It’s a fair question, and one I don’t have the expertise to answer.
As Jess points out, we have done well enough against even very good teams. But the last couple of times we’ve faced elite offenses, we‘ve done well enough on 1st and 2nd downs, but haven’t been able to close the deal on 3rd and get off the field.
There are three factors that make simple black-and-white analysis of this year’s defense hard to justify:
1. We’re playing a ton of really young players, including 5 freshmen in the starting rotation. That is just too many to generate consistent performances. And we’ve seen a lot of inconsistency — missed tackles, busted assignments, communication problems, all the stuff that comes with throwing freshmen into an SECw schedule.
2. 3-4 of those freshmen are in the center. NG, DT and ILB. As any military person, accomplished chess player, or football coach will tell you, if the center isn’t strong, you have a major problem. It’s not that any of these guys are un-talented. The talent is there. The experience necessary to maximize that talent isn’t.
3. We made some jaw-dropping mistakes yesterday, all on offense, and all of them cost points. The opening drive looked great until Tua inexplicably lost the handle on the ball, deep in the red zone, without being touched. Perine dropped a snap on the next drive, Tua threw a bad interception just before the half, and an OL (Dickerson? I’m not sure) compounded Tua’s mistake with an unforgivably selfish personal foul born of frustration.
All of those are unforced errors sufficient to lose to a team that’s just good, let alone one at LSU’s level.
Point of all that being, none of those problems are a function of defensive scheme. Maybe there’s another scheme that could mask deficiencies born of inexperience. Maybe the scheme itself is deficient, and wouldn’t be helped, even with experience in the middle...I don’t have the X and O knowledge to say.
We’re going to find out next year when inexperience is no longer an issue.