LSU Coach Ed Orgeron Stresses "Simplifying" the Defense Will Be an Area Addressed in Practice

Ed Orgeron was candid and forthcoming on Monday following a second disappointing performance out of the LSU defense. The Tigers surrendered 580 yards of total offense to Missouri two weeks after a very similar performance against Mississippi State.

After falling to 1-2 for the first time since 1994, Orgeron knows he and the LSU program face a challenging week of practice and will spend every second trying to get the shortcomings fixed. The coaches spent all of Sunday in meetings diagnosing what exactly went wrong against Missouri and Orgeron noted a couple of areas that will be addressed this week.

First and foremost Orgeron consistently talked about communication, or lack thereof across the board. Players were out of position and looked down right confused on a few of the busted plays that occurred. That's something Orgeron puts squarely on himself and the coaching staff.

"There were some things going on in that film, some busts where guys were running wide open, not the right guys on the goal line so as coaches we gotta clean stuff up," Orgeron said. "We've gotta be accountable, detailed and then the players gotta come in and make sure they understand the gameplan that we want them to execute."

That was perhaps the most glaring part of Saturday's loss, the look of confusion. The Tigers gave up their fair share of yardage when they were in the right position but oftentimes there were players not within 15 or 20 yards of a Missouri receiver.

Those are the kind of macro issues that Orgeron and the coaching staff want to get corrected as soon as possible and the way they will go about doing that is simplifying the defense. As part of the day long meetings Orgeron had with coaches, one of them involved a sit down with defensive coordinator Bo Pelini, where he instructed Pelini to simplify the defense.

"We're definitely gonna simplify and I'm gonna make sure that any defense that's called, anyone that's called that we run it right all week," Orgeron said. "We don't understand it, we're not running it."

Orgeron said he believes Saturday's performance was related to a combination of a number of miscues and lack of understanding the scheme. While Orgeron did say that LSU was going to stick with the 4-3 defense and still believes in that scheme moving forward, expect some personnel changes this week as well.

LSU will spend most of practice this week on defense trying to fix some of those big issues that have now cropped up twice in three weeks, and eliminating the explosive plays will go a long way in getting the defense back on track.

The Tigers allowed nearly 20 plays of 10 or more yards against Missouri on Saturday, with a number of those going for over 20 yards each play.

"All of those have to stop and that's either through mismatches, the calls or missed assignments," Orgeron said. "I think when you're playing good defense, you're making it hard for them to go down the field. Offenses are changing, it's basketball on grass and I think it has to do a lot with the offensive schemes but that doesn't mean we still can't play good defense."

If LSU can start cleaning up some of the bigger issues that have been on full display this season, there have been a few positives that the defense can continue to build on. The Tigers are +6 in the turnover ratio on the season and have recorded nine sacks and four interceptions in three games, good for third in the conference.

That shows that LSU is getting pressure up front to some degree but staying in position is still an area that needs work. The defensive line was pushed out of its gaps too many times on Saturday, leading to big runs and 180 yards on the ground. Orgeron said there will be some personnel changes that can be expected, including putting bigger defensive linemen in the middle to clog the running lanes a little more consistently.

"Our guys are causing turnovers, our guys are going after the football just like I saw all camp," Orgeron said. "I really think we've beat ourselves. Poor fundamentals, I feel like we're rushing the passer but we've gotta stop the run. I think it's about playing bigger guys up front and playing better technique."

Whether or not these changes can be fixed is another question Orgeron was asked on Monday. The difficulty that comes with making the defense simpler is something that the coaching staff hopes to start seeing some major improvements on in practice this week.

"I think it's somewhere in between, it's not as difficult as it may look, but it's not easy," Orgeron said. "We have to simplify and put our players in the best positions they can be and when we do that, our players are gonna make plays."