BATON ROUGE — Would you have believed the defense would’ve been what saved LSU football’s season in the team’s biggest game yet just weeks after it let USC off the hook in Las Vegas?
With ramifications galore on the line, the masterful game plan LSU defensive coordinator Blake Baker constructed and the masterclass his players executed on the field in a top-10 showdown with No. 8 Ole Miss on Saturday night could very well be a springboard for the unit.
Jaxson Dart and the Rebels came into the matchup with the Tigers leading the SEC in scoring, boasting one of the more prolific offenses in college football. The Tigers’ defensive stats wouldn’t wow anyone but as Whit Weeks said following LSU’s thrilling 29-26 overtime win over Ole Miss, the Tigers knew what was coming.
And LSU’s defense was ready.
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“For our defense, there was never a doubt at any moment in that game that we weren’t going to win that game,” Weeks said.
The Rebels were able to build a 10-0 lead by the 8:39 mark in the second quarter but it could’ve been worse. LSU’s defense got a fourth-down stop inside its 5-yard line after an interception of LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier set up the Rebs in good field position. That stop was all the Tigers needed.
“From that moment on, we knew we weren’t going to be out of the game,” Weeks said. “We knew we had to keep fighting and clawing for everything we could get.”
LSU had the extra week to prepare for Ole Miss because of an off week, and the defensive players leading up to the game and afterward detailed that while there wasn’t much talk about last year’s wild rollercoaster 55-49…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/lsu-footballs-defense-turned-corner-090459308.html
Author : The Daily Advertiser
Publish date : 2024-10-13 09:04:59
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