On a play to play basis, LSU felt like a better team than the Tide through most of the first half. They moved the ball with consistency on nearly every drive, while the Alabama offense had a few stutters and gave up their share of negative plays.
And yet, the Tide enters halftime with a 10-3 lead. LSU routinely stalled in the redzone, missed a long field goal, and threw a pick when driving for a game-tying drive. Meanwhile, Alabama’s offense did a lot of good stuff, but also spent much of the half going
backwards with offensive penalties (three false starts, a hold on a big run play, and an offensive pass interference on a big pass play that would have put them in scoring range right before the half).
The Alabama offensive gameplan came out much more conservative than we’ve seen in a while, and I think that the focus on quick passes and easy stuff to the RBs and TEs has really helped Keelon Russell without him getting the team into a hole like in the beginning of the Tide’s other big road games this year. Hopefully, Alabama can keep building on that gameplan and start getting a little more downfield passing going.
The running game hasn’t been great with Trae’Shawn Brown and Daniel Hill only getting 28 yards on 9 carries, but, there was an explosive run from Hill called back for a hold that was way behind the play, so the actual process hasn’t been too bad there. The biggest thing with the offense has just been pre-snap issues, both in false starts and getting lined up late and missing blitz pickups. Clean that up, and I think they’ll be in business.
Defensively, I truly don’t know how Alabama only gave up three points. Leavitt already has 168 passing yards with a 75% completion rate playing the quick passing game and running up and down the field. But LSU is shooting themselves in the foot in the redzone, and the Tide defense held up at the end of drives each time. The pass rush struggled early, but they were starting to get through and get some pressure towards the end of the half.
The biggest gaffe came with LSU facing a 2nd and 20 on the own side of the field near the end of the half and Carmelo ONeal completely whiffed on making an easy stop on receiver, giving up 30 yards and losing a shot for the Alabama offense to get the ball back in plus territory at the end of the half. Thankfully, Leavitt did wind up throwing an interception straight to Luke Metz a few plays later, so the Tigers didn’t score. But the lost clock (combined with a dubious offensive PI call) killed the Tide’s chances of getting to halftime with a two-score lead.
All said, it wasn’t pretty football, but I like the offensive approach on this one, and both units are doing just enough. Still, this second half is going to be a long one. Hope for the best. Roll Tide!
