Vanderbilt’s Defense is Finding an Identity when it Matters Most

NASHVILLE — Vanderbilt’s defense might not look like anything special on paper.

Entering Saturday, defensive coordinator Steve Gregory’s unit ranked bottom-four in the SEC in passing yards allowed and hadn’t forced a turnover since Martel Hight’s first-drive interception against Alabama three weekends ago.

Yet still, its defense had been playing winning football.

The Commodores surrendered a combined 54 points to Alabama and LSU, but they stepped up when it mattered most, giving Diego Pavia and his offense a chance to go win the game. Against the Crimson Tide, the offense faltered with turnovers, but against the Tigers, that breath of life won Vanderbilt the game.

Forcing a combined eight field goals against Alabama and LSU masked otherwise shaky defensive performances. Maybe it was luck, or maybe it was a function of short fields and fewer deep threats. Either way, that bend-don’t-break resilience, paired with Vanderbilt’s offense, has created a winning formula.

On Saturday against Missouri though, things looked different. The offense didn’t light up the scoreboard like they’ve done for nearly every game up to this point. Diego Pavia didn’t play poorly, but he didn’t exactly look like a Heisman Trophy winner either. This week, it was time for an offense that had spent so much time in the spotlight to give way to its defensive counterpart.

“I feel like we owed it to the offense,” safety CJ Heard said after the game. “They’ve done so much for us this season. I feel like everyone just did their job today.”

When a Pavia pass was tipped and intercepted at the start of the third quarter and Missouri took over with the ball inside the red zone, Beau Pribula seemed destined to find the end zone. Quickly taking the ball down to the Commodores’ 3-yard line, Pribula and the Tigers needed to get three yards on three plays. Vanderbilt’s defense had other plans, though.

After a 1-yard rush and incomplete pass, Miles Capers and Bryan Longwell came up with an overwhelming push at the line of scrimmage, stuffing Pribula at the goal line and forcing a turnover on downs. That series of plays is the epitome of what Vanderbilt’s defense has stood for over the last month.

"It’s identity. It’s DNA,” head coach Clark Lea said. “Defensive football is about response. A lot of times we don’t like the way the ball has gotten down there [to the red-zoe], but we’ve put a lot of effort into training the psychology and flipping our minds to say ‘we’re actually going to trap teams down there.’”

Vanderbilt certainly wasn’t flawless in the red-zone, allowing backup quarterback Matt Zollers to drive down the field and throw for a touchdown on 4th-and-2 after Pribula’s injury. But after that score, Gregory’s unit clamped down on the Tigers’ offense. It was Heard — potentially the Commodores’ defensive MVP up to this point — who provided the game-changing play, ripping the ball out of running back Jamal Roberts’ hands with 7:11 left to play.

"The play of the day was CJ’s turnover,” Lea said after giving Heard the game ball.

And make no mistake — that’s where this game was won. Missouri’s offense out-possessed Vanderbilt’s 36:12 to 23:48 and ran 33 more plays, netting 376 total yards compared to the Commodores’ 265. But in the red-zone, Vanderbilt was a flawless 2-for-2. Missouri on the other hand, was just 1-for-3.

“We talk about fighting for every blade of grass on the field,” Lea said. “That’s something we train, something we preach, something our kids believe in.”

The individual efforts were important — Bryan Longwell led the way with 13 tackles, followed by 8 from Heard and Langston Patterson — but it was the defense’s cohesiveness that stood out. And when Missouri took over with 1:52 left in the game, needing a touchdown to force overtime, that same defense slammed the door — albeit just barely.

“We could’ve had a cleaner finish to the game,” Lea said. “But we finished. I think there’s a better [defensive] performance out in front of us.”