LSU held its own Saturday night when it faced the University of Alabama in front of 91,861 fans.
Alabama continued to prove why it is the top-ranked defense by giving up fewer than 300 yards to the Tiger offense, but LSU’s No. 4-ranked defense got the best of the Tide’s offense. The LSU defense gave up only 283 yards in its win over the Crimson Tide 26-10.
“The defense played great in the second half,” said coach Nick Saban. “I don’t know how many yards they got in the second half, but they did a fantastic job.”
The rotation of quarterbacks between redshirt freshman starter JaMarcus Russell and senior Marcus Randall resulted in a few mistakes and turnovers that could have been costly, but the defense stepped up to the challenge, limiting Alabama’s offense and creating favorable field position throughout the game for the Tigers’ offense.
“They kept us in great position all game to keep us successful on offense,” Randall said. “They came out with a big play that put us back ahead towards the end of the game. They helped the team out a lot.”
LSU went into the locker room at halftime trailing 10-6, but produced big plays in the second half that changed the momentum of the game. Early in the third quarter the Tigers were deep in the hole after Broussard fumbled on the 12 yard line when senior cornerback Corey Webster responded with an endzone interception and ran it out to the 44 yard line.
“When the front seven put pressure on the quarterback it always makes the back four look good,” Webster said. “We got a couple of turnovers at the end of the game that really turned the game around. Even though we didn’t score on the drive I think the field position really turned everything around for us.”
Toward the end of the third quarter, the defense produced another Alabama turnover when senior defensive end Marcus Spears forced a fumble. Cameron Vaughn responded by scooping up the ball and running eight yards into the endzone for the Tiger’s third defensive touchdown of the season.
“Getting the two turnovers were huge,” Saban said. “ [We] put them in the hole and then while they’re in the hole, we create a fumble and run it for a touchdown. Field position is big.”
Most of the yards the Tigers gave up came against Alabama’s sophomore tailback Kenneth Darby, who had more than 100 yards for the night.
“We knew they had a real good running game and we wanted to be consistent with stopping him,” Webster said. “I think we did a fairly good job stopping the run even though Darby got his yards.”
Saban said he always tells his team to play all 60 minutes of the football game, but said after a slow start he still was pleased that the second half belonged to the Tigers.
“It says something about them to come back in the second half. The one thing about this team is we may not always be perfect, we may not always play pretty, but what we do is come back about four times to one. You have to say something about that,” Saban said. “I’m really proud of the way that our players believe in themselves, trust in each other and are able to come back in the game and win a game like we did.”