NUance said:
Why was our D-line so far off the ball against South'n Miss? At times it looked like they were lining up a good 6 feet or so off the LOS. Pause the above vid at the 1:18 mark and you'll see what I mean.
They played back off the ball a bit because we had no idea what kind of plays Southern Miss was going to run. Playing back a bit gave them a bit more time to let plays develop in front of them so they could digest things they maybe hadn't practiced for better before they had to react to the play. So while maybe they gave up 2-3 extra yards here or there on a few plays, we likely wouldn't have given up the big play on D if Southern Miss would have gone with a lot of trickery.
Bo even said they were really expecting Southern Miss to come at them with some really crazy stuff and had to adjust and play more conventionally in the second half.