Defense locks down after sluggish start

• By RANDY ROSETTA
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Nov 19, 2008 - UPDATED: 6:45 a.m.

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For two possessions to start the night and another to start the second half, the LSU secondary looked like it could do nothing right against Troy’s rapid-fire, pick-away-at-edges spread offense.

Trojans quarterback Levi Brown was nearly flawless on those three drives, hitting 20-of-30 passes for 213 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

Following the two touchdown drives to start the night, LSU’s defense buckled down the rest of the first half.

Then after Troy’s 79-yard march to start the third quarter, the Tigers never bent much again. Besides the three scoring drives to start each half, Brown was 14-of-42 passing for 103 yards.

His fourth-quarter numbers: 5-of-20 for 26 yards. Four of those completions came after LSU surged in front 40-31. While the Tigers were mounting their rally, Brown was 1-for-11 with an interception.

With Brown suddenly out of sync, Troy’s offense went belly up. The Trojans first four series of the fourth quarter were a four-and-out, an interception after three plays, a three-and-out and another four-and-out.

“Basically we were playing way too soft at the beginning because we didn’t know how they were going to come out and attack us,” LSU cornerback Jai Eugene said. “Once we got more aggressive at the corners, they couldn’t do anything in the second half. They were completing those short passes in the first half, but once we adjusted they couldn’t do anything at all.

Chris Hawkins, the Tigers other cornerback, said one key adjustment was the corners focused more on the flair routes and let the safeties handle the deep routes. Bodying up and getting up close and personal sure didn’t hurt, either.

“At first, we let them run routes before we reacted,” Hawkins said. “We went to a more physical technique and started beating them up a little more off the ball and that took them out of their timing. We didn’t let them any have free releases any more.”

And Brown had to try to force the ball into smaller windows in not as much time.

LSU finished with 17 pass breakups — three each by Hawkins and Danny McCray — and 10 quarterback hurries.

“They didn’t have an answer once we adjusted to what they were doing,” Eugene said.

The only blotch on the defense’s second-half performance was Hawkins flirtation with every DB’s dream.