For the first time this season, Leonard Fournette proved that he is human; as did the Tigers who lost their first game of 2015 and their fifth straight against Alabama.
“Congratulate Alabama,” said LSU head coach Les Miles. “Certainly they were ready to play and I don’t know if we were.”
That’s evident by the Tigers’ 182 total yards on offense, 284 below their season average going into Tuscaloosa, Ala.
But the major question on fans’ minds is why did Leonard Fournette and LSU struggle so much to run the ball? Even the Tigers weren’t sure.
“I knew they were stacking the box,” said LSU junior receiver Travin Dural. “I’m not too sure what they were doing up front but [Alabama] played a tremendous game.”
“I’m really not 100 percent sure,” said LSU senior offensive tackle Vadal Alexander. “I can’t answer specifically. A lot of times, blocking felt good. It felt like the right call.”
“I’d like to tell you that there were well-blocked holes,” Miles said. “I’d like to tell you that we gave Leonard [Fournette] an opportunity to run and I don’t know if we did that.”
“Their front seven came out to play and they were focused on stopping the run,” Fournette said. “They did a great job.”
Averaging 193.1 yards/game going into the Alabama contest, on Saturday Fournette rushed for a season-low 31 yards on 19 carries.
The player who has carried the Tigers most of this season couldn’t carry the ball much past the line of scrimmage.
But Miles reminded us that the team that lost in Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday is LSU, not LF7.
“There’s a lot of football left to play,” Miles said. “It’s a team. It’s not Leonard’s fault. It’s all of us.”
“We’re a team so we’re not going to sit here and blame the offense,” said LSU sophomore safety Jamal Adams. “We’re going to learn from it. Just don’t count us out.”
Don’t count out No. 7 in the 2015 Heisman Trophy race either.
Even though many are saying Alabama’s Derrick Henry has emerged as the Heisman favorite after his 210 rushing yards and three touchdowns against LSU, keep in mind that despite a poor performance Fournette still leads the nation in rushing with 1,383 yards, 172.9/game and 16 touchdowns. Not to mention the fact that Fournette has played one less game than most candidates due to September 5th’s McNeese State contest being cancelled.
As LSU welcomes an Arkansas defense that’s giving up 129.4 rushing yards/game to Tiger Stadium on Saturday, the Tigers expect to bounce back strong on the heels of a Heisman hopeful.
“Really big performance,” Alexander said. “It’s not just [Fournette] but if I know the guys on this offense, this week coming up is going to be one of our best weeks.”
“Everyone needs to know that we are going to come back,” Fournette said. “Everyone acts like it’s the end of the world but we have three more games to play. The Tigers are going to give it their all these last games.”