LSU couldn’t find the end zone Saturday at Alabama with either Garrett Nussmeier or Michael Van Buren Jr. leading the offense.
The new-look Tigers, in their first game under interim coach Frank Wilson III, made a quarterback change early in the second half in search of a scoring spark to complement a solid, shake-back defensive performance.
But, regardless of which passer was taking snaps, the Tigers (5-4, 2-4) couldn’t overcome their own combination and continuation of issues and miscues to upset the No. 4 Crimson Tide (8-1, 6-0) and instead suffered their fourth loss in five games, 20-9.
“I thought some good things did happen, and there’s some things that we’ll continue to need to improve on,” Wilson said. “We have to score touchdowns and not just field goals. I’m glad to see the field goals go through, but we’ve got to be able to score touchdowns. And so we’ll continue to try to remedy that issue for us so that we can score touchdowns. I thought we need to take care of the ball a lot better than we did: three of ’em on the ground, two of ’em picked up by the opponent. And that was the difference in the game for us.
“I told the team pick your heads up. You fought. You competed. There’s no moral victory. But there is a lot to be said for how we played the game.”
LSU finished with a season-low 232 yards, a season-low 173 passing yards and 59 rushing yards, which marked its second-lowest total.
The Tigers’ average starting field position was inside its own 24-yard line with only two of their 11 possessions starting beyond their own 25 and just one beyond their own 40.
And two turnovers, 10 penalties for 74 yards and at least two dropped passes — instances of each miscue occurring in particularly untimely or costly junctures — further contributed to the uphill trudge and touchdown-less performance.
“A couple of ’em were 5-yarders, just procedural deals with some young guys that were antsy to want to go and strike somebody. Others were some that occurred that we’ll need to clean up,” Wilson said of the penalties. “That’s part of the game. When you say to ’em, ‘You’ve got a license to go play and let your personality show,’ and you’re that aggressive, sometimes that’ll happen. So I’m disappointed that they were called. I’m not disappointed that we played with aggression.”
Nussmeier completed his first nine passes and was 18-for-21 (85.7%) with 121 yards on a heavy diet of quick, short passes and was sacked once for a 14-yard loss on his final play of the night.
Van Buren went 5-for-11 (45.5%) for 52 yards in relief, was sacked twice for 20 yards of losses and picked up 21 yards on four positive rush attempts, including one third-down conversion and nearly another.
“I thought (Nussmeier) did some good things early on,” Wilson said. “We moved him out the pocket, and I thought he started the game off extremely well. As we went into the depth of the game, we just thought it was an opportunity for us to change up to throw their defense off, so we went with the change. I don’t know that it was something that he did so bad. We just thought that it would be an advantage in the things that Michael could give us.”
The coach called Van Buren’s performance “solid,” but with clear areas for improvement, including ball security on a late sack-fumble.
He emphasized that the change Saturday was not necessarily indicative of the quarterback depth chart heading into next week’s home game against Arkansas.
“I haven’t put that kinda thought in it right now,” he said. “Right now I just want to be there for our players to let ’em know we’re gonna be all right, to pick their heads up and we’re standing by you, we’re in this thing together. Decisions of depth moving forward, we’re not at that stage right now.”
LSU became just the third opponent in Alabama’s nine games this season to hold quarterback Ty Simpson and company out of the end zone for their first two possessions.
But the Tigers’ own longest opening possession of the season, 10 plays for 48 yards, slipped away for a missed field goal, and they fumbled their second possession away into a short field, a 45-yard Conor Talty kick and a 3-0 Crimson Tide lead.
Nussmeier and company pieced together a nine-play, 55-yard response to tie the game on a 37-yarder by Damian Ramos early in the second quarter.
But LSU’s offense would moved backward a combined -3 yards on back-to-back three-and-outs.
And Simpson hit on a series of explosive plays the rest of the half — 32 yards to Josh Cuevas, 31 yards to Germie Bernard and 53 yards to Lotzier Brooks — to open up a 17-3 halftime lead on a pair of red-zone scores.
“We came out kinda flat, I’m gonna be honest,” Simpson said on the ABC postgame broadcast. “We need to keep on growing. They had a good scheme and two weeks to prepare. But, hey, our defense kept us in it. They did a great job. And we were just resilient, right? Every week, we just keep on fighting and finding a way. Credit to the guys, and a win’s a win.”
Sophomore running back Daniel Hill was the first player to crack the goal line with a 4-yard run and dive through traffic, still early in the second.
After the teams traded scoreless possessions, the Tigers had an chance to answer the 10-3 deficit — whether before halftime, or milking some clock and hoping to be more aggressive with the first possession of the third quarter.
But the Crimson Tide forced a quick three-and-out and ultimately doubled the margin with a 13-yard strike from Simpson to Ryan Williams.
“I thought (new play-caller Alex Atkins) did a good job in managing the game, managing the clock,” Wilson said. “There was one (instance) on me in the second quarter that I would have not, if I could take it back, given them the ball back. But I thought he did a really good job. I thought our entire offensive staff did a really good job of doing what our players could do, protecting our offensive line and their vulnerabilities.”
LSU marched the opening possession of the second quarter 48 yards to Alabama’s 8-yard line before a third-down sequence of a delay of game, timeout to avoid a second straight penalty and then the long Nussmeier sack derailed the drive into settling for a Ramos 44-yarder.
And junior linebacker Harold Perkins Jr. swiped a fumble early in the fourth quarter to help the Tigers pull back within 17-9 on a 37-yard Ramos kick.
But LSU’s final two possessions — a three-and-out and a sack-fumble for a 10-yard loss — netted 2 yards on seven plays, with the Crimson Tide effectively closing the door in between with a 44-yard Talty field goal.
“I thought our defense played extremely well,” Wilson said. “You take away some of those big plays that we gave up. They weren’t necessarily drives that they just took down the field, but they did get behind us a couple of times. I thought (defensive coordinator) Blake Baker and our defensive staff did an outstanding job game-planning ’em. I thought they gave us opportunities to be able to compete.”
Perkins led the defense with nine tackles, a sack, a hurry and the forced and recovered fumble.
Fellow linebackers West Weeks and Davhon Keys added seven and five tackles, respectively, including one each behind the line of scrimmage, and veteran defensive end Jack Pyburn finished with five tackles, including one for loss, and a team-high two hurries.
Cornerbacks Mansoor Delane and P.J. Woodland and safety A.J. Haulcy were all credited with pass-breakups.
“I thought (the players) did a good job of managing that,” Wilson said of the turbulent couple of weeks, including LSU moving on from coach Brian Kelly, offensive coordinator Joe Sloan and athletic director Scott Woodward. “I thought you look at us in our preparation, you look at us in our pregame, you look at how we played this game, that wasn’t team that had quit in ’em. That wasn’t a team that was submissive or not willing to fight back.
“It just wasn’t our day, unfortunately, to capitalize or to win the football game. But I thought our kids handled the two weeks well. I thought they did some things well. When you’re playing against a team like this and you have opportunities, you have to seize the moment, and we fell short on doing that.”