10/4/2023 football Edit

What was the main reason for LSU's defensive struggles?

Luke Hubbard • Death Valley Insider

Analyst

After the opening loss to Florida State in which the LSU defense let up 45 points to Florida State, questions started swirling about this Tigers defense. The next week, the defense continued to struggle early on against Grambling, but they found their footing and finished strong.

In Week three against Mississippi State, LSU's defense looked impenetrable. They allowed 14 points, and seven of those came in garbage time. The defense looked fast and physical and it seemed like the unit had finally connected and could be dangerous moving forward.

Unfortunately for the Tigers, that cohesiveness hasn't stuck. In their last two games against Arkansas and Ole Miss, the defense has struggled heavily in both the run and pass game. There are a lot of different things you can point to as to why they struggled, but one common theme this year has been the teams inability to tackle well.

"We missed a lot of tackles that gave up a lot of yards after the misses. We've got to be better in the fundamentals. Our guys know that, we've got to get the ball on the ground and we've got to create a new line of scrimmage. That will be job one and job two as we move forward."

— Brian Kelly

As a team, the Tigers earned a 57.6 tackling grade and PFF credited them with 18 missed tackles. During Kelly's Monday press conference, he said he and the staff watched the tape and saw 34 missed tackles that accounted for over 285 yards of total offense.

"We recognize the importance of tackling and how it impacted this game. I think it was over 285 yards after misses that led to their offense. Tackling was at the center of it, and you know, we have to be able to look at 'are we spending enough time given the circumstances' and those would be the adjustments we would make."

— Brian Kelly

Tackling is one of the hardest things to fix during the season. You want to spend a lot of time doing live ball tackling drills and getting your defense reps, but on the flip side, that means your offensive players have to take extra hits in practice that they normally wouldn't take.

Kelly said that tackling will be the point of emphasis on the defensive side of the ball this week, and they're working on a plan to maximize the time they spend practicing tackling in preparation for Missouri this Saturday.

"Tackling can be taught, and it's something we teach every single day. When we talk about it, how much time do we spend on it? We have to examine and look at our practice schedule. Are we spending enough time on it? Traditionally, it would say that's what we normally spend, but with this group, maybe we have to spend more time. Those are the kind of discussions that we're having."

— Brian Kelly

There's no doubt that this defense has a lot to work on moving forward and tackling should be on the forefront of their work moving forward. The defense has to do a better job in coverage and on the defensive line, but if they can improve on their tackling, that'll instantly make this defense a lot better than it has been over the last two weeks.