Tell The Truth Monday: Bo Pelini’s LSU defense deserved better
The LSU defense deserved better.
Bo Pelini deserved better.
Pelini’s defense played well enough – plenty well enough – to defeat No. 5 Texas A&M on the road Saturday night.
The Tigers gave up a 52-yard touchdown run to Isaiah Spiller, and that was pretty much it. The Aggies kicked a couple of field goals and TJ Finley made things much harder with a pick-6 that turned a 13-0 deficit into a 20-0 deficit and ended Finley’s night in the 3rd quarter.
LSU lost 20-7. Holding A&M’s offense to 13 points should have been good enough to win. Holding the entire Aggies team to 20 points should have been good enough to win.
But neither was good enough to win.
The Tigers didn’t score until the game had become un-winnable for them.
The defense deserved better. Its coordinator deserved better.
The offense’s shortcomings – terrible blocking, no running game to speak of, erratic quarterback play – were thoroughly documented in the immediate aftermath of the game.
Now it’s Tell The Truth Monday.
Sometimes that requires picking nits, identifying minor imperfections that might get glossed over amid the satisfaction of a really good performance that produced a victory.
But other times Tell The Truth Monday is different. It requires not allowing the disappointment of a loss or the obvious causes of the loss to prevent recognition of good stuff that happened in defeat.
There’s no such thing as a moral victory – at least not for programs such as LSU. Rarely, though, is there a loss totally devoid of some silver lining.
The silver lining in this loss was the play of Pelini’s defense.
Spiller got loose a few times but got bottled up some too. Overall his production shouldn’t have prevented an LSU win and it doesn’t taint the defensive performance.
The Tigers contained, pressured and unnerved Kellen Mond, essentially turning A&M into a one-dimensional offense.
The LSU defense was well prepared. Aggies ball carriers consistently were greeted by a defender almost immediately, sometimes by more than one, sometimes by a bunch.
The LSU defense swarmed like an LSU defense is supposed to swarm. It was confident and accurate in diagnosing what A&M was trying to. It was efficient in its tackling. It allowed a mere 267 yards — 1 yard more than it allowed Vanderbilt and nearly 200 yards below its season average coming in.
Head coach Ed Orgeron, Pelini and the defensive staff had the players ready, and the players transferred that preparation into performance.
Pelini isn’t going to suddenly become a candidate for the Broyles Award for the best assistant coach in college football.
But when the defensive coordinator is consistently and almost exclusively assigned blame for every defensive short-coming – as Pelini has been by his most severe critics –fairness (not to mention Tell The Truth Monday) requires acknowledgment of the coordinator’s role in improvement.
The Tigers played really bad defense in September and October, and Pelini was ultimately responsible for that.
The Tigers played just 2 games in November, but the defense was appreciably better. It was good, though not great, in a win against an outmanned Arkansas team.
It was really good against an A&M team that was a 2-touchdown favorite.
Pelini is ultimately responsible for that too.
LSU had 2 weeks off in early October to assess a lot of stuff, primarily its poor defensive play.
Pelini simplified what the defense was doing, trying to zero in on what the players did best and felt most comfortable doing. The Tigers tweaked how they used their personnel.
They had a lot of time for reps though they did lose some due to COVID absences.
They got better against Arkansas and even better against Texas A&M.
What that means going forward remains to be seen. Next up is No. 1 Alabama, followed by No. 6 Florida.
Alabama quarterback Mac Jones and Florida quarterback Kyle Trask are presumably the top candidates to win the Heisman Trophy.
LSU concludes the season against Ole Miss and Lane Kiffin’s highly productive offense.
The defense has significant challenges the rest of the way.
Pelini is in his first season as the defensive coordinator. Most of his starters are in their first season in that role.
There figured to be a transition period.
It was longer and more trying than most expected.
Perhaps the LSU defense is finally headed to respectability.
That will be determined by a series of performances – not just one.
But the performance against the Aggies was praise-worthy
You may be rounding the corner on defense. Hard to say how much the rain had to do with anything.
So Bo knows how the offense has felt all year. They did play well but they still lost. I guess he should thank the offense for the last second TD or they lose by 20. Pretty close to the spread.
There is no “deserved better” in football. It’s a team effort.
Excuse me? SDS needs to get together before hand to get the story straight. So you are telling me LSU’s defense played their best game of the year? Does that mean the expectation that A&M win “convincingly” could have been misconstrued?
For example, if the expectation that a convincing win was 52-17, is that realistic when LSU’s D played like this author claims they did? Surely that expectation was meant for playing against the D that Mizzou or Auburn saw, not the one A&M saw.
Hey! Don’t steal our sunshine like that man.
At times it might not look like it, kinda like a Bama team but they got elite talent across that defense. They recruit really well and that roster is filled with 4-5 star talent. You’ve got to be able to bring that out of a kid though. Development is paramount in the SEC or any conference for that matter.
Well said. The defense doesn’t deserve better. It should be better
In a way, it’s kind of surprising that they won two games with this offense. Finley does fine until he has defenders in his face.
Hopefully we have seen the last of TJ Maxx. Was that against Auburn where he got pressured and just held the ball up high over his head like nobody could reach it? This time he just chunked it out in the middle of 3 Aggies. Hello portal.
The defense has played better and that is a good sign going forward. The OLine has not improved at all, and that is still concerning. Both young QB’s have shown that they can throw the ball when given time. The backs have shown that they can run the ball when they have some sort of crease. We have to get the OLine up to par before next season.
That’s fair – LSU’s defense did play very well, but boy, do they have a meat grinder going forward.
I’ll agree with much of this argument. LSU’s defense did [finally] show up to play. DBU was DBU with the man coverage, and the men up front had their ears pinned back at stopping the run (and pressuring our quarterback).
Any reader here, however, who ever wrote an essay in school knows that in order to “prove” a point you have to sneak a “sketchy” premise into your argument. If you’re going to sway the audience toward your chosen conclusion then you have to– almost always– make at least one statement as if it’s a fact when, in fact, it isn’t a fact. In this case this author does so in his 9th paragraph:
“The offense’s shortcomings – terrible blocking, no running game to speak of, erratic quarterback play – were thoroughly documented in the immediate aftermath of the game.”
Uh, documented by whom? I watched the game. I’ve watched it thrice. The LSU offense’s shortcomings were caused by an A&M defense kicking its asses.
Ergo, Go Bo, but Mike Elko just kicked your butt with “lesser” talent.
I would not say lesser talent but better coaching. Also bad weather, “hot or cold Mond” who couldn’t hit a bull in the butt with a bass fiddle, LSU offense that couldn’t adjust to a great blitz package, did I say outcoached? Mike Elko just mimicked Kevin Steele’s/ Barry Odom’s plan against LSU, hey if it works…! We’ll see it again against Florida and Ole Miss, BAMA won’t need it.
You guys should beat Ole Miss regardless, and you CAN beat Florida. I hope you do both.
I don’t know if it’s lesser talent but certainly more experienced.
All I know is Ed said f*ck Alabama! Complete lack of Class. Saban said absolutely nothing about it after the game but Bama will have a lot to say about it this Saturday night … FYI. LSu defense will definitely deserve better after this game Saturday take that to the bank
It’s definitely all you know. You posted it on at least three threads. Roll that bs over to the Aubie boards, frickin Gump. The Nicktator is probably gonna hang it up after this next ring. LSU’s time is nigh.
I sure did! Sounds like I struck a nerve! lol.. seems like the LSU nation is regretting this weekend you made ur classless bed with us last year now LAY in it!!!
It was a heat of the moment comment that was understandable considering the complete context (crux of an unbelievable emotional season + history vs Alabama + beating the Tide in their own house + pressure finally off to finally win this game + etc etc etc). Classless is a little harsh, it was maybe PG-13 at worst.
Classless is the way Saban constantly berates people to their face – that’s classless.
Ol’ Ed (son of Baba and CoCo) said that while the chief of quite probably the greatest college football team what ever played a season (the 1899 Sewanee Iron Men included). It was said in the heat of a moment within the context of the hottest season any college football team has ever experienced.
You’re Alabama. You have somewhere around 18 national championships. You should not feel so slighted.
He said “F*ck A&M!” without enunciating it by beating us 50-7 (could’ve been 100-0) on the field, and I’m not holding a grudge.
I’d be ashamed if I was a gump and so butt hurt. You might need some expensive psychiatry and some good ol’ free time down at the altar, as I see it.