re: We had Mett, Hill, Landry, and OBJ in 2013 and got smashed in BDS

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If you or anyone can logically walk me through how our D is responsible for our offensive production in BDS the last 2 trips I'd really appreciate it, cause I'm just not seeing it

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Well - not speaking to late game collapses in previous years, the defense was doing "okay" on Saturday through halftime. I didn't like the little collapse at the end to give up 3 very late, but at that point in the game, they had taken Bama's best shot - forced Coker to make plays (and he's very streaky - he wasn't doing it in the first half, consistently) and only gave up 1 long drive.

So, despite a lopsided TOP - they only gave up 13 points in 17 or 18 minutes of game time (give or take.) Not stellar - but definitely playing well enough to win. If we'd flipped the TOP in the second half to even it up, I would have expected the defense to hold Bama to 20 points for the game.

But, we spotted them 7 points at the beginning of the second half. After that, I knew the game was lost, LSU knew it and Bama damned sure knew it - particularly as well as they were playing on defense.

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If you or anyone can logically walk me through how our D is responsible for our offensive production in BDS the last 2 trips I'd really appreciate it, cause I'm just not seeing it

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It's pretty straightforward, if you take the time to look at it. Alabama's defense is very good, and you need multiple possessions to be able to eventually wear them down. You need to get their offense off the field so the defense isn't resting a lot.

Alabama's been doing this: force us 3 and out, go on a 10 play drive and either score or we finally stop them, then they force us 3 and out again. As that continues through the game, their defense gets a lot of rest, ours is worn out more and more, and our offense begins to feel pressured/desperate.

2013- that long opening drive to start the second half set the tone.
2015- even more obvious. Saban was going for it on 4th down on the opening possession, twice. We held once, but the time of possession and the wear on the defense had already begun.

2011- Saban didn't play this way, and we won. We didn't score a ton, but we held them in check, and by the late 4th quarter and OT, our players were the ones pushing theirs around.

What did the game plan appear to be Saturday night? Run Fournette into a wall, right? In other words, rely on your RB, your best player. How many carries did you expect him to get? He had 28 against Florida; he had 19 against Bama. That's 9 less, and if you figure he's going to run it a lot on every drive, that's at least 3 possessions more (running all 3 downs) for him to reach that number. We lost one possession with the INT, but got one back with the fumble recovery.

it's very unlikely we could win that game anyway, but consider the idea that we don't throw the INT, and maybe we get a FG to tie it. In the process, hammer their line with Fournette a few more times in the process. Hold them to shorter drives a couple times in the game, get Fournette carrying more late... he did finally make a couple of runs when we recovered the fumble and scored. What might he have done with 6-9 carries after that; does he finally get some traction, maybe finish around 80-90 yds? It's possible.

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Don't listen to those 'screen pass' comments. Their LB's didn't rush every play. They were in position for those passes. And no amount of flea flickers and Madden play calls would have saved us while our D was gassed and our protection wasn't good enough.

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Bama knew LSU wouldn't challenge the middle of the field with underneath/intermediate routes.