Brian Babin and the rest of the Southeastern offense is having a pretty good season so far, averaging 30.7 points and 338 yards per game at the midway point of the season.

Amazingly, however, the Lions are among the offensive pikers in a Southland Conference that is giving the term “wide open” a whole new dimension.

Five teams are scoring more than the Lions and four are producing more offensive yards per game, led by third-ranked McNeese State, the national leader in both points (47.0) and yards (493.8) per game.

But Central Arkansas, Sam Houston State and Texas State are all averaging over 400 yards per game, although it should be noted that all four of those leaders have a game or two against sub-Division I competition among their opponents, and Southeastern does not.

So what in the name of Vince Lombardi has happened to the art of playing defense in the Southland Conference?

“Offenses today are spreading you out and putting a premium on execution and tackling. (You're having to cover) the width and the length of the field,” said Central Arkansas’ Clint Conque, who said the nature of the game is changing.

“Playing linebacker seems to be a lost art out there,” Conque mused. “I know at our place, we're asking them to do a lot of things. We're asking them to play the run, fit gaps, hit gaps and blitz, they've got to match to wide receivers. Not everybody's playing with a tight end down after down any more. They're playing with four and five wide receivers.

“I think we're asking some of our personnel to do things that they didn't have to do three, five years ago.”

Southeastern coach Mike Lucas, one of the league's few head coaches with a defensive background, can see Conque's point.

“People are spreading you out all over the field, and when they spread you out, it's tough to be able to cover everything,” said Lucas, whose team is giving up 413.7 yards and 36 points per game — second-worst in the league. “Are you going to rush the passer and give up throwing lanes? Or are you going to cover and give up rushing the passer? It's hard to do both right now.”

One thing's for sure, traditional defensive approaches no longer cut it against the brand of offensive talent brought to bear by nearly every Southland Conference offense.

“You've gotta have players,” Lucas said. “Look at what people are putting on the field wide receiver-wise. Everybody we're playing (has receivers who are) 6-3, 6-4 and can run. You've got to have defensive backs who can cover them. And at this level of football — and it hasn't changed in 20 years — the toughest thing to recruit are defensive linemen and corners. They're hard to find. They're going to the higher level.”

Northwestern State coach Scott Stoker blames the trigger men for all those eye-popping numbers.

“I think it has a lot to do with great quarterback play,” Stoker said. “I think our league has probably as good a (collection of) quarterbacks that we've had. Everybody's got one, and when those guys get hot, it's hard to stop them.

“I still think you've got to be able to play good defense. I'm not saying that you're going to shut anybody out, but you've got to at least slow them down a little bit. You've got to try to get guys out of a rhythm a little bit.

“But you know somewhere in the game they're going to get in it. You've just to got to withstand the push and hope you're still in the ballgame at the right time.”

And it's not just spreading defenses out and chucking it. The league's best quarterbacks are also dangerous on the move.

“Everybody's going to athletic quarterbacks that can run the ball. It's like playing against 12 guys; you have to account for them like you account for a tailback,” said Lucas, who agrees with Conque that linebacking play is critical.

“You've got to have linebackers who can run when people spread you out,” Lucas said. “You've got to be able to play in space.

“But I still think the key is to get pressure on the quarterback. If you can do that with a four-man rush, then you can play all the coverages you want in the back end. If you can't get to the quarterback with a four-man rush, then you have to start adding people into the blitz and it opens up the throwing lanes.”

Precisely, said McNeese State's Scott Viator.

“It's about matchups, and you end up getting guys sometimes in positions that they don't want to be in,” Viator said. “The spread offense, to some extent, neutralizes some talent at times.”

Still, Viator who believes we'll see those glitzy offensive numbers come back to earth a little now that league play has begun.

“I think it's been a trend, once you get to conference, I think people are more familiar with each other and I doubt you'll see the gaudy numbers and stuff,” Viator said. “They have a lot of good offenses in our conference, but I think it will slow down a little bit once you get to conference play.”

Of course, that certainly didn't apply to last weekend's conference lid-lifter, when Southeastern and Stephen F. Austin hooked up in a thrilling 48-45 shootout won by the Lumberjacks with a stunning second-half rally.

It may be that we're entering an era when the standard measures of defensive excellence like yards and points no longer apply. Maybe now more than ever it's purely about wins and losses.

“There's no question right now that the offenses, at least on paper, seem have the upper hand right now,” Conque said. “It comes down to who can play the better defense, who can make stops, who can tackle, create turnovers. And of course, the kicking game — make them have to go a long field.

“Those are principles that have always been in college football, but it just seems like the offenses are putting so much pressure now. They can spread you out and run it and they can spread you out and force matchups that they like.”

Unless you're a defensive coordinator, that is.