The LSU defense is getting better.

It’s still not where it needs to be.

And it faces a significant challenge against No. 9 Auburn on Saturday in Tiger Stadium.

But the No. 2-ranked Tigers are approaching the most important stretch of their regular season and they’ll need their defense to play better than it has for much of the season.

Finally, it is doing just that.

LSU gave up 38 points to Texas in its second game but escaped Austin with a 7-point victory.

It gave up the same number of points to Vanderbilt, but that game in Nashville was decided after one quarter as the Tigers were rolling to their highest point total in an SEC game that didn’t go into overtime.

It gave up 4 touchdown drives of 75 yards each in slightly more than a half and fell behind Florida before pitching a shutout the rest of the way in a 42-28 victory.

Then in the 36-13 victory at Mississippi State on Saturday, the defense allowed a 75-yard touchdown drive in the 2nd quarter and didn’t allow any more point until the final minute when another victory was well in hand.

The Bulldogs finished with 340 total yards, but a lot of those were harmless yards. They were 3-of-12 on 3rd down and 0-for-2 on 4th down.

LSU took the ball away 3 times – making 2 interceptions and recovering a fumble.

All told,it was a very good defensive performance. It wasn’t against a particularly challenging offense, but a very good performance nonetheless.

The Tigers had just 2 sacks, but they did have a good pass rush for much of the game, which hasn’t always been the case this season. Arkansas and Ole Miss are among SEC teams with more sacks than the Tigers (17) this season.

The last game and a half represents the longest stretch of solid defense this season.

There are a few factors in the defense playing better, especially during the past 6 quarters.

Safety Grant Delpit is starting to play like Grant Delpit. The unanimous All-American last season didn’t play up to his lofty standard early, but he was a significant factor against Florida and that carried over into the game against State.

He had a game-high 11 tackles and generally has been disruptive on the back end as well as near the line of scrimmage and the backfield.

The linebackers, led by Patrick Queen, have been the most consistent unit on the defense and continue to play well.

LSU is as healthy as it has been on the defensive line all season. That hasn’t led to as consistent a pass rush from the front as coordinator Dave Aranda would like, but it has been a boost to the run defense.

Perhaps the biggest concern on the defense at the moment is sloppy tackling, which has been a consistent issue, though the Tigers did show improvement against Utah State after devoting extra time to tackling during the open date that preceded the game against the Aggies.

But the sloppiness has returned the past 2 weeks and it might be something that LSU is going to have to live with.

The way the Tigers play offense changes the way the Tigers practice. When you’re running the hurry-up, pass-first, run-later system that has been the key to their success, your practices aren’t as physical as they are when you run a more conventional, run-between-the-tackles-to-set-up-the-pass kind of system that they used to employ.

Less-physical practices tend to translate to less-physical performances in games. So a drop-off in tackling might be unavoidable.

But that doesn’t mean LSU can’t still play really good defense.

And it looks like it’s trending in that direction.