For at least another year, Alabama’s mastery over LSU will persist. The next time the Tide and Tigers meet, we’ll be closing in on five years since the last LSU victory in the series, and Saturday’s showing will be a hard one to stomach until that time.
Alabama seized control early, held off Tiger mini-rallies in the second and fourth quarters, and walked away with a 30-16 win, not to mention sole possession of first place in the SEC West, thanks to Arkansas’ win over Ole Miss earlier in the day.
5 TAKEAWAYS
- LSU was ill-prepared for a game of this magnitude against a team of Alabama’s caliber: Les Miles admitted as much after the game. Whether the coaching staff could’ve done anything to make an appreciable difference is debatable. When a team is beaten as soundly as the Tigers were Saturday, there’s always room for justifiable second-guessing. But the immutable fact that the team’s starting quarterback hasn’t played in a big game on the road this season isn’t something that can necessarily be fixed via game plan. Sometimes players have to take some lumps; the best LSU can hope for is that the Tigers will takes some lessons from the loss.
- Brandon Harris is talented, but inconsistency is a big problem: It was not Harris’ best game, to put it bluntly. The Alabama defense deserves credit for that. They consistently brought and achieved pressure without compromising their coverage on the back end. But the erratic accuracy issues that have plagued Harris throughout the season were present in a big way in Tuscaloosa. On the few occasions that Harris had time and a reasonably open target, he missed more often than not.
- Leonard Fournette can’t do it alone: Fournette’s elite talent is well-established, but this weekend we learned about its limitations. The (former?) Heisman frontrunner was utterly ineffective against Alabama’s highly regarded front seven, which whipped LSU’s offensive line from whistle to whistle.
- Special teams: It’s just one other aspect of the game in which Alabama had the advantage, and those awful kickoffs in the first half can be explained partly by swirling winds in the stadium. Still, we’re two-thirds of the way through the season and the Tigers have yet to figure out a way to prevent teams from starting drives outside their own 30-yard line. It arguably cost LSU three points before the half Saturday, when a second kickoff skittered out of bounds and favorable field position opened up the possibility of a long field goal.
- The Tigers must shake this loss off quickly: Last year LSU suffered a disappointing loss to Alabama and prolonged the misery with an ugly game at Arkansas. The Hogs come to Baton Rouge this year, but they’ll be riding high after winning four of five, including Saturday’s improbable overtime win over Ole Miss.
REPORT CARD
Offense: (F) — There’s no way to sugarcoat what happened here because the Tigers were dominated. It started up front and went south from there. Fournette finished with 31 yards on 19 carries and Harris completed just 6 of 19 passes as LSU totaled just 182 yards of offense.
Defense: (C-minus) — The Tigers fought gamely, but were eventually beaten down by a physical Alabama attack. The Tide had 78 of their 434 total yards on the final drive, during which it killed the final 9:18 off the clock.
Special Teams: (D) — Trent Domingue drilling another field goal is the only thing saving this grade from being an F.
Coaching: (D) — LSU wasn’t ready or able to do what was needed to beat a top-shelf team in a hostile environment..
Overall: (D) — It wasn’t a total embarrassment, but it’s understandable if some Tigers fans feel that way less than 24 hours later. The Tigers looked overmatched in every phase, a phenomenon that only worsened as the game went on.
GAME PLAN
It’s understandable that the Tigers wanted to at least test the Alabama front seven early, but it shouldn’t have taken so long to realize that lining up in the I-formation and trying to plow through the Tide was a losing proposition. It may not have made a difference given the offensive line’s inability to get a push or protect the quarterback, but mixing in more variations of the zone-read game seems like it might’ve been a worthwhile use of practice time after the relative success Tennessee had with its option runs against Alabama.
GAME BALLS
- S Jamal Adams: The sophomore safety had 10 tackles (all solo) and seemed to single-handedly keep the Tigers in the game in the early stages with numerous stops to prevent big gains.
- LB Kendell Beckwith: Led the team with 11 tackles (8 solo).
- K Trent Domingue: Knocked home a 39-yarder and has now made all 10 of his field goal attempts this year.
- That’s it: You know your options are limited with the kicker gets the No. 3 spot.
INJURY UPDATE
- FB John David Moore (leg) played, but left the game after a first-half injury and did not return.
- TE Dillon Gordon (Achilles) did not dress out.
Brent Holloway is a contributing writer for Saturday Down South. He covers Georgia, LSU and Mississippi State.
