Football coaches constantly emphasize the game-changing importance of turnovers and the need for sound special teams.
Following another dominating turnover margin and a special teams score against West Virginia, few teams are capitalizing on the two facets quite like LSU this season.
Junior cornerback Morris Claiborne’s 99-yard kickoff return late in the third quarter put the final separation between the Tigers and the Mountaineers, while sophomore defensive back Tyrann Mathieu’s blitzing deflection and interception just before halftime set up LSU for a 1-yard touchdown.
The Claiborne scamper marked the second special teams touchdown of the season for LSU — Mathieu’s forced fumble and score on an Oregon punt return was the first — and the Mathieu pick was his second forced turnover in the first half of Saturday’s contest.
Through four games, LSU is now plus-9 in turnover margin and has forced four turnovers against both West Virginia and Oregon.
Mathieu, whose first-quarter forced fumble put him in a tie for the LSU career record for the statistic, said the defense’s penchant for finding the ball developed from an enhanced focus in practice.
“Every day out there, we’re running strip drills,” the second-year nickelback said. “From that, every time a running back breaks the line, we’re hawking them down. When the ball is up in the air, the defensive guys look at it like a consistency.”
Mathieu, who downed two of Wing’s six punts, said the whole team accepts the challenge to make big plays, not just the offense.
“Yeah, we take it as a defense, as a special teams unit,” he said. “We don’t want to put our offense at a disadvantage. … We want to put them in a position of