If you read only the stat sheet, LSU won on Saturday night. The Tigers gained 457 yards to Alabama’s 285. They picked up 27 first downs to Alabama’s 13. They moved the ball up and down Tiger Stadium all night. Then you look at the scoreboard: Alabama 31, LSU 13. The box score lied, and the last 20 yards of the field told the truth.
457 yards and almost nothing to show for it
LSU quarterback Sam Leavitt completed 35 of 47 passes for 380 yards. His top target, Jackson Harris, caught 11 passes for 166 yards, and Trey’Dez Green added 10 catches for 85 yards. LSU ran more than 40 plays on Alabama’s side of the 50-yard line, and five of its ten drives covered at least 53 yards. It was the kind of offensive output that wins almost any other game on the schedule. By every normal measure, the Tigers’ offense worked.
Except the one that counts. Leavitt did not throw a single touchdown pass. All that yardage added up to one rushing touchdown, two field goals and a long list of drives that died at the worst possible moment. Alabama’s defense gave up ground in the middle of the field and then turned into a wall near its own goal line.
Fourth down and the red zone decided it
The game turned on the plays LSU did not make. The Tigers went 0 for 4 on fourth down, including a fourth-down stop inside the Alabama 10-yard line. Four trips into the red zone produced just 10 points. Alabama, meanwhile, scored on all three of its red-zone trips, which is how a team wins by 18 while gaining 172 fewer yards.
LSU coach Lane Kiffin needed only one sentence to explain it. “It comes down to the red zone and fourth downs,” he said after the game, pointing at the 457-285 yardage line his team had just wasted. “We didn’t make any.”
Russell kept answering
For a few minutes in the third quarter, it looked like LSU would get away with its mistakes. Dilin Jones capped a 90-yard drive with a 5-yard touchdown run, and the Tigers led 13-10, their only lead of the night. It lasted barely two minutes. On the first play of Alabama’s answer, Keelon Russell found Rico Scott for a 57-yard catch and run, and four plays later Russell hit Josh Ford for a 7-yard touchdown and a 17-13 lead.
Russell did all of it on a bad ankle. He had gone into the injury tent in the second half, and backup Austin Mack had started to warm up. Russell came back with his left ankle heavily taped and threw all three of his touchdown passes after LSU took the lead. A 32-yard punt return by Ryan Coleman-Williams set up his 25-yard strike to Cederian Morgan, and a late fourth-down stop at the LSU 18 set up his 4-yard throw to Kaleb Edwards. His final line: 17 of 24, 206 yards, three touchdowns, no turnovers. Alabama scored the game’s final 21 points.
What it means for the playoff race
Alabama (7-2, 5-2 SEC) stays firmly in the College Football Playoff picture, the Associated Press reported, and the Crimson Tide have now won seven of their last eight games at Tiger Stadium. LSU (6-3, 3-3) is left with long-shot hopes at best, and Kiffin fell to 0-6 against Alabama in his coaching career, counting his stops at Tennessee and Ole Miss. The game was one of the seven ranked matchups in our Saturday college football viewing guide, and it delivered the strangest stat line of the day. Follow the rest of the playoff race in our Sports coverage.
Sources: Associated Press game recap; sportradar box score and team statistics; USA Today; Field Level Media; Bleacher Report.