My theory on the secondary issues

[CadaverDawg]

First off,I'm not as hard on the secondary as many. And here's why...

As we know, Mullen and Company have been doing a ton of experiencing in games 1A, 1B, and 1C...aka "the preseason". I think Collins knows that LSU is going to run it, run it, and then run it some more. I think he knows that their goal will be to wear us down, and then bust some long runs on us in the second half like so many times before against us. And I think Collins has been prepping for this game for several months.

We have come out in all 3 games and turned each opponent one dimensional. We have completely taken away the run and the scramble. I think Geoff and Mullen feel like that's the only shot we have to win in Baton Rouge....eliminate the run, and make Jennings beat us for 4 quarters.

Does it present a HUGE challenge for our DB's...hell yes. But do I agree that it is our only chance? Hell yes.

I think we will be dedicating our front 7 and 1 safety to the run next weekend....and we will rely on Love and Calhoun plus 1 safety to shut down the pass. (Redmond obviously will rotate in a lot, too)

If we find that we are having success with just 7, we'll drop the other safety to help in coverage....otherwise we stick with it. And I may be way off with this, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a guy like Cleveland or even Redmond come in as a "safety/corner" hybrid to help with pass coverage if indeed we leave these guys with little safety help most of the night.

I think it is plain and simple...Collins thinks if you shut down LSU's run game, you win...period. Make a young QB and young WR's beat you. I like the plan, but can we shut down the run? I think we can. If our DB's can prevent the homerun and force LSU to drive all the way down for any scores...I think we pull it off.

Again, I may be way off, and I know the "stop the run" logic is not some earth shattering discovery. But I just think we may be reading too much into the secondary because what we are doing is preparing them for the task of covering LSU's WR's with little safety help so that we can shut down the run.

Carry on.

[BulldogBacker]

First off,I'm not as hard on the secondary as many. And here's why...

As we know, Mullen and Company have been doing a ton of experiencing in games 1A, 1B, and 1C...aka "the preseason". I think Collins knows that LSU is going to run it, run it, and then run it some more. I think he knows that their goal will be to wear us down, and then bust some long runs on us in the second half like so many times before against us. And I think Collins has been prepping for this game for several months.

We have come out in all 3 games and turned each opponent one dimensional. We have completely taken away the run and the scramble. I think Geoff and Mullen feel like that's the only shot we have to win in Baton Rouge....eliminate the run, and make Jennings beat us for 4 quarters.

Does it present a HUGE challenge for our DB's...hell yes. But do I agree that it is our only chance? Hell yes.

I think we will be dedicating our front 7 and 1 safety to the run next weekend....and we will rely on Love and Calhoun plus 1 safety to shut down the pass. (Redmond obviously will rotate in a lot, too)

If we find that we are having success with just 7, we'll drop the other safety to help in coverage....otherwise we stick with it. And I may be way off with this, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a guy like Cleveland or even Redmond come in as a "safety/corner" hybrid to help with pass coverage if indeed we leave these guys with little safety help most of the night.

I think it is plain and simple...Collins thinks if you shut down LSU's run game, you win...period. Make a young QB and young WR's beat you. I like the plan, but can we shut down the run? I think we can. If our DB's can prevent the homerun and force LSU to drive all the way down for any scores...I think we pull it off.

Again, I may be way off, and I know the "stop the run" logic is not some earth shattering discovery. But I just think we may be reading too much into the secondary because what we are doing is preparing them for the task of covering LSU's WR's with little safety help so that we can shut down the run.

Carry on.

Excellent post and thinking. One thing I noticed is that each of the long passes completed against us by UAB had no safety help over the top.

[BulldogBear]

First off,I'm not as hard on the secondary as many. And here's why...

As we know, Mullen and Company have been doing a ton of experiencing in games 1A, 1B, and 1C...aka "the preseason". I think Collins knows that LSU is going to run it, run it, and then run it some more. I think he knows that their goal will be to wear us down, and then bust some long runs on us in the second half like so many times before against us. And I think Collins has been prepping for this game for several months.

We have come out in all 3 games and turned each opponent one dimensional. We have completely taken away the run and the scramble. I think Geoff and Mullen feel like that's the only shot we have to win in Baton Rouge....eliminate the run, and make Jennings beat us for 4 quarters.

Does it present a HUGE challenge for our DB's...hell yes. But do I agree that it is our only chance? Hell yes.

I think we will be dedicating our front 7 and 1 safety to the run next weekend....and we will rely on Love and Calhoun plus 1 safety to shut down the pass. (Redmond obviously will rotate in a lot, too)

If we find that we are having success with just 7, we'll drop the other safety to help in coverage....otherwise we stick with it. And I may be way off with this, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a guy like Cleveland or even Redmond come in as a "safety/corner" hybrid to help with pass coverage if indeed we leave these guys with little safety help most of the night.

I think it is plain and simple...Collins thinks if you shut down LSU's run game, you win...period. Make a young QB and young WR's beat you. I like the plan, but can we shut down the run? I think we can. If our DB's can prevent the homerun and force LSU to drive all the way down for any scores...I think we pull it off.
Again, I may be way off, and I know the "stop the run" logic is not some earth shattering discovery. But I just think we may be reading too much into the secondary because what we are doing is preparing them for the task of covering LSU's WR's with little safety help so that we can shut down the run.

Carry on.

+1

Agreed. Will they burn us at least once? In all likelihood, yes. But if we shut down the run game, we have a better than decent chance of scoring just enough to win on our side of the ball.

[MabenMaroon]

First off,I'm not as hard on the secondary as many. And here's why...

As we know, Mullen and Company have been doing a ton of experiencing in games 1A, 1B, and 1C...aka "the preseason". I think Collins knows that LSU is going to run it, run it, and then run it some more. I think he knows that their goal will be to wear us down, and then bust some long runs on us in the second half like so many times before against us. And I think Collins has been prepping for this game for several months.

We have come out in all 3 games and turned each opponent one dimensional. We have completely taken away the run and the scramble. I think Geoff and Mullen feel like that's the only shot we have to win in Baton Rouge....eliminate the run, and make Jennings beat us for 4 quarters.

Does it present a HUGE challenge for our DB's...hell yes. But do I agree that it is our only chance? Hell yes.

I think we will be dedicating our front 7 and 1 safety to the run next weekend....and we will rely on Love and Calhoun plus 1 safety to shut down the pass. (Redmond obviously will rotate in a lot, too)

If we find that we are having success with just 7, we'll drop the other safety to help in coverage....otherwise we stick with it. And I may be way off with this, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a guy like Cleveland or even Redmond come in as a "safety/corner" hybrid to help with pass coverage if indeed we leave these guys with little safety help most of the night.

I think it is plain and simple...Collins thinks if you shut down LSU's run game, you win...period. Make a young QB and young WR's beat you. I like the plan, but can we shut down the run? I think we can. If our DB's can prevent the homerun and force LSU to drive all the way down for any scores...I think we pull it off.

Again, I may be way off, and I know the "stop the run" logic is not some earth shattering discovery. But I just think we may be reading too much into the secondary because what we are doing is preparing them for the task of covering LSU's WR's with little safety help so that we can shut down the run.

Carry on.
We may not need as much help in the box as one would normally think you would need playing LSU. Caught part of an LSU radio show Friday ( their version of Bully Bark Line ) and they were interviewing Ross Dellenger of the BR Advocate. Ross was going down a fairly notable list of LSU OL that are pretty banged up, have had to come out of the early games and are missing either playing time or practice time. Also went on to say that Coach Miles had pretty much psshawed the injuries but Ross said he wasn't entirely buying Les' sunshine pumping. He also noted they were having to play a freshman at center a good bit. Also said they were having to rely on a sixth OL who was sort of a jack of all trades and could be inserted at any position along the line ( sounds familiar ).
After hearing that on Friday, both times I switched over to watch any of yesterdays LSU game they were in the process of attending to and helping an LSU OL off the field. Who knows, maybe the LSU OL is not as stout as it has been in recent years and might be a possible softer link on their team.
I would be very interested to know if anyone has a good knowledge of the LSU OL this year ie. depth, experience and health wise.

[Barking 13]

I ran across this after I posted in the rewatch thread... kind of what I was trying to say...

[War Machine Dawg]

Don't disagree with this theory at all. We're going to sell out to stop the run against LSU, put our DBs on islands, and make Jennings & their WRs beat us. It's what you've GOT to do. Because if you try to play them straight up, LSU will just pound you to death, then take you to the woodshed late. Depending on how they line up, I wouldn't be surprised to see us commit 8-9 to the run consistently against LSU. That's another reason we've been rotating so many players. It's going to take a whole lot of depth in the front 7 to stop that running game for 4 quarters. Gotta stay fresh to have a chance.