Ad Disclosure
Brian Kelly offers concerning assessment of run defense ahead of Alabama game
Published:
Brian Kelly said after Saturday night’s loss to Texas A&M that if he were to offer advice to an offense preparing to face the LSU defense, he’d tell them to simply run the quarterback.
That is at least a little concerning when you consider who LSU faces next.
Kelly looked almost despondent when speaking with reporters after watching LSU blow a 17-7 lead on the road. The Tigers, who were ranked eighth in the country, were completely flummoxed by the Aggie offense once Marcel Reed replaced Conner Weigman. The emphasis shifted to an all-out ground attack for A&M, and Reed ran through, over, and around LSU to spur a 38-23 comeback victory.
“It wasn’t the RPOs as much as it was the quarterback run game,” Kelly said. “It’s the million-dollar question, and I would say that we need to spend more time and each and every week it’s gotta be part of it because, right now, I would run the quarterback against us.”
Reed only had 1 scramble in the game. The rest was designed stuff for the guy who led A&M to wins while Weigman was on the shelf with an injury. Reed finished with 9 carries for 62 yards and 3 scores.
When he was running the show against Florida, Bowling Green, and Arkansas, A&M leaned heavily on the ground game. All 3 starts featured less than 200 yards through the air. LSU defensive coordinator Blake Baker had to know what was coming when A&M made the switch. LSU just wasn’t capable of stopping the avalanche.
And that’s a troubling sign as the Tigers head into the bye week.
On the other side, Jalen Milroe and the Alabama offense awaits. Milroe has 102 rushing attempts this season — the most of any player on the team — with 380 yards and 12 scores. First-year Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer has emboldened Milroe to run, but not by scrambling more when he drops back; Alabama has schemed up most of his running plays. He has double-digit carries in all but 1 game this season. He has rushing scores in all but 1 game this season.
DeBoer will watch what Reed just did and build a gameplan for Milroe that can press all the same issues. Just a few weeks ago, Milroe was the best athlete on the field in a game between Alabama and Georgia. He ran for 117 yards that day.
With 2 losses already, LSU has no time left to work around weaknesses. Kelly said the issues have to get fixed.
“We’ve lost our margin,” he said. “We have no margin for error. We have to go back and look at some of the things I just talked about. We have to build balance within the offense. We have to be able to handle the running quarterback. The silliness of the field goal stuff, that has got to end. That is just ridiculous. We’ll clean that up in short order. But those 2 things in particular… we played such good defense. For the first half, it was so good to see our defense playing. And then we go to a running quarterback and it just goes away from us. We know what we need to get better at there.”
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
