Column: 5 plays show how Alabama’s D shut down LSU’s Leonard Fournette

By now you’ve read a thousand times just how dominant Alabama’s defense was Saturday in a 30-16 win over LSU, as the Crimson Tide held Tigers running back Leonard Fournette to 31 yards and a garbage-time touchdown on 19 carries.

Fournette, the nation’s leading rusher and seemingly a shoe-in for the Heisman Trophy, hadn’t put up fewer than 150 yards in any game this season before his arrival in Tuscaloosa. But the Tide — particularly the front seven — played assignment-perfect football and put coach Nick Saban and Co. in position to win the SEC West.

‘Bama had clearly heard enough chatter about Fournette being the next Herschel Walker or Bo Jackson, so the big boys in the trenches took it upon themselves to build a barricade on his road to immortality.

“It’s hard to stop a guy like that,” linebacker Reggie Ragland told the Tuscaloosa News. “I’m glad I’ve got the guys that I have in the locker room. They held it to themselves. The guys up front said, ‘We’re not going to let him do this.’”

Let’s take a closer look at five different types of running plays the Bayou Bengals dialed up in an effort to turn Fournette loose, none of which worked against a Tide defensive unit hungry for Tiger blood.

I formation, power left

LSU lined up in a traditional pro-style set with a tight end on the left side of the line, a split end to the right, a flanker to the left and Fournette dotting the I behind the fullback.

This is a pretty standard power run, as Fournette got the handoff from quarterback Brandon Harris and followed his fullback to the strong side — meaning where the tight end was — of the formation.

Watch linebacker Dillon Lee (No. 25) force the tight end into the backfield and eliminate any chance Fournette had to bounce outside. Once he tried to cut inside, his guard and tackle had already been badly beaten. There’s simply nowhere to go. Reversing to the right wasn’t an option because Jarran Reed (No. 90) did his job and stayed home.

Credit Fournette for staying on his feet as long as he did, but there were too many Alabama defenders to avoid before Eddie Jackson (No. 4) put him on the turf for a loss.

Shotgun formation, read-option belly

The Tigers went shotgun with a tight end on the right side of the line, three receivers to the left in trips formation and Fournette alongside Harris.

With no jet sweep to create a third potential option, Harris can give it to Fournette up the gut — he’s reading Alabama’s right end before deciding — or keep it and run around left end. Dalvin Tomlinson (No. 54) didn’t give up the edge, so Harris left the ball in Fournette’s belly with what he thought was a numbers advantage.

The three-receiver set forced the Crimson Tide to line up with only six in the box. But the six defenders filled every gap on either side of LSU’s six up-front blockers. As a result, Marlon Humphrey (No. 26) had a free lane from the secondary to dart in unblocked and blow up Fournette near the line of scrimmage.

Fournette usually runs over that defender or makes him miss when facing a run-of-the-mill unit, but ‘Bama might be the most sure tackling team in the country.

I formation, power pitch left

LSU returned to a pro-style set with a tight end on the right side of the line, a split end to the left, a flanker to the right and Fournette again in the I behind the fullback.

This is the signature running play in Baton Rouge, as a power pitch gets the ball in the hands of the back as quickly as possible so he can scan for daylight — doesn’t matter if it’s behind the center or outside the tackle — before hitting the accelerator.

All the scuttlebutt before this game suggested that the Crimson Tide would stack the box with eight or nine defenders. However, on this snap, Alabama’s front seven canceled out the Tigers’ seven designated blockers: five linemen, a tight end and a fullback.

Fournette turned away from the middle immediately and tried to find some room off tackle, but Humphrey greeted him untouched like a heat-seeking missile once again.

Of the five plays illustrated here, Alabama never had more than seven men in the box and one time had as few as five.

Shotgun formation, read-option stretch

The Bayou Bengals came out in 11 personnel with a tight end on the left side, a split end to the right, a flanker to the left, a third receiver slot right and Fournette next to Harris in the shotgun.

LSU’s calls got more creative in the second half, highlighted by this read-option that could have given the ball to Fournette around right end or let Harris keep it around left end.

Handing off to Fournette was a justifiable decision, as LSU’s guard and tackle on the right side were matched up man to man with Alabama’s tackle and end on the left side — leaving Fournette one on one with a linebacker is a matchup the Tigers will take all day.

The center and left guard pulled around left end in case Harris wanted to keep it.

But watch William Clapp (No. 64) and Vadal Alexander (No. 74) get driven three yards into the backfield by the left side of the Tide defensive line. Fournette never got his chance to make Reuben Foster (No. 10) miss in space. Instead, he ran up the backs of his own blockers and was a sitting duck by the time Foster arrived.

Pistol formation, stretch right

LSU broke out a four-wide look with a split end to the right, three more receivers in trips formation to the left and Fournette directly behind Harris in the shotgun.

The Tigers got a five-man box from Alabama with this formation — well, maybe five-and-a-half since Ragland (No. 19) lined up in the slot as a hybrid linebacker/dime back.

A’Shawn Robinson (No. 86) probably deserved an assisted tackle from his left defensive end position, as he turned Fournette inside while being blocked soundly by Alexander. The blocking on this play really wasn’t that bad, but all three levels of the Alabama defense raced to the football.

Even for an elite player like Fournette, there were too many crimson-and-white uniforms to avoid.

The best the LSU offensive line could do was a stalemate at the line of scrimmage, which meant no blockers were getting to the second level of the defense.

Don’t cast your ballot just yet

Luckily for Fournette, he can still win the Heisman Trophy because he won’t face a defense as talented, as well coached or as motivated as Alabama’s the rest of this season.

“It shows that when we do our job and everybody runs to the ball, we do a great job,” Ragland said. “We’re a tough team to be beat when we do our job.”

The Tide have a chance to ruin another Heisman campaign this coming Saturday in Starkville, as Mississippi State quarterback Dak Prescott has been awfully hot lately, too.

John Crist

John Crist is an award-winning contributor to Saturday Down South.