LSU Grades

Our correspondent in the Faculty Lounge points out that nobody beats Alabama except Alabama. It is certainly true that Alabama made a generous contribution to LSU’s 46-41 victory before a capacity crowd at Bryant-Denny Stadium yesterday. With awful play in every phase of the game, the Tide put itself in a 20 point hole at half-time, and did not play well enough on defense in the second half to climb out and win.

In case someone who attended the game wants to comment on it, I think that last sentence might fit into a tweet.

Readers of this blog will know that I am a “glass half full” sort of person. I agree with Coach Saban that a loss is an opportunity to learn and improve. In order to do that, one must first look objectively at what went wrong. Identifying problems with the Tide’s play in the first half is like hunting on a baited field; there were more errors than I can mention. So, let’s just look at the more costly:

The offense turned the ball over with a lost fumble, and an interception, both of which resulted in touchdowns. Special teams “failed to execute” a punt and turned the ball over on downs; LSU kicked a field goal. The defense surrendered first half touchdown drives of 92, 75, and 61 yards. The coaches made their contribution as well; a take-away interception that would have ended LSU’s second drive was nullified by a substitution penalty. The drive resulted in a successful field goal. 

In all, miscues led directly to 16 LSU points, and Tua’s fumble at the LSU 5 yard line on the game’s opening drive squandered at least a chance at 3 Tide points. When you play that badly in the first half, to end up losing by only 5 is remarkable. Lesser teams would have packed it in after surrendering 14 points in the last 30 seconds of the second quarter; not the Tide.

LSU’s opening drive of the second half ended with a lost fumble. The Tide was forced to punt. Both teams exchanged punts, then Alabama changed the game with a 10 play, 95 touchdown drive. The defense forced another punt, Bama drove 78 yards on 9 plays for another TD and 00:27 into the final stanza the LSU lead had been cut to six.

Neither team punted in the 4th quarter. The Tide defense allowed LSU to drive 75 yards in 12 plays, followed by another 75 yards in 7 plays, each for touchdowns. The defense had LSU in 3rd down and 10 and 3^rd down and 5 during the first drive, but could not contain Joe Burrow and LSU’s bruising running back, Ed.-Helaire. Tua and the offense answered each LSU score with a touchdown. The defense stopped an attempted two-point conversion, so the final margin was only 5 points.

Because I try to implement my own piece of The Process, here is how I grade the game:

Offense:          C+       The Tide offense gained 541 yards of total offense (123 net rushing), made 22 first downs, converted only 6 of 15 third downs, but did convert 3 of 5 4th downs (the botched punt attempt is counted as a 4th down conversion failure), and held the ball for 25:26 of game time.

Tua completed only 21 of 40 pass attempts, but completed passes accounted for 418 yards and 4 TDs. He was intercepted once and lost a fumble at the LSU 5 yard line.

Najee Harris was the difference-maker on offense. He gained 146 net yards rushing and scored a rushing TD. He also caught 3 passes for 44 yards and a touchdown.  Najee ran the ball with guts and determination. He is a fierce competitor.

DeVonta Smith was Alabama’s leading receiver with 213 yards on 7 receptions. His longest reception was an 85 yard touchdown catch in the game’s final minutes. Jerry Jeudy made 5 catches for 71 yards and a TD, Henry Ruggs, III, Najee, and Jaylen Waddle each had three receptions.    

The offense had six drives that gained 40 or more yards [63, 90, 95, 78, 75, 85]. Four of those drives came in the second half. Each drive ended in a touchdown, except the first which ended with Tua’s fumble inside the Tiger 10 yard line. Four Alabama possessions ended with turnovers [fumble, downs, downs, interception], however the first turnover on downs was committed by the punt team.

Again, it is impossible to say too much about what a great player Najee Harris is. He was the offensive workhorse of the second half. It is also impossible to say too much about what a great competitor Tua is. He played through adversity with grit and determination. He got better as the game progressed and his last play from scrimmage was an 85 yard touchdown strike to DeVonta Smith that gave his team the chance to win if he could get the ball back. There is no doubt in my mind that if Alabama had recovered the on-side kick, all of America would be talking about how the Tide came back to win.

Defense:           F               Yes, it’s true the defense made 5 sacks, forced a fumble [Xavier McKinney] and recovered the loose ball [Terrell Lewis], hurried Joe Burow 7 times, and stopped a two point conversion attempt. But that was simply not enough, and the Stop Troops failed to stop LSU in the 4^th quarter when the Offense was in a position to win the game.

LSU gashed the Bama defense for 559 total yards, that netted 29 first downs. The Tigers converted 8 of 15 third down attempts.

Xavier McKinney was the leading tackler with 13 stops [9 solo]. Jaren Mayden recorded 11 tackles [4 solo], and Treyvon Diggs was credited with 10 tackles [5 solo].

Special Teams:

Punting:                       F          Ty Perine punted the ball 3 times for an average of 48.7. Two of his punts sailed more than 50 yards. So why the failing grade?  Bama attempted 4 punting plays. The punter only kicked the ball 3 times. The return game, gets an A+ for Jaylen Waddle’s 77 yard touchdown return.

Place kicking:                 F          Joe Bulovas missed a PAT.

Kickoffs:                     A         Joe Bulovas averaged 43.2 yards per kick, but most of his kicks had enough hang time that the LSU returner was forced to call for a fair catch. The Tide kick return game executed 5 returns, 4 of which gained plus yardage beyond the 25 yard line.

Coaching:                    D         Alabama was penalized for a substitution infraction that reversed an interception on a drive that led to LSU scoring points. The participation reports lists 49 players who saw action in the game. It’s hard to give the coaches any grade higher than the average of how the players grade out. Special consideration however must be given to the second half performance to cut the deficit to 5 points.

If you didn’t care who won, this was a highly entertaining football game. Because readers of this blog care deeply who wins when Alabama plays, this loss is a great disappointment. LSU is an excellent football team. Alabama did not play to Alabama’s standard. The SEC West Championship is now only a remote mathematical possibility; with the tiebreaker over Bama, LSU only must beat two of Ole MIss, Arkansas, and Texas A&M to claim the West’s spot in the SEC CG. Whether Alabama played itself out of the CFB Playoffs in the first half, or played itself back into the mix in the second half remains to be seen.

Number 4 Penn State lost to 17^th ranked Minnesota 31-26. Number 9 Oklahoma struggled to a one point win over 5-4 Iowa State. Top ranked Ohio State crushed Maryland 73-14 while number 5 Clemson whipped NC State 55-10. Georgia beat Missouri 27-0 on the same day South Carolina-UGA’s only loss this year-fell to Appalachian State!

If I was doing the CFB Playoff rankings, this week’s line up would be:

1                    LSU

2                    Ohio State

3                    Clemson

4                    Alabama

5                    Georgia

6                    Penn State

7                    Oklahoma

8                    Florida

9                    Baylor

10                Wisconsin

But I’m not doing the rankings. This is just my opinion what they should be for this week.

Ohio State and Penn State still have to play each other. Wisconsin may yet play a spoiler role. Georgia will lose to LSU in the SEC CG. Clemson will not play anyone capable of beating them until the playoffs. So, Alabama is vying for the number 4 spot. Maybe outplaying LSU in the second half will have some cache with the selection committee. Who knows?

What is certain, is none of this matters if Alabama does not win out. The margin for error is 0.0 and the most important game of the season so far is this coming Saturday against Mississippi State. Those obnoxious bell ringers have been spoilers before. They would like nothing better than to be so again.

I agree with the Professor; nobody beats Alabama without Alabama helping. The Road to 18 is starting to look like a narrow country lane barley one-car wide, and there is two-way traffic.

Buckle up.

And Roll Tide, Y’all.

The Commissioner  

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