Matt Mauck’s 34-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Skyler Green with 1:22 remaining in the game might have given LSU the winning margin, but the defense’s bend but don’t break mentality might have saved the day for the Tigers.
All throughout LSU’s 17-10 victory over Georgia, the Tigers defense made big plays and corralled the Bulldogs offense when it was in LSU territory.
On seven separate drives, Georgia’s offense stalled in LSU territory without scoring a point, and the three times the Bulldogs drives started in Tigers’ territory, the LSU defense was able to stop them without a point being registered.
“I could live a little easier if we didn’t get put in all those bad spots,” said LSU coach Nick Saban after the game. “That’s what you play for. That’s why you compete. I was proud of the way those players did that. I’m especially proud of some of the tough situations we were in today and the way we competed our way out of them.”
All day long, it seemed like the defense was bailing the offense out after turnovers or three and outs or down right ineptitude.
A six-drive sequence in the first half paints the picture beautifully.
After a Mauck interception in the first quarter, it looked like Georgia was going to march down the field and take a deflating 10-0 lead.
But after Georgia quarterback David Greene scrambled out of the pocket on a second-and-11 from the LSU 18, defensive end Marcus Spears tackled him from behind, causing a fumble, which was recovered by Spears.
After a quick three-and-out from the Tigers offense, Georgia once again looked destined to score points, reaching the LSU 27 before the drive stalled.
Georgia kicker Billy Bennett kicked what seemed to be a successful 43-yard field goal attempt. But after offsetting penalties, Bennett had to kick again, and on the second attempt, the ball sailed wide right and the score remained 3-0.
After yet another three-and-out from the LSU offense, Georgia got the ball in LSU territory again, this time at the 47-yard line. In a case of déjà vu, however, Bennett kicked a 42-yard field goal wide right, and the Tigers came out unscathed.
“We just had to suck it up,” said LSU defensive tackle Chad Lavalais. “We were thinking, ‘Hey man, let’s just hold them to a field goal.’ They could have went up on us 21-0. Who knows? But we just looked at each other and said let’s suck it up.”
The LSU defense did more than “suck it up.”
It was able to get pressure on the steady Greene all day long, using different blitz packages throughout the game that allowed players to run free at Greene numerous times.
“We pressured just about every down,” Saban said. “We knew that we were going to have to play them man-to-man. Their passing game is well conceived and it’s very difficult to play zone against. The entire defensive team made plays when they had to make them in the game. If you’re going to win big games you have to do that, and the players have to be the kind of competitors to know when they have to step up and do that.”
The Tigers totaled four sacks, including two on reserve quarterback D.J. Shockley when Greene hyper-extended his knee in the third quarter, and hit the Georgia quarterbacks almost every play. Greene also threw two interceptions, the first being his first in 176 passing attempts.
“We just wanted to come out and kind of confuse (Greene),” said cornerback Corey Webster, whose fourth quarter interception ended any hope of a Georgia comeback. “We kind of knocked him around. It worked because our front seven got to the quarterback and affected him. After you hit them in the mouth a couple of times, quarterbacks usually start ducking the next time the line gets so close. That’s basically how we approached it.”
Disguising the blitz was a part of LSU’s gameplan, according to Lavalais.
“Later on in the game, we did a good job of disguising our blitz,” Lavalais said. “Greene was picking up on it early on. Most of the game, Greene was going on quick snaps. He would just get up at the line, look to see what we were doing first, and then check off. So we just tried to disguise it and much as we could. We would wait until he got his hands under the center, go through his snap counts and then come after him.”
LSU also was able to knock down at least six Greene passes at the line of scrimmage, and a tip by defensive tackle Bryce Wyatt turned into a Lionel Turner interception at the beginning of the fourth quarter. Lavalais and defensive end Marcus Spears each batted down two Greene passes.
“We thought we could bat a lot of balls on (Greene),” Saban said. “I think we’ve got some players that are athletic. Marquise (Hill) is tall, Spears is a good basketball player and an athletic guy, so he bats a lot of balls and Chad bats balls. Those guys have a knack for it, and it was big.
“When you’re pressuring and you’re getting close to the quarterback like we were, that’s got to be an advantage for you that you bat some balls down. You can’t just cover them all the time on the back end.”
Spears said on tape, Greene looked like he did not get the ball up too high.
“Watching him we knew coming in that he was a great quarterback,” Spears said. “And we knew that he threw the ball quite low, and we have tall guys up front. We know that if we get our hands up, we’re going to get lucky sometimes and get a hand on it. We juts had to affect him that way. As great as quarterbacks are, I think that once things aren’t working for them, they get frustrated and try to start rushing things. It happened to him, and we just kept coming and kept coming.”