LSU lost to Alabama 31-13 on Saturday, blowing so many chances and squandering opportunity after opportunity on the way to another loss against a quality team.
Here’s our 5 takes.
5 TAKES AS LSU LOSES TO THE TIDE
TAKE ONE: Situational offense matters – LSU can move the ball up and down the field with the best of them. But if they can’t score when they get close, what’s the point? LSU has been bad in the red zone all year. On Saturday, those issues were magnified to a new level. You cannot win kicking field goals or going for it on fourth down and not converting.
TAKE TWO: Sam Leavitt isn’t it – Sam Leavitt’s stats will look OK on Saturday. But he isn’t it. His bad snaps are just too bad to be sustainable. He had a one-read interception that was brutally bad in the first half. Literally any other receiver on the field would have been a better option to throw to. He takes too many sacks. He tries to play hero ball. Nine out of 10 snaps are good snaps. The one out of 10 that’s not is a disaster. You can’t win with disasters in the SEC.
TAKE THREE: Kiffin needs to hire a “game manager” coach – Dating back to Ole Miss, Lane Kiffin has had some shaky decisions on fourth downs and with some game management decisions. Those issues were a problem against Kentucky when he punted on fourth and 1 instead of going for the win. Those issues were even more magnified on Saturday when Kiffin tried a 56-yard field goal (that LSU was never going to make), opted against 3 points before half to go for it on fourth down and many more. Get some help, boss. Take your ego out of this.
TAKE FOUR: End the direct snap to the RB on short yardage – forever – It was a cute little play early in the season. Now, everyone in the world knows that LSU is running that direct snap to the running back on third and fourth and 1. If you don’t have something else to run off of that play, the defense can just play punt block and tee off. That’s … exactly what Alabama did when they saw that play. Evolve or die, coach. That play isn’t fooling anyone anymore. It’s now become the new toss-dive. We don’t need to see that ever again.
TAKE FIVE: Whit Weeks is so missed – It’s not an excuse. Injuries happen in football. But the difference between Whit Weeks and Keys on the defense is profound. It’s not an excuse. Your $2.5 million defensive coordinator is paid to make adjustments. But man, that injury hurts.
TAKE SIX: Nine SEC games is stupid – No reason for saying it. Just – I wish I could play Illinois or Purdue every once in a while and consider that a “big” game.
TAKE SEVEN: The rest of the season is HUGE – Will a big-money and high-dollar roster rally and win three-straight and give themselves an outside chance to make the playoff or will they quit on their coach? We will find out. How this season ends will be very, very interesting.
TAKE EIGHT: Jackson Harris is a dude – The alpha of the entire LSU offense is Jackson Harris. Kid has been unbelievably good down the stretch for an offense that is trying to find explosiveness as best it can.
TAKE NINE: The other WRs aren’t dudes – Outside of Jackson Harris, you have a lot of slot receivers on this roster who are very good at … not catching the ball.
TAKE TEN: Harlem Berry won’t be at LSU next year – You can’t run the ball. You have options. You’re not using them. I have no idea if Harlem Berry can actually play or not. But I do know that it will be a big black eye to this coaching staff if he can because they are making no effort to incorporate him into this offense.
TAKE ELEVEN: Special teams a continued disaster – LSU hasn’t had a good special teams for a decade. Tonight, you let a shanked punt roll for 30 yards instead of going field the ball, kicked and missed a long field goal, allowed a long punt return, had a punt return muff and were a wreck … again. Brian Kelly would be proud.
