LSU’s yardage numbers can fool you. The Tigers have moved the ball well enough to sit near the top of the SEC in offensive and defensive production, but the real problem has been lurking where games get decided: inside the 20.
That weakness showed up in plain view Saturday night, when Alabama left Tiger Stadium with a 31-13 win despite being outgained by 172 yards and trailing LSU by 14 first downs. The difference was execution in the red zone.
Alabama scored on all three of its trips inside LSU’s 20-yard line. LSU reached the red zone four times and came away with only a touchdown, a field goal and two turnovers on downs.
It was the kind of result that made coach Lane Kiffin’s earlier warning look even sharper. Before LSU’s loss to Kentucky in October, he had already noticed a mismatch between the Tigers’ yardage totals and their scoring output.
“Man, we do really good things,” he said Oct. 12, “and then we don’t finish drives on both sides of the ball well enough.”
That concern has followed LSU all season, and now it sits right in front of the Tigers as they prepare for a must-win home game against Texas at 6:30 p.m. Saturday on ABC. If LSU wants to keep whatever remains of its College Football Playoff hopes alive, the red zone has to get better.
“On both sides,” Kiffin said, “offense and defense, we played really poorly in the red zone.”
The overall numbers are decent enough at first glance. LSU’s offense has scored touchdowns on 67% of its red-zone trips, which ranks 44th nationally and seventh in the SEC. On defense, the Tigers have allowed touchdowns on 56% of opponent red-zone possessions, placing them 49th in the country and ninth in the conference.
But the Alabama game drags those totals down. Strip that one out, and LSU’s red-zone work against other power-conference opponents looks much cleaner.
In six such games, the offense scored touchdowns on 18 of 26 red-zone drives, a 69% rate. Defensively, LSU kept opponents out of the end zone on nine of the 18 possessions that reached the 20, a 50% clip.
The bigger issue shows up when LSU gets even closer. On drives against power-conference opponents that reached the 10-yard line, the Tigers have scored touchdowns on just 13 of 23 possessions.
That’s where the offense has bogged down against Ole Miss, Kentucky and Alabama. LSU stalled inside the 10 twice against Ole Miss, twice against Kentucky and three times against Alabama.
Against the Tide, those failures mattered immediately. Alabama forced LSU into a field goal and a turnover on downs on two of its first three drives. Kiffin said those possessions could have changed the shape of the night.
“They took the bye,” Kiffin said, “and did a lot of things in different ways that they had never done. Really, things that normally we pick up on and come to, they had a really good plan for, and they executed really well.”
“The little bit we tried to run the ball fringe red zone, we weren’t very good, which made us kind of one-dimensional with the rush down there also.”
Kiffin had already pointed to the speed of the red zone as part of the problem. On Oct. 12, he said LSU had run into trouble because “things happen fast in the red zone.” He said quarterback Sam Leavitt had done some “really good things” inside the 20, but had also “missed a couple guys,” partly because defenses were forcing him to “go really fast.”
“So, he’s just gotta get better,” Kiffin said.
The run game has not helped enough lately, either. LSU’s backs managed only 61 yards on 18 carries against Alabama, and the ground production has dipped sharply over the last month. The Tigers averaged 238 rushing yards per game in their first five games, then fell to 106 per game over their last four.
“A lot of times we’re just missing plays,” Kiffin said on Oct. 12. “I know that sounds really general.”
But in the red zone, a missed block or an open receiver left untouched is enough to turn a solid drive into an empty one.
“So, it’s a problem,” Kiffin said.
And it’s one LSU has to solve fast if it wants to beat Texas.
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Umanmielens attorney is arguing the damages sought are unreasonable and that he may not have had the legal capacity to enter the contract in the first place. Ole Miss has also filed a similar suit against former Rebel Devin Harper, while LSU has taken the position that it is not on the hook for either buyout because it was not a party to the contracts. For LSU, the issue is less about the roster fit than the backdrop around one of its newest pass rushers, and it is still unclear how far this fight will go before it is sorted out. [Read more 🡒]