3 takeaways from LSU's disappointing home loss to Alabama
LSU entered Saturday night’s game against Alabama with an incredible record at night at home. In fact, coach Brian Kelly was 13-0 in Death Valley at night.
However, trends are meant to be broken, and that streak was broken in this Week 11 rivalry game thanks to Jalen Milroe and the Crimson Tide.
Milroe ran for more than 100 yards and scored 3 touchdowns with his legs en route to a 42-13 win for the Tide.
What went wrong for the Tigers?
Here are our 3 takeaways from the LSU side of Saturday night’s big-time SEC showdown:
1. Garrett Nussmeier is struggling
I personally thought the off week would be a big benefit for Nussmeier. He’s been sharp for most of the season. But 2 weeks ago at Texas A&M, he hurt the Tigers by throwing 3 costly interceptions. This week, he was missing open receivers and threw a pick in the red zone, which is the worst possible spot to throw a pick.
He also threw a second interception in the game, which basically ended any hopes of a win for the Tigers.
Was this the fault of having some random, non-Mike tiger on the sidelines? We’ll never know. It was a weird stunt, though.
The more important thing is that the Tigers need to figure out what’s wrong with their QB and get it fixed down the stretch if they want to salvage some positiveness from this season.
2. Blake Baker’s game plan was not great
I say this as a Mizzou graduate who is frustrated that Baker left CoMo this offseason, but… it seems that Baker’s plan to stop Milroe was not a good one. Sitting back with a spy didn’t work, yet Baker kept going back to the well over and over again.
When the opposing QB is carving you up for 100+ yards on the ground, that’s a problem. Mizzou held Milroe to 50 rush yards. South Carolina 36. Tennessee 11. Vanderbilt 10. How? By keeping him in the pocket and forcing him to step up with strong edge rushes.
LSU, for whatever reason, doesn’t seem to have had access to the past 4 game tapes for Milroe. Someone should look into that oversight.
3. That’s it for Playoff hopes
Sorry, LSU fans. That’s probably the end of the line for the Tigers’ Playoff hopes. The USC loss looks horrible. The Texas A&M loss doesn’t look as good after the Aggies lost to South Carolina in blowout fashion last week.
Now losing in a blowout way to Alabama is probably the nail in the coffin. This is a team that is now destined for a spot in a bowl game that would have been considered “solid” before the Playoff expanded to 12 teams.
Garrett Nussmeier needs to figure out his plan. Is he going to get his act together enough to be a first-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft? Or will he come back to school and try to become the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft?
We’ll see what happens, but there’s still a lot for these offensive players to play for in the next few weeks.
after the LSU LOSS to So Cal LSU writer Glenn Guilbeau went on the Finebaum show and made a 100% jerk comment about Alabama playing a nobody team in their first game – well on Nov 9th 2024 Alabama played ANOTHER NOBODY TEAM called LSU – Guilbeau is as classless as that worthless LSU grad James Carvell
Carvelle could eat your lunch in any conversation.
He ate a landslide earlier this week….
You win the internet today.
LOL! Mic drop.
Carvelke likes to suck on hot dogs. The two of you have that in common. I heard you both like Diddy too
“Carvelle could eat your lunch in any conversation.”
The same Carville that said Camel Toe Harris would win the election and Dems would retake the House?
HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHA
Probably? Cmon Adam. It’s over unequivocally.
Blake Baker’s game plan should have been stop Milroe from running after that A&M game. He beats you throwing, well that’s what he had to do to win. But that D just handed it to Milroe on a platter. BK’s staff continues to be out coached.
Milroe had almost 200 yards rushing and 4 touchdowns. There Adam, I fixed it for you.
I was surprised that LSU just seemed off. I expected a slobber knocker. Nuss was off, but he was also under a lot of pressure. The defense got burned by Milroe continuously, as well as by passes to the running backs. This is not the LSU team I expected Bama to be playing.
Only reason LSU beat Scar is because that’s what Vegas wanted.
Can that tiger play edge? They could have used him.
BK has killed a kid and now he’s killing a program.
That was a butt kicking. Meanwhile no articles on UT’s win over MSU. Come on SDS, do better….
BK is just overrated as a HC. if orgeron can win a title at lsu then a lot of coaches can. LSU is too good a place with too many resources and great fan base to accept his mediocrity. Maybe he should start learning cockney so he can fake a British accent and go coach soccer in NW England. What a disappointment.
Brian Kelly is NO Ted Lasso!
lol Michigan fan, well played… also good to see the meechigan fans can still laugh with the football team lost in the weeds. Guess lasts year’s title helps ease the pain though.
Oh, UM’s a dumpster fire. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a coaching change at the end of the ’25 season. But, at the end of the day, its just a game, and aren’t games supposed to be fun?
Have a good week!
One word explains everything about LSU’s blowout loss to Alabama….EMBARRASSING. The embarrassment began before the game even began when the Louisiana governor pushed for a live Tiger to be at the game. Not Mike the Tiger, but some fake from a wildlife preserve in Florida.
LSU knew it had issues with stopping running QB’s. It would seem that with 2 weeks to prepare, they’d have had a better defensive game plan. But no, just more of the same. This year’s LSU defense is much better than last seasons’s D. But it doesn’t take much to make that distinction. Again that word embarrassing comes to mind.
Before I get to the offense, how about the Tiger fans when they disagreed with a “correct” call and thought they’d pull a Texas stunt and throw bottles onto the field. EMBARRASSING. Come on Tiger fans, you’re better than that!
Now the offense. Let’s begin with the run game. Oh I forgot, LSU doesn’t have a run game. They’d have a tough time running the ball against a defense that didn’t have a defensive line. Again, embarrassing.
Now the QB. Going into the season, Nussmeier was expected to the bright spot on the team. He was for the first 4 games this season. But then the fears we all had about him proved to be real. That knack to throw interceptions, not going through his progressions, and his inability to run the ball when the opportunity is there. Where are the downfield passes he used to make? When he tries to throw deep, he’s usually off target. Tiger fans thought we had our QB for the next 2 seasons. I’m not too sure about that any longer. Once again embarrassing comes to mind. Maybe it’s time for Coach Kelly to begin experimenting with the backup, Ricky Collin’s, who happens to be a duel threat, and a darn good one at that.
Now that I mentioned Coach Kelly, let’s talk about the coaching staff. It’s embarrassing that when you have 2 weeks to prepare for an opponent, the team shows up Ill-prepared and lays a thud in the field. I’m ok with Coach Baker as D coordinator. I think he’ll get the defense to where it needs to be when he gets the defensive players he needs to do the job. But Joe Sloan as offensive coordinator? Again embarrassing. His play calling is vanilla. I’m not even going to bring up the offense’s inability to score red zone touchdowns. They haven’t been able to do that the entire season.And what the heck was that play he called right before half time? It’s clear, Joe Sloan is not the coach we need to head up the offense.
As I said, one word describes this fiasco of a game. EMBARRASSING. With more than 50 recruits at the game, they’ll think one of 2 things. 1) I want nothing to do with this team, or 2) this team needs a lot of help. Maybe I’ll get a ton of playing time earl in my career. So how many of those recruits will lean towards #1??
Ah ‘ Death Valley , isn’t that where LSU takes their dreams to die ? I would quote Coach ‘ O ‘, but it wouldn’t be nice.
That tiger should be on a diet.