Tiger Offense vs. Tiger Defense

• By RANDY ROSETTA
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Sep 16, 2008 - Page: 1C - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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As the LSU offense prepares for what it will face this week from a small, but lightning-fast and aggressive Auburn defense, the focus will be mostly on concocting the right schemes and determining favorable matchups.

Basically the chore is to figure out what human element LSU can seize upon to establish any advantage possible.

With all that X-ing and O-ing, breaking down cold hard statistics isn’t always a necessary evil for offensive coordinators and their pupils.

But there’s one number attached to the AU defense that is impossible to ignore, and in fact has a car wreck lure to it. You simply can’t look away.

In three games, opponents have lined up for 46 third downs against the Auburn defense in three games and have converted three times. That 6.5 percent success rate leads the country.

Louisiana-Monroe was 2-for-18 on third down, Southern Mississippi converted once in 14 tries and Mississippi State, ostensibly the most talented of AU’s three foes, was 0-for-14.

“I hadn’t heard that stat, but it’s pretty impressive,” LSU quarterback Andrew Hatch said. “I know they have a great defense and have been doing really well, but that’s really impressive.

“Coaches always stress importance of converting on third down, but there may be a little extra emphasis on that this week.”

With Hatch and Lee alternating at quarterback, the Tigers have punched out 12 first downs in 27 third-down attempts, a 44.4 percent rate.

A balanced offense has helped LSU make third downs less imposing.

Charles Scott paces a running attack that leads the SEC with 241 yards a game and 7.1 yards a carry. The LSU passing game has consisted mostly of short, safe passes, with Hatch and Lee combining to average 12.2 yards per completion.

“Our football team is best when we can do both, and that’s certainly what we are going to do,” LSU coach Les Miles said Monday at his weekly press luncheon. “(Auburn is) a great defense, very talented scheme. We are going to be tested very significantly. We feel like we will be up to that challenge.

“The comfort of call for those quarterbacks and understanding what we want to get accomplished and, then, having the ability to run the football always puts you in a situation with a manageable third down. Whether we throw it on first down or run it on first, we feel like we should be in a manageable third down.”