While it’s fairly clear that lauded Florida QB DJ Lagway is neither physically right nor up to proper game speed to begin the season after an injury-marred offseason, he is much worse for wear after facing the LSU defense. DC Blake Baker, the early frontrunner for the Broyles Award at this point, treated Tiger fans to a demonstration of the process by which an aggressive coordinator tears down the opposing quarterback.
The Recipe
So how does this all go down? Well, playing at home helps for sure. It’s easier
to rattle a QB when the air is on fire with people yelling at him to fail, but there’s a methodology to all this.
Step 1: Win the Neutral
Above all, that’s going to start with stopping the run, especially against a team like Florida that emphasizes it and has a scary RB. For a DC, an offense that can run on you is like a bigger kid cruelly holding a basketball just above your reach. If you can’t stop that, you’re never going to get into a position where you hold the cards and can turn the tables on the offense. You have to stay in your most basic looks for maximum structural soundness and never get into positions where the offense is low on options, which limits you most on the back end. At that point, you’re static in coverage, and the QB doesn’t have to feel the speed of the game mentally and do much visual legwork when they do pass.
The LSU run defense is not something I’d try at home with any roster, but it is a pleasure to watch. They defend the run like World War Z zombies crashing a gate. Everyone does have gap assignments, and as you can see here, with Harold Perkins dropping into space first, they aren’t stupid about leaving guys out to deal with the RPO, but up front, those assignments are guidelines rather than orders. The order is to get in there, and Baker dials up more pressures, twists, and slants to make a mess of run blocking than anyone. The penetration up front and cross-dog from the ILBs wrecks the geometry of the blocking and gets the 2nd guy free to make the tackle. The LSU run D is a lot of this, and with them staying in base D all the time with Perkins (highly unusual in 2024), they have a full stable of box defenders who can take on blocks, penetrate, and tackle.
That last bit does create issues for LSU. There’s a reason it’s highly unusual. Offenses in the modern game, even if they are shifting back to more condensed looks and emphasis on making defenses honor the box, are still going to frequently use 3 WR and throw a lot on standard downs. With a blitzing-type Linebacker as their slot defender instead of a DB, LSU has an obvious weakness in neutral down coverage that *they know* they have to cover up. Florida had a little bit of a plan to exploit that, but thankfully, it was only a little bit of a plan. LSU likes to put Perkins in the box or send him in pressure off the slot, even if there is a slot receiver out there to cover….*a lot.* Like close enough to all the time, it’s very predictable. Florida used screens, whether designed like the above or packaged into RPOs, to punish the opening created in that area.
LSU generally pairs these alignments and/or pressures with the SS coming down to defend the slot, often man to man. Because LSU’s new Safeties kick so much ass (thank you portal, very cool), especially as tacklers in space, they collapsed and ran these guys down without too much damage.
Perkins himself also figured it out and started cheating to it, almost creating a Tyrann Mathieu pick-6 in the process. While LSU was able to block this punch, it creates a suspect matchup on the SS, and Florida needed the counter punch to throw different routes downfield to the slot and make LSU’s Safeties, even though they are good players overall, cover Eugene Wilson man to man. Posts, slot-fades, post-corners, deep overs, and routes like that are difficult for any S to carry against an elite WR like that. They did not emphasize that in the gameplan effectively enough on standard downs. Thanks Florida.
Step 2: Apply Heat
Blitzing at extreme rates like LSU does is not necessary to put a QB in the wash, but if successful, it’s a great way to speed them up and get in their heads. If you can connect on these, you can get the QB looking for pressure every time he hits the top of his drop. The speed of the game increases in his head artificially, and he starts to feel the buzzer go off right when he gets set to throw. For a QB who already was struggling to knock the rust off, the waves of early 3rd and long pressure, with well-designed paths and sound coverage (bouyed by LSU’s elite in man coverage nickel package), caused him to spiral out of control as the game wore on.
Step 3: Pull The Rug
You have to consistently get to obvious passing situations so you have to win first and second. When you’re there, your pressures have to connect and your coverage has to stand up so the rush is actually impacting the QB and not helping the offense. If you’ve checked those two boxes and his head is starting to swim at every snap, then you’ve broken him and can start to pick at the remains. Because of the alarm bells in his head, he is looking for a quick answer so he can get the ball out before getting hit. This is the sweet spot where bluffed pressure and coverage disguises, if done well enough to deceive, can create meltdowns like the one we saw Saturday. With Florida aligning 4 strong here to the field (4 eligibles to one side), LSU rotates over to present man coverage. In Lagway’s head, he is going to be able to take this slant 1v1 into space vacated by the 2nd level pushing over, but LSU rotates at the snap to Cover-2. This puts Dashawn Spears right in the slant window and he houses it.
Here the CB Woodland shows a zone turn like he’s playing Cover-3, only they rotate to Cover-2 and he robs the slant.
Here they motion Perkins out wide with the RB, which to the QB is a man coverage indicator, only to put him in a cloud when he gets out there and play Cover-2.
Here they show Cover-2 and play it, but Lagway thinks it’ll be a standard Cover-2. LSU, however, is playing a “2-carry,” where the overhangs carry the slot receivers instead of just dropping to the hook zones. With the S over top, this allows Spears to undercut and make a play on the ball. Lagway thinks he has a good play against Cover-2 and is reading the CB, but the window ends up packed in a way he doesn’t react to. If you notice, the ball is out incredibly quick in each of these (that he throws at least). Seeing ghosts, he’s no longer seeing and reacting, he’s sped up beyond comfort and is just trying to get the ball out before he gets hit. Only now, the “extra rushers” are all in his head, and what’s happening downfield is not.
