The Alabama Crimson Tide came into Tiger Stadium Saturday night looking to revenge last year’s loss to the eventual national champions. The 2020 LSU Tigers stood no chance this time around as Alabama scored 55 points on the night, 45 of those coming by halftime.
The Tigers’ struggles on defense continued again for LSU defensive coordinator Bo Pelini’s unit, giving up 650 total yards. This performance may have been the nail in the coffin for Pelini’s future as defensive coordinator going forward with LSU, but he does have an expensive buy-out in his contract. Nonetheless Coach O will have some important decisions to make this off-season.
After scoring just one touchdown last week, the LSU offense looked much better this week. That alone wasn’t enough to keep the Tigers in the game, but you could see why players like TJ Finley and John Emery Jr were so highly recruited.
Good:
Speaking of those two LSU Tigers, Emery had a breakout game even in a blowout loss. Finley looked like a completely different quarterback than the one we saw last week in College Station.
Emery had a long run and gave the Tigers their second score of the night. LSU has struggled running the ball for the past few weeks, but Saturday night they were able to break long runs and keep the LSU offense balanced. Emery finished the night rushing for 79 yards on 7 carries.
Finley was benched last week after a poor performance against Texas A&M, but showed perseverance against the Tide early in the game. After some in-game adjustments, Alabama was able to limit Finley’s passing and shut down the LSU offense. The Tigers lone passing touchdown came from Finley in the 1st half, but that’s about all the Tide defense would allow. Backup QB Max Johnson finished the game in the 2nd half and the Tigers saw similar results.
Bad/Ugly:
There’s no middle ground this week, the Tigers’ performance on defense was not only bad, but downright awful. LSU had no answer for RB Najee Harris and may have given Alabama QB Mac Jones the Heisman Trophy.
Harris finished the night rushing for 145 yards, while Jones passed for 385 yards and four touchdowns. This amounted to the most points an LSU defense has given up against Alabama in their 85 meetings.
Saturday night was likely the lowest point on the field for the LSU program under Coach O. Tiger fans saw their nearly 7 million dollar defensive coordinator give up big plays repeatedly, which is par for the course this season.
Amite’s own Alabama WR Devonta Smith torched the LSU secondary, yet Pelini didn’t have his best cornerback Derek Stingley Jr cover him the entire game. Recruiting has yet to see any impacts, but seeing a Louisiana-born player for the Tide shine in Tiger Stadium can’t sit well with Orgeron.
While the season may be over in just a few weeks, it seemed as though the Tigers may have checked out after the game was out of reach in the 1st half. The coaching staff will have more challenges ahead, when they take on Florida QB Kyle Trask and the Florida Gators next week. While wins are what count in college football, seeing effort and competitiveness is what Tiger fans should be looking for in the two final weeks of the season.