Shifty backs harass Tigers

• By RANDY ROSETTA
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Nov 17, 2009 - Page: 1C

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At the core of LSU’s defensive problems Saturday against Louisiana Tech was some leftover lethargy from the week before.

What made matters worse was a solid offensive game plan by the Bulldogs that used undersized but shifty and elusive running backs cutting against the defensive grain to take advantage of the Tigers’ aggressiveness.

What the bottom line provided is a useful blueprint for the LSU defense against a team with a lot more talent, particularly one talented multithreat weapon who could inflict a whole lot more damage.

The 10th-ranked Tigers (8-2, 4-2 Southeastern Conference) tangle with Ole Miss (7-3, 3-3) at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford, Miss.

And the Rebels, with flanker Dexter McCluster suddenly exploding into one of the most dangerous weapons in the league, figure to give LSU a steady diet of what it saw for 30 minutes against Tech.

That could be good or bad, depending on how the Tigers’ defense responds.

For 30 minutes, LSU had no answer against the Bulldogs’ cut-back running style, especially when Daniel Porter or Phillip Livas lined up in the Wildcat formation.

Tech gouged the Tigers for 131 rushing yards on 27 first-half carries, a good chunk of the Bulldogs’ 229 yards in the opening 30 minutes.

Besides Porter and Livas, Tyrone Duplessis and Myke Compton also got a handful of carries in the first half.

The common thread: None of the four stand taller than 5-foot-9, and Compton is the bulkiest at 210 pounds.

Now, LSU has to brace for McCluster, the 5-9, 170-pound Ole Miss dynamo, who has racked up 787 total yards in his past three games against SEC foes. Last week in a 42-17 rout over Tennessee, McCluster rambled for a school-record 282 yards on 25 carries and scored four touchdowns.

Does that add up to trouble looming for the Tigers?

“I think the style of athlete that Louisiana Tech employed was not as talented, but certainly gave a view of the style of running that can be used by Ole Miss,” LSU coach Les Miles said. “We are concerned how that happened, but again, the difference in playing with great intensity and playing to play is a yard or a step. It’s just being off a little, and being off a little means a play that should get zero gets 10 (yards) or seven (points), and to me, I think the intensity will be different when we take the field this weekend.”