The Alabama stand came after an all-out blitz forced Johnson to get rid of a pass to Jack Bech off of his back foot on fourth-and-9 to protect the six-point lead with to play.
Robinson managed just 18 yards on 13 carries, but did score one touchdown that tied the game at seven in the first quarter. The team as a whole gained just 49 sack-adjusted rushing yards -- an average of 2. Young was able to shoulder the load despite the running game's struggles, however.
The redshirt sophomore completed 24 of 27 passes for yards and two touchdowns, one of which came with 48 seconds of the first half to give the Tide a lead. That touchdown came five plays after Jayln Armour-Davis picked off Johnson to give the ball to the Tide at the LSU yard line -- a play that gave Alabama momentum for the first time in what was a sleep first half. Johnson finished the day 16 of 32 for yards with two touchdowns and one interception in the losing effort.
Believe it or not, there are bright spots to take away from this game if you're head coach Nick Saban. Linebacker Will Anderson, Jr. The redshirt sophomore had 12 tackles, four for loss, 1.
Anderson did so at key times, especially early in the fourth quarter when he notched two tackles and two quarterback hurries -- including one on fourth-and-7 on the Alabama 7-yard line with to play -- to thwart LSU's last legitimate chance at the win. It's not the first time Anderson has shined on the national stage, either. He had 2. Young was, of course, the other bright spot. The redshirt sophomore was able to top the yard mark through the air despite the lack of help from his running game and offensive line.
Simply put, the deficiencies up front and on the ground have put a ton of pressure on the first-year starter all year, and he still finds a way to get the job done. Just wait until offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien fixes the Tide's issues. We currently live in a world where the bigger, faster and stronger Alabama offensive line looks like a middle-tier FBS line than one that is supposed to dominate.
Don't get me wrong, Robinson and the other running backs have to do better as well, but they aren't getting any help. This has become an alarming trend for the Crimson Tide. They've rushed for under 5 yards per carry in each of the last five games, three of which rank in the bottom half of the conference in rushing defense. It's one thing to sleep walk against lesser competition. But this is to a point where it's fair to call the rushing offense below average by normal standards, not just the elevated Crimson Tide standard.
The inability to run the football is what makes Alabama a national title pretender as opposed to a contender. A round of applause for LSU's players. The future is in doubt with the coaching change on the horizon, but instead of 85 players going in 85 directions, coach Ed Orgeron has found a way to keep his team motivated down the stretch.
All it took on Saturday night was a little juice. Punter Avery Atkins pulled up on a fake run up the middle and found Jack Mashburn for a yard gain on the jump pass to keep the first drive of the game going. That's just great coaching from Orgeron. We were coming in this house to win the game, so I was having fun with it.
That's part of college football. Though LSU will still need to be smart in picking its spots, it certainly wouldn't be surprising to see some more trickery on special teams or maybe a few exotic plays on offense thrown in there over this final three week stretch.
Most importantly, Orgeron wants this Alabama game to be a blueprint for how LSU attacks every day for the next three weeks in terms of effort and intensity.
I told them next week for Arkansas, we've got to get ready. The LSU players were certainly put through a whirlwind season and keeping it close with Alabama is a point of momentum the returning players can carry into next season. Veteran defensive tackle Neil Farrell said it was the best LSU had performed all season on defense and really liked the blitzing package defensive scheme the Tigers rolled out.
For LSU quarterback Max Johnson, the close loss felt almost bittersweet as the Tigers proved with Saturday's performance they could hang with any team in the country on a given night, but that this season was just so full of inconsistent play on both sides of the ball. LSU will now be gearing up for an unranked Arkansas team that heads into this matchup losers of three of its last four SEC games.
I thought our defensive guys really, really got better during open date. I'm really proud of them. We should've won the game. Those guys played their hearts out. We came in this stadium like we were going to win the game. We were not intimidated.
We wanted to win the football game, we just came a little short. That wasn't going to happen. We were coming in this house to win the game, so I was having fun with it. That's part of college football. We knew were going to run the fake punt fourth-and-5 on the 50 if they were going to give us a certain defense. We called timeout and wanted to make sure everything was clear in what we were doing.
Give credit to Coach Mack for putting it in. Good call. We had the best week of practice. This was LSU-Alabama. I know we were going to play well the way we practiced.
We've got to play the last three games with the same fire and intensity. Same fire we had on defense and get better on defense.
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