There was nothing Derek Stingley Jr. could do. DeVonta Smith made one hell of a play.
As the first half of the Tigers’ game against Alabama wound down, Stingley matched Smith in coverage. He didn’t bite on Smith’s fake to the post, stayed glued to his shoulder, flipped his head and located the ball. Perfect coverage.
But the best receiver in football leapt over the best corner in football, snagged a perfectly thrown ball with one hand and landed in the back of the end zone.
“Obviously,” Ed Orgeron said, “No. 6 [Smith] is one of the best players I’ve ever seen.”
It was a fitting end for an expectedly brutal first half for LSU, when Smith, Alabama’s star receiver, turned a chilly Baton Rouge night into a chance to enter the Heisman race. He jogged into the locker room leaving devastation in his wake, ending the half with seven catches for 219 yards and three touchdowns. His other two scores were long ones, one a 65-yarder past Stingley and the other a 61-yard bomb over Cordale Flott.
Orgeron said the defense tried to double Smith in the first half. The team had trouble shadowing him with Stingley, he said, because Alabama moved him all over the formation. At halftime, CBS reported that Stingley asked Orgeron if the team could try to line him up against Smith more often. By then, it was too late.
“We just got beat one-on-one,” Orgeron said about the two touchdowns. “It was nobody’s fault.”
Alabama ended the first half with a 45-15 lead. They scored on all seven drives, averaged 12 yards per play and collected 470 yards. No LSU defense under Orgeron has allowed more yards, touchdowns and first downs in a half than this one gave up to the Tide. Alabama finished with 650 yards, 18 more than Mississippi State’s total in their infamous bloodbath at LSU earlier this year.
The final score was 55-17, the worst loss by a defending national champion in the 84-year history of the AP poll, per ESPN.
It was Smith who fueled the offensive explosion, and it was Smith who finally caused Orgeron to snap.
After Smith raced past him on the way to scoring his second touchdown, Orgeron turned to his staff on the sidelines and began to berate them. He ripped his headset off, slammed it on the ground, balled his fists, shook them in the air and barked some more. He then calmly re-attached his mask and sulked down the sideline, watching as his defense’s progress was erased and any hope of a massive upset withered away. It’s been a tough year.
“Our plan for most of the game was to double team [Smith],” Orgeron said. “That was one of the times we hadn’t. It was frustrating to see one player have almost 300 yards in the first half.”
It wasn’t during the Tigers’ shocking loss to Mississippi State, disappointing defeat in Missouri or their embarrassing beatdown at the hands of Auburn when Orgeron lost his cool. It wasn’t during the constant questions about his once-proud hire of Defensive Coordinator Bo Pelini, the season-ending injury to his quarterback or the postponements of the games against Alabama and Florida when he blew a fuse. Nor was it when Ja’Marr Chase and Tyler Shelvin chose not to play this season, or when Terrace Marshall bounced the day after the Texas A&M game.
No, it was this moment, when the Alabama game slipped away. After a National Championship, Orgeron found himself at square one, unable to topple his fiercest rival, who may be on their way to yet another college football crown. Orgeron tipped his cap to the Tide.
“I told our team I thought they fought very hard,” he said.
A year ago, Orgeron, soaked in Gatorade, celebrated with his team at midfield of Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa. They walked off the field victorious into the visitors’ locker room, where Orgeron infamously shouted triumphant expletives.
Only a year later, the Tigers walked out of Death Valley as 38-point losers. Orgeron jogged off the field with his head down. He wore a mask and tried not to look at the cold, empty bleachers and make eye contact with the smiling cardboard fans.
The Crimson Tide took one on the chin from LSU in 2019. But in 2020, it was Orgeron’s team and his headset that bore the brunt of the damage.
“It was explosive plays in the passing game,” Orgeron said.
“We just have to get better.”
