It was a crazy weekend of college football with many upsets and mishaps. Thankfully, Alabama was able to pull out the win at home over LSU, while many other ranked teams fell victim to the vaunted week 10 of the season.
Many expected the Crimson Tide to win big over the Bayou Bengals of Baton Rouge, but no matter what, a win is a win. A win that keeps Alabama at one loss on the season, that keeps Bama at the top of the SEC West, and a win that puts Alabama one step closer to the College Football Playoff.
The only real negative take-away from this game is that Nick Saban has to get his team ready for the home stretch against Arkansas and an Iron Bowl in Jordan-Hare Stadium.
There were a few problems, and a few positives for Alabama in their 20-14 win over LSU. Let’s get the bad news out of the way first.
No Ground Game
Alabama and LSU both had 16 first downs, and had almost the same amount of total yards minus just 13 yards. However, Alabama lacked in one major category in this game, and that was rushing yards.
The Crimson Tide had only six rushing yards against LSU. That’s correct, less than 10 total yards on the ground.
Brian Robinson, Jr. was only fed the ball 13 times for a total of 18 yards. Robinson did score a touchdown in this one but otherwise was very quiet.
Bryce Young’s legs being underutilized again
One of the keys to Alabama dominating LSU however was Bryce Young using his legs. Yes, this is similar to the no ground game issue, but a quarterback running the ball on scrambles and designed runs is a completely different issue.
Young had finally been using his legs the last two games. Everyone was excited, the Tide were dominant, and life was good. What happened to make Young either ineffective or uninterested in getting yards with his legs?
Nine carries for -22 yards is not what anyone wants to see from a running quarterback, so maybe Bama needs to let him be the strictly pocket-passer that he wants to be.
Kicking issues
Will Reichard has been somewhat of a saving grace for younger Tide fans who have lived through only atrocious kicking from their favorite team. Yet, Reichard came in and changed everything.
This was not the case last night by missing his only field goal of the day, and missing an extra point as well. To be fair, the extra point was a bad snap and hold combination, but that is still very uncharacteristic of a Nick Saban coached team.
For the other kind of kicking, James Burnip actually had a very good day. Burnip averaged over 39 yards and got half of his boots inside of the 20 yard line.
Now onto some more positives.
Winning the turnover battle
Alabama did have a lost fumble late in the game during a strip-sack of Young, but LSU was not able to get points on the board from it.
The Tigers had two turnovers consisting of one interception and one fumble recovery as well. That interception came from Jalyn Armour-Davis who is becoming a bigger and better factor for this Alabama secondary.
A lot of spectators would say that a two-to-one turnover battle is no big deal in the course of an hour clock time of game.
However, no matter how it is spun around, Alabama won by one score and one possession. Winning the turnover battle instantly boosts the victor’s chances of getting the win.
The defensive line came alive
In the pre-game post we discussed how the Crimson Tide’s defensive line has been playing good but not great this season.
Phidarian Mathis had a crucial sack near the end of the game, and was giving the LSU defense fits all game long. The entire defensive line made way for the linebackers to continue to be the star for Alabama’s defense.
But never forget who is first plugging those holes and setting edges for these amazing linebackers.
Hayden Crigler is a contributing college football and college basketball writer for Yellowhammer News. You can contact him through email: [email protected] or on Twitter: @hayden_crigler.
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