Brian Kelly told reporters on Thursday that in order to keep Death Valley’s sold-out crowd electric, his team would need to perform well. It did that and more on Saturday night, evident from the cheers that deafened those within the crowd.
The defense was the unit that initially gained momentum, as after completing his first three passes for 40 yards to drive his offense down the field, Alabama quarterback Bryce Young threw an interception in the end zone that lit a fire under the Tigers.
Young struggled to lead his team down the field throughout the rest of the game, completing 49% of his passes for 328 yards and 1 touchdown. His struggles correlated with Harold Perkins subbing into the game, who was all over the field on Saturday.
While the defense did bend throughout the game, allowing the Tide to reach the red zone five times, it rarely broke. Those red zone attempts resulted in one touchdown, three field goals and the one aforementioned interception.
Offense was where there were struggles, as while Jayden Daniels was efficient, completing 69% of his passes, he averaged just 5.7 yards per attempted pass. However, he was able to lead four successful touchdown drives in regulation.
He also rushed for 95 yards, with most of those coming in crunch time.
Still, even with the resilient play on defense and Daniels late game heroics, the game still came down to overtime. After LSU drove down the field trailing by three and scored a touchdown with less than two minutes left, Bryce Young did what he does best and impressively got them into field goal range in just over a minute.
The field goal went in and Alabama scored first in overtime, putting Daniels in his second, legacy-defining situation of the game. He was ready for the task, finding an open lane on LSU’s first offensive play of overtime and going for 25 yards. The offense followed that up with a successful two point conversion, and the game was over.
LSU is now in a position to compete for a spot in the College Football Playoff. It just needs to finish the job, which it has done effectively lately.
