GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
One of the greatest moments in NFL Films history is the late, great Vince Lombardi, coach of the Green Bay Packers, hollering on the sidelines, “What the hell’s going on out here?”
And another one in which Lombardi says, “Get your defense together, Phil,” to defensive coordinator Phil Bengston.
One couldn’t read LSU coach Brian Kelly’s lips accurately enough Saturday night when he was talking to his defensive coordinator, Blake Baker, during a 42-13 drubbing by Alabama at Tiger Stadium, but it was clearly something similar.
The difference is it keeps happening to LSU week after week and year after year, whether Baker is the defensive coordinator or Matt House, who was fired after last season.
Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe appeared at times to be playing a flag football game as he ran free and at times virtually untouched for a career-high 185 yards on just 12 carries for a 15.4-yard average with TD sprints of 72, 39, 19 and 10 yards, often flying by LSU linebacker Whit, or Whiff, Weeks.
And Milroe didn’t even need to use the run-pass option, known as RPOs. Against LSU, Milroe just used the run option. There were few fakes. He just ran.
And all that after LSU and Baker prepared for two weeks to stop a running quarterback since Texas A&M backup Marcel Reed rambled for 62 yards and three touchdowns on nine carries in a quarter and a half of the second half to beat the Tigers 38-23 on Oct. 26 in LSU’s last game.
“If you’re watching the game, you’re like, ‘What did these guys do for two weeks?,'” Kelly said after the game, echoing what LSU fans across the world were undoubtedly saying as Milroe mauled the Tigers run after run. So, get your defense together, Blake.
“Like, we have a scheme to stop the quarterback,” Kelly said, as if breaking news. “We did not get that done. So, I take responsibility for it. Blake is not going to hide from the responsibility. We have to put our players in the right position to take advantage of what they’re capable of doing.”
Kelly has said that before this season of his No. 15 team that has now dropped two straight and is out of the College Football Playoff at 6-3 overall and 3-2 in the Southeastern Conference.
“So, we own it together, and we’ve got to get it fixed, certainly,” Kelly said. “Because it’s been a couple weeks now.”
It’s also been a couple years. Milroe did nearly the exact same thing a year ago against LSU. In a 42-28 Alabama win over LSU last season that was also the Tigers’ third and season-killing loss, he rushed 20 times for a then-career-high 165 yards and another four touchdowns from 23, 21, 11 and 4 yards out. And he completed 15 of 23 passes for 219 yards. He completed 12 of 18 Saturday for 109 yards.
“I don’t have an answer,” LSU senior linebacker Greg Penn III said. “We’ve got to get better. I thought our game plan was really good for Milroe going in. But he just went out there and executed better than us.”
Asked what the game plan was, Penn was at a loss for words.
“It’s hard to really explain,” he said. “We just didn’t execute.”
It was Penn who said after the Texas A&M game that LSU couldn’t stop Reed because he was a surprise replacement for starter Conner Weigman. This time, LSU knew all along it would be Milroe.
“We just didn’t execute,” Penn said.
And it isn’t like Milroe has been running like this in previous games. He had not had a 100-yard rushing game since beating Georgia on Sept. 28. In his four games before LSU, he rushed for just 107 yards.
“I believe we sent the message to every team that Alabama can run the football,” Alabama left guard Tyler Booker said. “This is what we’re capable of every week. It does not matter who we’re playing.”
Well, that’s debatable. It’s definitely an LSU thing.
“We’ve got to get off the field on defense,” said Kelly, whose team allowed Alabama to convert 10 of 13 third downs. “And stop the running quarterback.”
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