Five Takeaways From Alabama's Beatdown Over LSU in Baton Rouge

This win helped Alabama avoid immediate College Football Playoff elimination, as a third loss would almost certainly keep the Crimson Tide out of the inaugural 12-team format.

Alabama QB Jalen Milroe Celebrates With Fans Following 42-13 Road Victory Over LSU / Obtained from Alabama Football's X/Twitter

BATON ROUGE, La.— No. 11 Alabama Crimson Tide dominated No. 15 LSU on Saturday night with a 42-13 victory on the road.

This win helped Alabama avoid immediate College Football Playoff elimination, as a third loss would almost certainly keep the Crimson Tide out of the inaugural 12-team format.

There's so much to dissect from this matchup at Tiger Stadium. Here are five takeaways:

A Pivotal Fast Start Offensively

Due to the external College Football Playoff elimination circumstances of this matchup in Baton Rouge, both teams needed to make an early impression to catch the other a bit off guard. The crowd is often at its loudest to start any game and Tiger Stadium's 102,083 attendance wanted to quickly put pressure on the Crimson Tide as Alabama had the first possession of the night.

LSU seemed to have a 12th man on the field on the very first play as the Crimson Tide offensive line committed a false start, backing it up five yards. That said, Alabama remained composed as quarterback Jalen Milroe connected with wide receiver Ryan Williams for a 19-yard gain on second-and-long. A couple more completions by Milroe, including a 10-yard catch-and-run by wide receiver Kendrick Law on big third-and-nine, put Alabama in LSU territory and the dual-threat found a lane and sprinted 39 yards for an opening drive touchdown run––softening a crowd a little bit that was deafening just a couple of minutes ago.

"There’s plays that you’re making, and I believe a completion on third down, I think about how big those are," Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer said in the postgame press conference. "Those plays that you forget about because it wasn’t the touchdown, but those conversions right there are the ones that extend the drive and allows you to keep stacking plays. And understand what you’re seeing and verifying that it’s what you really were preparing for and feel really good about the plan. With the weather and the elements, we knew that having a controlled run game was gonna be really big. We popped some explosives with J-Mil. But just continue to wear down those couple 2- and 3-yard plays that we had early on turned into five, six, seven as the game wore on.”

The Tigers hit a field goal on their opening possession, but Alabama remained unfazed on its second drive of the game. A strong argument could be made that running back Jam Miller was the hero of this possession, but not in the way you'd think as he hauled in four catches for 39 yards (42 yards after catch) to constantly extend a drive that lasted 15 plays and nearly seven minutes! His effort to make big plays on these screens and short routes helped fellow running back Justice Haynes put another touchdown on the board from one yard out for Alabama.

The Early Defensive Momentum Eliminator

The aforementioned field goal by LSU on its opening drive was a tremendous motivator for Alabama's defense. On the Tigers' second play from scrimmage, running back Caden Durham broke free for a 45-yard run that had all signs pointing to him sprinting for a few more to tie the game quickly. However, Alabama cornerback Domani Jackson somehow kept up with Durham and made a touchdown-saving tackle.

LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier and company were on the doorstep of tying the score, but Jackson's play had lit a match in the Crimson Tide as an incompletion and a one-yard loss led to third-down. Alabama linebacker Jihaad Campbell was left alone in coverage with LSU wide receiver Kyren Lacy, who came into Saturday night with the fourth-most receiving yards in the SEC. Nevertheless, the underdog in a matchup that almost always goes to the receiver won the one-on-one battle by breaking the pass on the goal line and forcing a field goal.

"[Getting the pass breakup] was definitely big but it goes back to watching film," Campbell said after the game. "Kyren Lacy, what routes can he do down in the red zone and goal line? Big stop for the team and it was three-and-out and we got off of the field."

Although the Crimson Tide allowed three points on the opening possession, these two plays by Jackson and Campbell clearly sparked the Alabama defense the rest of the way as LSU scored 13 total points, with its only touchdown coming with less than a minute remaining and the starters were not on the field.

Tiger Stadium's deafening crowd of 102,083 grew quieter and quieter with more and more seats becoming available after each Alabama defensive stop. Alabama linebacker Deontae Lawson also provided a momentum eliminator for LSU on its first drive of the second half as he intercepted a pass in the end zone after a 14-play drive that needed to end with points on the board while down 14-3.

Jalen Milroe Runs All Over The Tigers

As previously stated, Milroe rushed for an electric 39-yard touchdown. However, his night on the ground was only getting started as in total, he logged 12 carries for 185 yards and a jaw-dropping four touchdowns. The scores were from 39, 10, 19 and somehow 72 yards out.

Milroe's second score became a new school record for single-season rushing touchdowns by a quarterback. The rushing touchdowns record Milroe broke (he now has 16 this season) belonged to Jalen Hurts, who now plays for the Philadelphia Eagles and was an MVP frontrunner in 2022. The two quarterbacks share a home state (Texas) in addition to their first names. Milroe is now the first SEC player with four rushing touchdowns or more in multiple games against the same opponent since a decade before he was born (1992).

Alabama came into this game with two high-volume pass-catchers in Ryan Williams and Germie Bernard. LSU head coach Brian Kelly and company seemed to stress the defense must keep this duo in check as the duo combined for three catches for 28 yards, but that pressure outside the numbers often gave Milroe a massive lane up the middle to sprint ahead of the Tigers for an average of 15.4 yards per carry.

"Going into this week, [offensive coordinator Nick] Sheridan was definitely coaching me hard this week, just pushing the pocket and attacking all areas of the game, whether it's passing game, run game, just being my best me," Milroe said during the postgame press conference. "Just doing what the play call asks me. Just being a point guard with the football, distributing to our playmakers, using my legs, just doing what the defense gave [us]. I think that was evident in our performance today."

Special Teams Has Subpar Night On Returns

Alabama's offense and defense dominated LSU, but the opposite could be said for the Crimson Tide special teams on returns.

LSU's Zavion Thomas returned five kickoffs for 143 yards with a long of 50 yards. The 28.6 yards per return stemmed from Thomas' ability to see a plethora of holes or sprint towards the outside and turn the corner.

Alabama esteemed punter James Burnip didn't really see any action on Saturday night––which he joked on X (formerly known as Twitter) by saying "Just happy they let me punt a couple times"––but his two boots were returned for 42 and 39 yards respectively.

While the Tigers couldn't capitalize on the often-favorable field position due to Alabama's stifling defense, it's still an issue that the Crimson Tide pass-rush and secondary shouldn't have to bail the special teams out of.

The Silence of LSU's Elite Passing Offense

Alabama's pass defense has truly been stout this season as coming into this game, the Crimson Tide were 10th in the nation in opponent passer rating (109.8) and opponent yards per attempt (5.9), 15th in opponent yards per completion (10.3) 27th in opponent passing yards per game (193.3) and 28th in opponent completion percentage (57.25).

Nevertheless, LSU's air attack had been among the top of college football Alabama's next opponent, has a much more frightening Tiger when it comes to the passing game as Nussmeier had the most completions in the SEC and the second-most passing yards in the conference as well coming into Saturday. Additionally, LSU wide receivers Kyren Lacy and Aaron Anderson, an Alabama transfer, were fourth and fifth in the conference in receiving yards.

The Alabama defensive backs were well aware of this ahead of the game, and the preparation certainly worked out as Nussmeier completed 27-of-42 attempts for 239 yards, one touchdown in the final seconds, two interceptions and the aforementioned fumble. Additionally, Lacy made a couple of big plays towards the end when the game was already decided to boost his numbers to five receptions for 79 yards and the Tigers' lone touchdown, while Anderson was silenced with three receptions for 27 yards.

"I think when you get that bye week, you get a chance to kind of take a breath sometimes and focus on fundamentals, scheme, technique, you can kind of go backward before you go forward and go back and reference some older tape because you don't have the backstop of the next game coming up," Alabama defensive backs coach Maurice Linguist said on Wednesday. "It gives you some space to kind of dig into the details, you can go an inch wide and a mile deep into 'Hey, let's go back and look at how our technique has evolved from spring to summer to our first three games to now into SEC play.'"

It's clear now that the bye week helped the Crimson Tide secondary against the Tigers' air attack.

Following this outstanding performance on both sides of the ball, Alabama moves to 7-2 (4-2 SEC) and will begin its preparation for a home matchup against Mercer on Saturday at 1 p.m. CT on SECN+/ESPN+.