“It came down to the last second,” sophomore cornerback Eddie Jackson said. “We came out and we pushed. LSU is a great team and a great atmosphere, and we came out with the win.”
Throughout the game, the offense seemed to be doing everything it could to lose. With just over a minute left, junior running back T.J. Yeldon fumbled and LSU recovered on Alabama’s 6-yard line. The defense’s job was to hold LSU to a field goal in a do-or-die situation. If Alabama lost, its playoff hopes would’ve certainly been shattered.
Before the defense took the field, Alabama coach Nick Saban talked to the unit.
“This is where you show you know how to win,” Saban said. “We’ve got to stop them right here.”
The defense held. After a personal foul forced the Tigers back to the 21-yard line, the defense allowed one play of positive yardage: a 1-yard run. The next run went in the opposite direction, and LSU made a 39-yard field goal to take a 13-10 lead.
“They gave us a fight in Death Valley,” Jackson said. “They had us on the edge at first. We were down fourth quarter, [50 seconds] left. We came out and went through all this adversity at practice; coach [Saban] had been talking about it all week, so we came here to try and get the job done.”
When the offense tied it up to send it to overtime, the defense had to wait to do its job again. With a 20-13 lead, it did just that. A dropped pass was followed by an incompletion. On third down, senior defensive back Jarrick Williams was in coverage, which led to another incompletion. On fourth down, junior cornerback Cyrus Jones did his job and Alabama left Baton Rouge with a win.
The defense spent most of the second half on the field. LSU had the ball for just over 23 minutes in the second half and converted five of 13 on third down and one of two on fourth.
The Tigers came back to tie Alabama 10-10 in the third quarter on a field goal. For more than 24 minutes, neither team scored. The Crimson Tide’s defense bent but refused to break, allowing 154 yards after the second quarter.
“It came down to the end, and it was a tough, physical game,” junior linebacker Reggie Ragland said. “At the end of the game we showed them we wanted it more. You can see what kind of team we’ve got. We kept fighting.”
