Brian Kelly breaks down keys against aggressive Ole Miss defense

LSU improved to 5-2 over the weekend with a convincing road win at Florida and now the Tigers will turn their attention to an SEC West rival. Coach Brian Kelly and his squad will take on No. 7 Ole Miss, with a defense that has been one of the most downhill units in the country.

The Rebels rank No. 16 nationally in both sacks and tackles for a loss, routinely getting penetration and causing havoc in the backfield.

“It’s hard to know exactly where the birds line up all the time,” Kelly said Monday. “It’s three-down, it’s 3-3, 3-4, it’s they’re playing with a nickel and dime, they’re playing some invert. You don’t know where some of the pressures; they’re striking from the field, they’re striking from the boundary.

“You’ve got to be on your toes. This is a week where recognition and understanding where it’s coming from is going to be really important.”

Ole Miss has logged 19 sacks, about 2.7 per game. The Rebels have also accumulated 47 tackles for a loss, around 6.7 per game.

That’s a lot of potential for drives to be derailed if quarterback Jayden Daniels and the LSU offense isn’t locked in. The Tigers have had plenty of moving parts on the offensive line, though the unit is coming off a game where it allowed just one sack (tied for the fewest this season) and helped LSU rush for 179 yards.

Ole Miss is likely to present a more difficult challenge than Florida.

“So quarterback is going to have to be on it,” Kelly said. “He’s going to have to slide the right way. Our backs are going to have to go coast to coast in some of their read progressions.”

LSU must be alert against Ole Miss defense

Kelly continued to harp on being aware of what Ole Miss is doing defensively.

There will be a lot placed on Daniels as far as identification pre-snap, something not every defense necessitates. Daniels is coming off a terrific game against the Gators, where he threw for 349 yards and three touchdowns, didn’t throw an interception and also scored three rushing touchdowns.

Forget the numbers, if he can simply operate the LSU offense smoothly on Saturday that’ll be significant.

“There’s got to be a better attention in that regard, where sometimes when you’re in four-down, you know where the overload blitz is coming from in four-down situations, because you have to tip it,” Kelly said. “So you’ve got to lock in on safeties. You’ve got to look for the tells. This is a week where you’ve got to do a really good job against them.”

LSU and Ole Miss will kick off at 3:30 p.m. ET in the CBS SEC Game of the Week.