LSU Football: Why The Tiger Defense Will Dominate West Virginia Mountaineers

This Saturday will see a match up of ranked teams as No. 23 West Virginia travels to Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge to take on No. 15 LSU.

The story of this game will be the high-powered offense of West Virginia against the relentless defense of LSU. 

The Mountaineers are averaging over 150 yards rushing and 250 yards passing per game.  The LSU defense is tied for third in the nation in sacks with 11 and ninth in interceptions with five.  Overall, the LSU defense has been stout, ranked fifth in the nation. 

West Virginia’s offense is undoubtedly good with tons of speed and experience.  However, they have not seen anything remotely close to LSU’s defense this season and will be in for a real surprise when they see linebackers that run like corners and defensive lineman that blow up offensive lineman. 

The Tiger defense is built for the SEC and high caliber offenses.  Defensive coordinator John Chavis is doing a good job, with the exception of the second half of the UNC game, of sending different looks and blitz packages to keep offenses scrambling. 

Tiger defensive linemen are living in opposing teams’ backfields and causing mass destruction.  Chavis is also not afraid to send a corner or safety blitz on third down and other key moments. 

West Virginia running back Noel Devine is averaging 118 rushing yards per game, but that is against Coastal Carolina, Marshall and Maryland.  No disrespect to those institutions, but they do not compare to what Devine will see on Saturday night.

With the game starting at 8:00pm central time, the LSU fans will have two extra hours of partying under their belts by kickoff.  The already loud and rowdy crowd will be at another level when the Mountaineers take the field. 

Again, no disrespect to the Big East, but West Virginia has not experienced the deafening volume of crowd noise that will be present on Saturday night in Tiger Stadium.

This should be an absolute rout if the Tiger offense can finish drives like they did in the second half versus Mississippi State last Saturday.

Prediction:

LSU – 35

WVU – 13