Willie Francis
November 7, 2013
Gertrude Frances Norris
November 13, 2013
In his halftime interview with CBS sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson, Alabama football coach Nick Saban promised that his team would run the ball and control the line of scrimmage in the final 30 minutes of Saturday night’s game with LSU.
The multi-time national championship coach stayed true to his word.
With the running game gliding through LSU’s defense, the Crimson Tide rolled to another win against their conference rivals.
Alabama overcame a fast Tigers’ start and seized firm control of the game in its final minutes to secure a sound 38-17 victory.
The Tide outgained LSU 96-to-minus 9 in the fourth quarter to turn a close game into a decisive win – an outcome that hands the Tigers their third loss of the season and mathematically eliminates the team from SEC Championship contention.
“Coach Saban really has them going,” LSU coach Les Miles said after the defeat. “They played extremely well. I’m really not prepared for this. This kind of felt like we played better. Two quality teams played and that Alabama team separated themselves from us tonight.”
If LSU would have played mistake-free football in the opening half, the Tigers may have been the team that did the separating in Saturday night’s game.
The Crimson Tide got the football first and were forced to punt. From there, LSU drove the length of the field and looked like it was prime to score and take a 7-0 lead.
But those ambitions took a drastic turn for the worse when Tigers’ senior fullback J.C. Copeland fumbled at the goal line to give Alabama back the football with the game still in a scoreless tie.
On LSU’s second possession, another turnover plagued the Tigers.
While attempting to make an audible at the line of scrimmage, LSU mistakenly snapped the ball before senior quarterback Zach Mettenberger was ready – a costly mistake that led to an Alabama field goal.
“You can’t turn the ball over,” Miles said. “It’d be a 7-0 game with a fullback off of left tackle (run). But instead we turn the ball over to the other side of the field, and it just cost us a terrible start.”
For the remainder of the first half, the Tigers righted the turnover ship and played even with the Tide.
Alabama led LSU 17-7 late in the second quarter, but Mettenberger capped a 10-play, 75-yard drive with a six-yard pass to Travin Dural to send the team to halftime with Alabama ahead 17-14.
Mettenberger faced constant pressure throughout the game against the Tide’s massive defense. But the quarterback still fared well and completed 16-of-23 passes for 241 yards and a score.
“We weren’t going to back down from Alabama,” Mettenberger said. “We had a good game plan going, but we just weren’t able to execute it (in the second half).”
The Tigers got the football first to start the third quarter and drove down the field to kick a field goal to bring the game to a 17-all tie.
But after LSU’s defense stiffened and held Alabama on a third down play, the Tide attempted a successful fake punt, which kept Alabama’s drive alive and set up the go-ahead touchdown.
With the second half momentum and lead, the Tigers could never recover. Alabama gashed the Tigers on the ground throughout the second half, routinely picking up easy yards to set up manageable down and distance situations.
Saban said it’s the best that his team has played all season.
“I was really proud of our players in the second half,” Saban said. “I thought they did a fantastic job and probably played our best half of football (this season). It wasn’t perfect, and we didn’t play great in the first half, but there was a lot of character out there in the second half to control the line of scrimmage the way we did on offense.”
Miles didn’t disagree. He said that the fake punt changed the entire complexion of the game.
“They fake a punt and keep the ball for the remainder of the time and score seven,” Miles said. “We turn the ball back to them and again, they score seven. Those two drives were long and ate up the clock. Suddenly, it’s a 14 point (lead) with a sudden need to make things happen.
“Again, quality defense played by Alabama and the way they ran the football decided the game.”
With the loss, the Tigers will now head into another bye week – their last of the season.
Once the week of rest is over, LSU will head back onto the field to take on Texas A&M in Tiger Stadium.
The Aggies will present another stiff test to LSU.
But Mettenberger believes that the Tigers can rise up to the challenge if they can clean up their mistakes.
“You could look at the score (of this game) and think one thing, but if you watched the game, you would know that if we didn’t turn the ball over and made some smarter decisions, it would have been a ball game,” Mettenberger said. “But that’s the way it goes in this sport. Sometimes it doesn’t bounce your way.”
LSU halfback Jeremy Hill barrels into the end zone during Saturday night’s game between the Tigers and Alabama. Hill and the Tigers got off to a strong start, but faltered in the second half of a blowout defeat. LSU will now have a bye week before playing Texas A&M.
