LSU went into Saturday night with a real chance to make a statement at home against No. 5 Alabama.
For a while, it looked like the Tigers might keep it tight. By the end, though, the Crimson Tide had taken over the game and left Baton Rouge with a 31-13 win, handing LSU its third loss of the season.
The most obvious issue for LSU was the run game. Head coach Lane Kiffin has made it clear that his offense works best when it can lean on the ground attack and open everything else up from there.
Dilin Jones had been rolling over the previous few games, but Alabama shut that down for most of the night. Jones finished with 17 carries for 56 yards and a touchdown, and he still helped as a receiver with seven catches for 36 yards, hauling in every target.
Even so, the lack of consistent rushing success made it harder for LSU to get anything going on offense.
That problem fed into another familiar issue: finishing drives. LSU had started to look like it had solved that earlier in the season after struggling badly in the first half of the year, but those old frustrations came back against Alabama.
The Tigers turned the ball over on downs three times in Alabama territory, including twice inside the 10-yard line, and also threw an interception on the Crimson Tide’s side of the field. Instead of cashing in and putting pressure on Alabama, LSU kept leaving points on the table and spent the night trying to chase the game.
Alabama also made LSU pay with explosive plays. The Tigers’ defense did enough at times to suggest the final margin was a little harsh, but the big gains were too much to absorb.
The Crimson Tide hit on seven chunk plays, including four completions of 20 yards or more. One of those went for 57 yards right after LSU’s first touchdown, and that play wiped out any momentum the Tigers had built.
Even in the loss, Jackson Harris kept showing why he’s become the centerpiece of the passing game. LSU brought in several new receivers this offseason, but Harris has been the one driving the offense over the last few weeks, and that continued here. He led the Tigers with 11 catches, 166 yards, and 18 targets, putting together another huge workload and backing it up with production.
Leavitt also looked different than he had earlier in the season. Because of a lingering lower-body injury, he hasn’t been running as much over the past few weeks as he did in the first three games, when he was regularly getting into double-digit rushing attempts.
Since then, he had only one other game with that kind of volume before this one. Against Alabama, he went back to using his legs more often, finishing with X rushing attempts.
It didn’t hurt his passing numbers, but there were moments when he tucked the ball sooner than usual instead of waiting that extra half-second to throw.
In Other News...
LSUs Alabama Loss Exposed One Offensive Problem Fans Cant Ignore
LSUs loss to Alabama did more than sting in the standings. It also came with a harsh grading snapshot from Pro Football Focus, which handed the Tigers their lowest offensive and defensive marks since earlier defeats this season. For a team still trying to find consistency on that side of the ball, the numbers reinforced what the eye test suggested on a difficult night.
Among the individual evaluations, Jackson Harris came away with LSUs top offensive grade, while Braelin Moore drew one of the lowest marks for pass blocking. Those kinds of splits matter because they point to where the Tigers were getting solid work and where the protection issues kept showing up. For LSU, the bigger concern is not just the result itself, but how clearly the grading exposed the same offensive problem fans have been watching all season. [Read more 🡒]
LSU Playoff Hopes Took A Brutal Hit For One Frustrating Reason
LSUs playoff path took a major blow in Tuscaloosa, where the Tigers left with a 31-13 loss to Alabama despite moving the ball well for long stretches. The numbers on the stat sheet were not the problem so much as what happened when LSU got close to the goal line. The Tigers piled up more than 450 yards of offense and controlled possession, but drives kept dying in the red zone, and missed field goals plus turnovers turned promising possessions into empty ones.
Alabama made LSU pay for every mistake, with quarterback Keelon Russell delivering a sharp performance by completing 17 of 24 passes for 206 yards and three touchdowns. LSUs offense also had to deal with steady pressure and a rushing attack that never really took hold, which made the red-zone failures even more costly. For a team trying to stay in the College Football Playoff conversation, it was the kind of frustrating loss that lingers because the production was there, but the finishing touch was not. [Read more 🡒]
LSU Just Suffered Another Alabama Gut Punch At Home
LSU spent much of the night doing enough to stay in the game on paper, but not enough where it mattered most, and Alabama left Tiger Stadium with another familiar result in a place that has become increasingly unfriendly to the Tigers. The Crimson Tide won 31-13, extending a run that has seen them take seven of their last eight trips to Baton Rouge, even though LSU actually outgained Alabama in total yards.
The frustration for LSU came from missed chances that piled up as the game went on, including failed fourth-down tries and a missed field goal that kept points off the board when the Tigers needed them most. Afterward, Lane Kiffin said the loss has to be put behind them, but for LSU the bigger issue is harder to ignore: against Alabama, the margin keeps getting decided by execution, not effort. [Read more 🡒]