Tag: LSU vs. Alabama

Week 10’s expert picks from the College Wire SEC editors

Does anyone dare take the Bayou Bengals at home?

It is “Championship Week” in the SEC, at least it could play out that way. The LSU Tigers and Georgia Bulldogs are hosting divisional foes in what could determine the SEC Championship game contenders.

It will start at 2:30 p.m. CT in Athens when the No. 1 Tennessee Volunteers travel to Sanford Stadium to take on the No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs. That evening the No. 6 Alabama Crimson Tide head to Death Valley to take on the No. 10 LSU Tigers from Tigers Stadium. The winners of each game will control their destiny to compete for the conference title in the SEC Championship game on Dec. 3.

There are still plenty of games left on the schedule but those could go a long way in determining the conference champion as well as College Football Playoff seeding.

The two early games feature the Kentucky Wildcats at the Missouri Tigers and the Florida Gators at the Texas A&M Aggies in the 11:00 a.m. CT slot. The lone nonconference game pits the Liberty Flames against the Arkansas Razorbacks at 3:00 p.m. CT.

The final two games kick off at 6:30 p.m. CT with South Carolina Gamecocks facing the Vanderbilt Commodores. The other contest has the Auburn Tigers traveling to face off with the Mississippi State Bulldogs in Stark Vegas. Auburn fired head coach Bryan Harsin on Monday and also hired Mississippi State AD John Cohen for the same job with the Tigers.

There is no shortage of intriguing storylines with this set of games on the docket. As usual, our SEC editorial team made their picks in each of the seven games on the Week 10 schedule.

Is it LSU’s time to take back over the SEC West or will Alabama continue to win the West?

LSU basketball has a lot on the line this week

It all begins in Tuscaloosa.

Will Wade and LSU dropped to 15-2 last Saturday after losing to Arkansas. It was a tough game where LSU just could not drum up enough offense to get the win.

That said, it’s a game LSU should have won against a team they should have beat. Xavier Pinson remained out with a knee injury, but LSU needed to overcome that at home.

It doesn’t get any easier from here. In fact, this is probably LSU’s toughest week of the regular season. It starts on Tuesday with a trip to face Alabama and concludes in Knoxville on Saturday against Tennessee.

Alabama and Tennessee aren’t world beaters. At the moment, each have their own share of issues. At the same time, each remain ranked in the top 20 by KenPom and playing on the road is never easy.

Alabama has lost three in a row. They will be desperate on Tuesday night when LSU comes to town. A loss would drop them to just 11-7 on the year and 2-4 in conference.

Unlike LSU, offense is not that much of a concern for Alabama. The Crimson Tide have still managed to score at least 76 points in those three losses. That’s a total LSU has only hit once in conference play.

If LSU comes out flat against a Alabama team that can score, LSU will lose this game. LSU’s defense will prevent challenges to Alabama that they haven’t faced yet, but that can only do so much.

LSU’s offense now sits outside the top 100 in KenPom. That’s not good for a team that wants to make a run into March. They need to improve and it needs to start this week.

The trip to Knoxville is a rematch with LSU beating Tennessee 79-67 on January 8th. A 12-point victory against a top 20 team is one of the stronger bullet points on LSU’s resume thus far.

Tennessee faces Vanderbilt on Tuesday as they try to erase the drubbing they took at the hands of Kentucky their last time out.

As seen last time they faced, LSU matches up well with Tennessee. LSU’s defense will be the best unit on the court and have a chance to minimize any inefficiencies presented by the offense. It’s still a contest where a win will be tough to come by.

There’s a real chance LSU goes 0-2 this week. Even a 1-1 split would help their resume more than hurt it. 2-0 would put LSU right back in the one seed conversation. There’s a lot at stake here.

These are the moments where good teams prove they are good. It’s an opportunity for LSU to not just get back on track, but really add to their resume and remain in the SEC title race.

A quartet of LSU football games named among top 100 of 2021

Which LSU games land on ESPN’s top 100 of 2021?

Four of the LSU Tigers games from the 2021 campaign made the list for the top 100 games of the season (subscription required). Not all of them are on the winning side of things.

No. 61: Auburn 24, LSU 19

Scott Clause-The Daily Advertiser/USA TODAY Sports

LSU came into the game at 3-1 and looking to continue their winning ways against Auburn in Death Valley. However, they had other ideas as the Purple and Gold forgot how to sack Bo Nix. He was able to get his team off the losing end in Baton Rouge for the first time this century.

What ESPN Says…

The Bo Nix game. Auburn won in Baton Rouge for the first time since 1999, thanks in part to … whatever this was.

No. 59: Alabama 20, LSU 14

Butch Dill-USA TODAY Sports

LSU came into the Alabama game reeling. Losers of three of the last four games and needing to get two wins in their final four to become bowl eligible. The defense came after Bryce Young, Orgeron called for fake punts to the backup tight end. They laid it all out on the line but failed to pull off the upset with multiple chances late in this game.

What ESPN Says…

Coming off of a bye week and playing with nothing to lose, LSU threw things at Bryce Young that it hadn’t shown all year, and it worked. Alabama scored 20 points in a five-minute span midgame but was otherwise held scoreless, and LSU twice had the ball in Bama territory with a chance to take a late lead but couldn’t get the job done.

Next, an offensive outburst

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LSU Morning Rush: LSU-Alabama viewer numbers, coaching carousel updates

Coaching carousel and viewership notes from LSU-Alabama.

The top stories from around the web involve the LSU Tigers from Yahoo Sports and ESPN. Pete Thamel gives you one name to watch as the Tigers chase down their next head coach. Not to be outdone by a report breaking down how many fans tuned into the LSU-Alabama showdown in Tuscaloosa.

No. 1 target identified by Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports

C. Morgan Engel-USA TODAY Sports

What Thamel Says…

The LSU job is the most attractive on the market. And that’s not expected to change, regardless of any other movement. Until another coach is walked to the podium at the news conference by athletic director Scott Woodward, it’s safe to project Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher as the target here. That’s always been Woodward’s dream candidate, and his history of paying historic amounts for Fisher is the best empirical evidence of that desire. Who from there? The names are all familiar – James Franklin, Luke Fickell, Dave Aranda, Lane Kiffin and Mel Tucker. If it’s not Fisher, the name will be big and the price tag expensive. Expect the LSU-Texas A&M game to end the season in Baton Rouge to be a quintessential SEC spectacle. – Pete Thamel on LSU and Jimbo Fisher

That goes differently than what Dennis Dodd recently said about who he thinks LSU should and will hire.

LSU-Alabama game is the most-watched game since…LSU-Alabama in 2019

Gary Cosby Jr.-USA TODAY Sports

According to a press release from ESPN, the LSU-Alabama matchup was the most-watched game since these two teams met in 2019.

The most-watched game of the weekend on ESPN networks was LSU at Alabama (7 p.m. ET, ESPN), averaging 5 million viewers – the most-viewed college football game on cable this year. The primetime presentation was the top game in Week 10 among key male and adult demos (18-34, 18-49, 25-54). The audience was up 18 percent from the same matchup in 2020 and peaked with 6 million viewers from 10-10:15 p.m. in the final minutes of the game.

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Follow Patrick on Twitter: @PatrickConnCFB

Virtual Report Card: Grading the LSU Tigers after their 20-14 loss

Let’s hand out some grades

The LSU Tigers came oh so close to shocking the world on Saturday night in Tuscaloosa. However, being close just isn’t good enough in the grand scheme of things. You can take pride in the effort but the only thing that matters are wins and losses. Since the 2019 title run, there have been far too many of those losses.

Even with the team losing the turnover battle 2-1 against the Tide, the Tigers still had an opportunity to win the game late. The ball fell harmlessly to the turf on a hail mary attempt as time expired on the Tigers.

Time to hand out grades in the LSU Tigers virtual report card. First up is the quarterback.

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LSU vs Alabama: Five takeaways from the loss to the Tide

Breaking down key takeaways from the Tigers loss in Tuscaloosa

The LSU Tigers are now 4-5 and find themselves last in the SEC West division.

They have a big game against Arkansas next Saturday, but before we dive into that game we will wrap up the Alabama game. The Tigers had plenty of opportunities to win this game but just couldn’t make a play or two to regain the lead late in this one.

Despite some of their issues on offense, they had an opportunity for a hail mary as time expired. The ball was batted to the ground and Alabama survived the game. Plenty to unpack from this game so we will start with five observations from the 20-14 loss.

LSU vs Alabama: The Crimson Tide survive the late Tigers’ surge

The game-winning opportunity falls short as LSU drops their fifth game of the year.

I’m not one for moral victories but the LSU Tigers put up more of a fight than was expected on this Saturday night.

It was clear that head coach Ed Orgeron was going to gamble early and often in this game. A fake punt led to the Tigers’ first touchdown of the game. For all of the first quarter and into the second quarter, LSU led the game 7-0. It wasn’t until a couple of turnovers by the Tigers were the Tide able to put together scoring drives.

The Tigers found themselves down 20-7 in the third quarter before LSU could respond. A long catch and run by Trey Palmer set up the team deep in Alabama territory. Max Johnson would find Jack Bech as they pull within a score at 20-14.

Late in the game, Ed Orgeron’s team was still in the game. It was a stand on fourth and nine where pressure forced Johnson to rush his throws. Multiple times in the game he threw high on plays that could have given LSU all the momentum late in this game.

The Tigers would have one more opportunity with less than a minute to go in the game, but no timeouts. Unfortunately, Johnson took a safety during the two-minute drill which killed a lot of time. Facing a fourth down and nine once again, they found Brian Thomas Jr for the first down.

With just five seconds left in the game from the Alabama 30-yard line, Johnson fired it into the end zone for the hail mary that was batted down. The Crimson Tide is able to survive the late surge by LSU.

The Tigers are now 2-4 in conference play and 4-5 overall. They head home for the rest of the year with Arkansas, UL-Monroe, and Texas A&M over the next three weeks.

Halftime stats from LSU vs Alabama

Halftime stats from the game

LSU had a little trickery to begin the game, and it threw Alabama for a loop.

The Tigers, to my surprise, came out fighting in this game. And you could see it in Ed Orgeron’s face. He’s not quite done coaching this program.

The fact that LSU held this Alabama offense scoreless for a quarter is impressive. The defense has given to indication that they were capable of doing such a thing. Is now a good time to remind every everyone that I thought this would get out of hand early?

Here are the stats from the first half as LSU currently trails Alabama 14-7.

Team Stats

Total yards: LSU 77, UA 216

Passing yards: LSU 44, UA 61

Rushing yards: LSU 25, UA 25

First downs: LSU 5, UA 12

Third downs: LSU 2-7, UA 4-8

Penalties: LSU 2-12, UA 5-35

Individual Stats

Max Johnson: 4 of 8, 48 yards, 1 touchdown, 2 carries for -10 yards

Tyrion Davis-Price: 9 carries for 33 yards

Corey Kiner: 2 carries, 3 yards

Jack Mashburn: 1 catch for 26 yards

Jack Bech: 1 catch for 10 yards

Brian Thomas Jr: 1 catch, 8 yards, 1 carry, 5 yards

WATCH: LSU punter Avery Atkins’ jump shot fake punt, leads to touchdown

Ed Orgeron gambles early

After the LSU Tigers defense was able to tighten up against the Alabama Crimson Tide, they got the ball following the missed field goal. It was the first time since the Mercer game that the Tide didn’t score on their opening drive.

Facing a fourth down, head coach Ed Orgeron called a timeout. They came out in punt formation. Punter Avery Atkins ran the ball up towards the line of scrimmage before doing a jump shot pass to tight end Jack Mashburn. The conversion would lead to bigger things for the Tigers as they look to knock off the No. 2 Alabama Crimson Tide.

Following the fake punt play, a holding penalty put the Bayou Bengals into the red zone. Quarterback Max Johnson was able to find freshman receiver Brian Thomas Jr for the catch and run into the end zone giving LSU the lead at 7-0.

The Tigers have forced another punt against Alabama and the offense driving again.

How do LSU and Alabama stack up statistically

This game features the No. 2 scoring offense facing the No. 85 scoring defense. It could get ugly quickly.

With just one day until the LSU Tigers and Alabama Crimson Tide kick off their annual SEC matchup, we dive into the numbers for each group.

As we have noted, this game doesn’t have the luster it did just two years ago. Last season it was clear that the Tigers weren’t going to be able to muster up enough of a fight to make it close. LSU lost that matchup by 38 points. Going into this one, Alabama is favored by four touchdowns.

The laundry list of injuries on the Tigers side seems a mile long, they need a monster effort to win this game. How do these teams stack up?

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First, we look at LSU when they have the ball. 

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