AU game last year and I remember thinking he would have been the difference in that game.

A reader posted about Claiborne falling down in the Florida game allowing a touchdown pass. From what I gather the weather conditions will be near ideal, but does anyone know what kind of turf and field conditions exist in Alabama’s Stadium? Have seen no mention of this in the media nor do I recall any problems in past televised games.