On Saturday Night, LSU's offense played well but, it wasn't exactly a game where the offense went out and won the game. Instead, the Tigers played great complimentary football as the offense didn't turn the ball over and sustained long drives. The performance by the defense was far more impressive than it looked during the game.
The Tigers allowed just 308 yards on Saturday Night against a Vanderbilt offense that has given a ton of great defenses issues. The Commodores picked up just 186 yards through the air and 122 yards on the ground averaging out to 77 yards per quarter. Even the low yardage LSU allowed doesn't tell the full story as those numbers are inflated.
Vanderbilt's biggest play of the night was their first play of offense when Quincy Skinner beat LSU deep for 63 yards as Zy Alexander and Jardin Gilbert got caught looking in the backfield. The other big play was when Pavia found Loic Fouonji for 39 yards on a play where Jardin Gilbert should've broken the pass up.
When the Tigers got the Commodores into third down situations, they were constantly getting off the field allowing just two conversions on ten attempts. Pavia dropped back 24 times, yet LSU allowed just 13 completions. In the run game, Diego Pavia had the most success but, LSU allowed just 122 yards on 24 attempts for 5.1 yards per carry but, because LSU had the lead it forced Vanderbilt to abandon its run game.
Whit Weeks led the team with seven tackles but, right behind him was true freshman Dahvon Keys who racked up five tackles which is an exciting development for next season. The defense didn't even create too many negative plays as the Tigers recorded just one sack and two tackles for a loss but, Sai'Vion Jones and Bradyn Swinson harassed Diego Pavia the entire night.
It wasn't a perfect game by the defense by any means but, considering everything that Diego Pavia can do it was an excellent game plan by Blake Baker.