It was an absolutely abysmal showing for LSU’s defense in a 55-49 loss to Ole Miss in Oxford on Saturday night.
The team allowed 706 yards of offense as Jaxson Dart diced up the defense, in large part thanks to a clean pocket he was operating from. The Tigers didn’t get a single sack in the loss, and it was another game in which [autotag]Harold Perkins[/autotag], who still managed nine tackles, wasn’t a major factor in the pass rush.
Perkins began the year as an inside linebacker but has since moved outside to play the weak side. However, he still isn’t being used as the team’s primary edge rusher, and the result has been a less productive campaign.
Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin said the team planned the offensive game around Perkins and how he was being used.
“I gotta give them a lot of credit,” Kiffin said, per On3. “I’ve been hard on them and they performed really well today. They took the challenge. I tell you when I think that our game plans don’t work, but they did today. I thought we had a very unique one with Perkins.
“I guess he has to come back next year. So, we won’t get into what that was exactly, but we’ve never game planned around a person like that as much as we did today, and if you watch it you can kind of figure out how much stuff’s different, plays are run based on where he’s at and it neutralized his impact plays.”
LSU clearly has issues on defense, and some of them stem from the lack of impact from arguably the unit’s most talented player. The Tigers will hope other teams aren’t able to replicate the plan Kiffin and the Rebels came up with offensively as LSU hopes to bounce back from a frustrating loss.
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