GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
LSU showcased a live Tiger on the field at Tiger Stadium Saturday night.
Then it got mauled by Alabama, 42-13, to fall out of College Football Playoff contention as LSU coach Brian Kelly suffered the worst loss of his three-season LSU career. It was also LSU’s most lopsided loss to Alabama since a 55-17 defeat in 2020.
No. 15 LSU (6-3, 3-2 Southeastern Conference) will not make the playoffs for the fifth straight year, even though the CFP was increased to 12 teams from four for this year. The No. 11 Crimson Tide (7-2, 4-2 SEC) will surely make the field should it win out against FCS Mercer and struggling Oklahoma and Auburn.
If the Tigers win out and win a bowl, they will finish 10-3 and 6-2 for the third straight time under Kelly, who was hired at $10 million a year from Notre Dame amid one of the richest contracts in college football … to win a national championship. That looked a long way away on this dank, dreary, rainy night that started with an impressive light show, jets fly-by and a rented live Tiger on display before the game.
Then LSU looked like a minor bowl team from the outset as Alabama took a 21-6 lead at the half.
The Tide drove 75 yards in eight plays with the opening kickoff to take a 7-0 lead on a 39-yard run through the middle by quarterback Jalen Milroe. He immediately showed that LSU’s defense still didn’t know how to stop the simplest of football plays – the quarterback keeper – as displayed in the 38-23 loss at Texas A&M two weeks ago. LSU’s defense appeared to learn nothing in the open week and got even worse.
Milroe finished with a career-high 185 rushing yards on 12 carries and four touchdowns, including a 72-yard jaunt for a 35-6 lead early in the fourth quarter. He completed 12 of 18 passes for another 109 yards., duplicating his game last year against the Tigers when he rushed for a then-career-high 155 yards on 20 carries and four touchdowns and passed for 219. The LSU defensive coordinator that night, Matt House, was replaced by Blake Baker after last season.
But as far as Milroe was concerned, it was meet the new boss – same as the old boss.
And Milroe made it look so easy – embarrassingly so for the Tigers. His 72-yard touchdown came after a simple stutter step fake as if he was going to drop back and pass. Then he just took off through the heart of LSU’s defense, and no one was there.
Milroe had 98 yards on eight carries in the first half with two touchdowns and 10 completions in 15 attempts for another 97.
One could say meet the new boss, same as the old boss about first-year Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer, who continued the Tide’s mastery over LSU that just-retired coach Nick Saban started with a 21-0 win in the national championship game in the 2011 season. The Tide beat LSU for the 12th time of the last 14 games, starting with that shutout in New Orleans. Alabama won for the sixth time of the last seven in Tiger Stadium, too, with the only loss in overtime in 2022.
Milroe’s counterpart, LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier, continued to regress and turn the ball over deep in his own territory and when his team was nearing a TD. He finished 26 of 41 for 227 yards with two interceptions and a critical fumble. His only touchdown was a meaningless one of 12 yards to wide receiver Kyren Lacy with :11 left for the final score.
The Tigers were still in the game, trailing 14-6, in the second quarter on two Damian Ramos field goals, and LSU’s defense had just forced its first punt. The Tigers took over on their 40 with 3:30 to play in the first half, and they would be receiving the second half kickoff.
But Nussmeier took an 8-yard sack and fumbled at his 32-yard line. Alabama defensive tackle Tim Smith recovered. Milroe immediately broke a 22-yard run. After an incomplete pass, he rushed left again for a 10-yard touchdown and 21-6 lead with 2:35 left in the second quarter.
LSU still had a chance to go into the half with a score. But its offense seemed to play as if it was in the lead and could muster only 33 yards in 10 plays and sluggishly did not get into field goal range.
The Tigers drove 71 yards in 14 plays with the second half kickoff to a 1st-and-Goal at the Alabama 5-yard line and was on the verge of cutting Alabama’s lead to 21-13. But one play later, Nussmeier threw perfectly to the end zone to linebacker Deontae Lawson, who intercepted it. An LSU receiver was behind Lawson, but he was covered closely and Nussmeier’s throw would have been behind him. And Nussmeier was not about to get sacked either.
Lawson plays the position of Stinger in Alabama’s defense, and LSU never recovered from that bite.
It wasn’t over, but it was over.
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