LSU Defense Settling in after Return of Key Starters against Gators
It's not too often that a defense has to tinker with rotations six weeks into the season like the Tigers have had to. LSU came into Saturday's game as healthy as it's been all year on defense, particularly on the front line.
Key members of the front seven like Michael Divinity, Rashard Lawrence and Glen Logan all saw significant time on Saturday night. Yet, for a defense that was coming off its best performance of the year, holding Utah State to six points and no touchdowns, it took some adjusting to start the Florida game.
LSU surrendered 21 first half points to the Gators, including 457 total yards, letting running back Lamical Perine and tight end Kyle Pitts combine for 188 yards on the ground and through the air.
Yet the defense was able to flip the switch in the second half. After allowing a first series touchdown to kick off the third quarter, the Tiger defense held the Gator offense scoreless, allowing the LSU offense to score 21 unanswered points to seal the win.
"Florida came out and scored on that first drive [of the third quarter] and we could've hung our heads," senior defensive end Breiden Fehoko said. "We know the offense we have, the talent we have on defense so we knew we had to take it one play at a time. Look at the guy next to you, let him know you got his back and just keep moving on."
The turnaround on defense started with the pass rush up front as outside linebacker K'Lavon Chaisson had his best showing of the 2019 season with eight tackles, three of them for a loss and a sack. Logan and Divinity added two tackles a piece in their returns but the unsung hero of the second half turned out to be freshman Marcel Brooks.
Brooks, who was recruited to LSU as a safety, has played a lot on the line in 2019 because of all the injuries and it finally paid off with a sack in the third quarter that got the LSU defense off the field for the first time in three drives.
"We needed a stop bad, needed a confidence boost," junior safety JaCoby Stevens said. "When Marcel got that sack, we were just happy for him. It was a game-changing play, the momentum definitely shifted from the Florida side to our side and we took off from there."
Stevens added that it seems like Brooks is finally starting to find his niche with the team. Coach Ed Orgeron said during Monday's press conference that he thinks Brooks has come to the realization that his future with the Tiger's program is at outside linebacker, not at safety.
"I do believe the addition of Marcel Brooks helped us put more speed on the field," Orgeron said. "First of all, we had Marcel at outside linebacker when he first came. He wanted to move to safety to try to win a starting spot. Obviously we gave him that opportunity. As a staff we spent a lot of time on Marcel this summer. We felt as a staff his best position would be outside linebacker. But I want to give the players a chance to realize, Hey, this is the position I want to play, but this is the position I really need to play."
"I think Marcel has realized that. He's at home at outside linebacker. Only weighs about 200 pounds, needs to get a little bit heavier to be able to play on first and second down."
For LSU senior defensive end Glen Logan, the 2019 season has been a long one working his way back from an injury sustained in the Tiger's win over Texas.
"I was so frustrated when it happened because I felt like it was my time, like I was growing into a complete football player," Logan said. "It just kind of went back to Ground Zero but I had a bunch of people supporting me through it."
Logan was a young player still learning the position when the Tigers last traveled to Starkville to take on the Bulldogs, a trip that ended with a 37-7 loss. Like Orgeron said earlier in the week, Logan agreed that the team wasn't prepared for the environment they were walking into, remembering the team not having the best week in practice either.
"You have to go into practice with a great attitude," Logan said. "We remember how that was and all of us older guys, we know we can't let that happen again. We're older and smarter now and we come out for practice with far greater energy. A lot of things that we struggled with two years ago, we're making sure that doesn't happen again."
One member of the secondary who seemed to thrive on Saturday was safety Grant Delpit, who was selected as an AP Midseason All-American on Tuesday. Delpit had struggled with missed tackles for much of the first four games, much like the secondary as a whole did.
On Saturday night, Delpit recorded eight tackles including two pass breakups to help LSU seal the win over the Gators. Stevens said Delpit was really hard on himself those first four games and has been working extremely hard to get those ballhawk instincts back that the team saw in 2018.
"He did some soul-searching and made the change," Stevens said. "Just getting back to his roots, allowing the game to come to him. I feel like Grant because of the competitor he is, he was being overly aggressive and trying to make the big plays every time. Sometimes that can hurt you but now he's letting the plays come to him and he's making them."
With the LSU defense finally starting to get healthy in all areas, it will be interesting to see the strides it can make over the next few weeks before that highly touted matchup with the Crimson Tide on Nov. 9.
