If LSU had a nickel for every pass break-up…

Published 6:00 pm Thursday, October 19, 2017

Donte Jackson spent the early season mock-complaining that teams weren’t giving him much action out there at cornerback.

At nickel back it doesn’t seem to be a problem — not last Saturday at least.

Jackson personally knocked down the last four passes Auburn quarterback Jarrett Stidham attempted to seal LSU’s upset.

He’s still catching grief for dropping what would have been a stroll-in-the-park pick-six on one of them, but the point was made, the 27-23 comeback was sealed.

LSU seems to be rounding back into its DBU —Defensive Back U. — tradition.

By game’s end, the Tigers secondary had broken up 11 passes — a stat in which a half-dozen is considered an excellent game’s worth.

“No question. I thought Donte and (cornerback) Kevin Toliver played their best game,” LSU coach Ed Orgeron said. “That’s good to see.”

They and their secondary mates get their toughest test Saturday at Ole Miss, where the Rebels (3-3, 1-2 SEC) lead the Southeastern Conference in passing and total offense.

But if you’re looking for a key element in the Auburn comeback — and granted, there were many — consider that quarterback Jarrett Stidham completed six of his first eight passes for 144 yards, including a 49-yard touchdown and a 52-yard completion that set up the score that put Auburn up 20-0. From that point on, however, Stidham completed 3 of 16 passes for 21 yards.

Not bad for a unit that is missing two current NFL starters from a year ago and starts three freshmen when it goes to five defensive backs — safeties Eric Monroe and Grant Delpit with corner Greedy Williams.

But one of the changes the Tigers (5-2, 2-1) made was moving Jackson from corner to the nickel in those situations, with Toliver coming in at the cornerback opposite Williams, who leads the team with three interceptions.

That figures to be the alignment of choice against a pass-happy Ole Miss team that gets 77 percent of its SEC-leading 2,775 total yards from the throwing game. Its leads the league in passing by 70 yards per game over the next highest.

Not surprisingly, the Rebels have the SEC’s leading passer in Shreveport sophomore Shea Patterson (Calvary Baptist High School), along with what many think is the league’s best receiving corps. It includes four of the SEC’s top 10 receivers, all of whom are 6-foot-2 or taller. A.J. Brown is the SEC’s leader both in receptions (35) and yards (113 ypg).

The Rebels’ No. 4 receiver, DeMarkus Lodge, has two more receptions (24) than LSU leader DJ Chark.

“This is going to be a challenge now,” Orgeron said. “They’re big, they’re physical, they can catch the ball. This is one of the top-10 quarterbacks in the country, the guy is going to play in the NFL (with) three receivers that will be drafted in the first three rounds.”

With such youth back there in LSU’s secondary, there have been ups and downs.

Delpit, for example, was beaten badly in giving up a 49-yard scoring pass on Auburn’s second possession.

He was supposed to have help over the top, Orgeron said, but that was no excuse for biting on an outside fake.

“That’s a mistake a young guy is going to make,” Orgeron said.

Delpit has started from the season opener. But there’s a difference now.

“We tell our team, let’s play the next play,” Orgeron said. “What happened at the beginning of the season, we’d make a bad play it’d linger on two, three drives later. Maybe didn’t forget the last play.

“But this team has learned how to forget the last play and move on to the next.”

Delpit didn’t get beat deep again and finished with two pass break-ups.

Orgeron gives Jackson, the veteran as a junior, a lot of the credit.

“He’s one of the guys after the Troy game that turned it up,” Orgeron said. “He turned up his practice habits, he’s been more vocal, more of a leadership role, and it’s showing up on the field. His fellow teammates follow him. He’s leading those guys.”

It’s not easy playing secondary at LSU, especially this season. As the schedule has moved along, more and more defensive coordinator Dave Aranda has left the cornerbacks on an island in single coverage.

“Man-to-man coverage almost every down,” Orgeron explained. “You got to play every play. You can’t relax.”

Certainly not this week.

“They know the stakes are high,” Orgeron said. “Going against the great receivers Ole Miss has, I think they’re going to be fired up. I think they’re going to be challenged and I think they’re going to end up doing a great job.”