The scene in Baton Rouge was unbelievable.
Fans stormed the field for the second time in three weeks, and this time for an even better reason while celebrating LSU’s 32-31 win over the Alabama Crimson Tide. The Tigers came in as heavy underdogs but looked like the better team all night.
They overcame some questionable calls and found themselves on 2-point conversion away from a win – all they had to do was go for it. That’s exactly what they did, with Jayden Daniels connecting with freshman TE Mason Taylor for the walk-off win.
We saw players emerge throughout the night on both sides of the field. Reigning Heisman winner Bryce Young wasn’t going to go down without a fight.
We also saw two freshmen in Harold Perkins and Taylor make huge plays all night. It was a wild second half at Tiger Stadium.
We’ll break down all the plays and players that stood out in this week’s good, bad and ugly.
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THE GOOD: LSU freshmen
Two stars of the game were mentioned just above, and they each had a significant impact on their respective side of the ball. Perkins’ ability to contain and pressure Alabama’s star QB led to several inaccurate throws and negative plays.
Perkins led the team with three hits on the quarterback. The LB finished with eight total tackles, 1 sack and 1 pass breakup. His ability to get to Young was a major reason why the Tide had only scratched together 6 points at halftime.
The other star on the field was Taylor. The big TE’s big catch in the fourth quarter gave the Tigers the lead momentarily, with Alabama driving for the field goal to send the game to OT. It was his tumbling catch into the corner of the endzone in OT that sealed the win. Both were impressive moments for a player who received a fair bit of hype from Tigers head coach Brian Kelly in the preseason.
Kelly had talked about using his tight ends in this game to help slow Alabama’s vaunted pass rush and it paid off. Taylor finished the game with three catches for 36 yards and a touchdown.
MORE GOOD: Jayden Daniels
Each week the LSU quarterback continues to get better and better. He also continues to land on my good list. The numbers don’t jump off the page this week, but he found the endzone in overtime – the first play of the drive – before tossing the game-winning conversion.
Daniels was limited early in the game with his rushing but still finished with 95 yards, a good chunk of which came on the Tigers’ final two possessions. He’ll continue to pad his stats as the best mobile QB LSU has seen in the purple and gold. He’s already set most of the QB rushing records and he’s simply distancing himself from the pack now. Daniels was efficient in the air and went 22 for 32 for 182 yards and two touchdowns. He has turned the ball over just once this season.
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THE BAD: putting Alabama away
As crazy as it is to say, the Tigers had plenty of opportunities to win this game. Bryce Young and the Tide offense kept the game alive. It was more of bend-but-don’t-break defense tonight as Bama’s first three scores were for 3 instead of 6.
Overall the defense did a good job slowing down Young, despite his gaudy line of 328 yards passing and a touchdown. As usual when the officiating gets involved between LSU and Alabama you can usually expect the same results.
Alabama was able to turn an early fumble (yes, their own fumble) before halftime into three points. Now the play and ruling will be up for debate after the game, but it was clear the ball was fumbled and recovered for a split second by the LSU defender. The refs decided otherwise on review.
Also, as the Tide was driving to tie up the game before overtime, LSU was called for pass interference on a pass that may or may not have been tipped. It looked on replay that it could have been deflected, but leaving up to the SEC officials is never what you want in this rivalry. Just ask Patrick Peterson about 2009.
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THE UGLY: SEC Officials
Coach Brian Kelly probably did more talking to the referees tonight than he did to his own football team. The Tigers did come out with the victory, but fans will likely still be talking about the two calls that left LSU fans dumbfounded.
I could bash the officials some more, but I’ll leave that up for the callers on SportsTalk this week.
The Tigers are now alone in first place of the SEC West standings, holding tiebreakers over both Ole Miss and Alabama. They’ll need to win next week at Arkansas and have the Tide take down Ole Miss to almost certainly lock up a spot in Atlanta for the SEC Championship game.