TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — LSU senior quarterback Joe Burrow entered the 2019 football season with high expectations for himself and the LSU offense, predicting the revamped offensive scheme and addition of passing game coordinator Joe Brady would lead the Tigers to scoring 40,50 or 60 points a game.
Not only has LSU done that for the majority of the season, but the Tigers did it Saturday against an Alabama team that has broken the hearts of LSU fans for almost a decade.
They did it to the tune of 46 points, 559 total yards and 29 first downs in what has to be considered one of the best offensive showings against a top-10 team in LSU history.
The Tigers’ 46 points scored on Saturday is the most ever against Alabama in LSU history, a sign that the Tigers are no longer that team that “just needs an offense to be special.”
Burrow had a performance that won’t soon be forgotten by Tiger fans, throwing for 393 yards and three touchdowns while rushing for 64 yards and combining for 457 total yards, good for third all-time in LSU history.
When asked if he thought Burrow had a Heisman performance Saturday, LSU coach Ed Orgeron didn’t mince his words.
“I think it is,” Orgeron said. “You know I don’t get a vote, but if I did I’d give it to him. I promise you that.”
Burrow’s performance was the ultimate redemption after the 29-0 shutout he and the Tigers suffered in 2018. Last season against Alabama, he threw for 184 yards and an interception. A year later, Burrow has led an offense with a transformed scheme, but retained the bulk of its lineup from a year ago.
“We had everybody coming back,” Burrow said. “I just can’t say enough about the work we put in this offseason.”
“You don’t see a lot of teams go from where we were last season to where we are this year, and we just had a lot of mentally tough people that worked really hard this offseason.”
LSU entered the second half with a 20-point lead, but the offense sputtered in the third quarter, with two of its three drives resulting in punts and the other a fumble, leading to Alabama cutting the lead to six early in the fourth quarter.
But LSU didn’t panic, responding to each fourth quarter Alabama touchdown with one of its own and sealing the victory on the final drive with a first down by junior running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire.
“There was no panic on the sidelines, we knew what we had to do, score to win the game, and probably have to score twice,” Burrow said. “So I just went around to my guys and said ‘if we score two more times we win the game, and that’s exactly what we did.”