‘We had a chance’: Lane Kiffin baffled after LSU loss to Alabama

The No. 14 LSU Tigers moved the ball up and down the field against No. 5 Alabama on Saturday night, outgaining the Crimson Tide by 172 yards in Baton Rouge. But that didn’t matter much on the scoreboard, as LSU fell 31-13 for its third loss of the season.

After the game, head coach Lane Kiffin admitted that he was struggling to make sense of it. Kiffin pointed to some impressive individual numbers from his offense and said he couldn’t believe they only added up to 13 points, calling the loss “really disappointing.”

LSU’s Rough Night

LSU entered the season with national title expectations in Kiffin’s first year in Baton Rouge, after he rebuilt the roster through the transfer portal. But the Tigers had already lost twice entering Saturday’s game against Alabama, including an emotional loss to Ole Miss, Kiffin’s former team, and an overtime loss at Kentucky.

On Saturday, LSU went 0-for-4 on fourth down, the most attempts without a conversion in Kiffin’s career. The Tigers also made four trips to the red zone and came away with just one touchdown and one field goal.

LSU briefly took the lead late in the third quarter, but Alabama answered with a 32-yard punt return by Ryan Coleman-Williams. On the next play, Keelon Russell hit Cederian Morgan for a 25-yard touchdown, and the Crimson Tide scored the final 21 points of the game.

The loss dropped LSU to 6-3, and its chances of making the College Football Playoff fell from 51% to 25%, according to ESPN’s Allstate Playoff Predictor.

‘We had a chance’

After the game, Kiffin pointed out that his offense put up plenty of yards, but it didn’t translate to points.

“I was looking at a sheet and it said Sam [Leavitt] had 380 yards passing and Jackson Harris had 11 [receptions] for 166 [yards] and Trey’Dez [Green] had 10 [receptions] for 85 [yards]. I wouldn’t think that would equal 13 points,” Kiffin said, via ESPN’s Alex Scarborough. “But you got to score touchdowns in the red zone.”

When asked what’s keeping his team from making winning plays, Kiffin didn’t have much of an answer.

“I don’t know,” he said. “We had a chance.”

Kiffin also admitted that he didn’t expect LSU to be 6-3 at this point in the season, and things won’t get any easier next week, as LSU hosts Arch Manning and a Texas team coming off a controversial win over Missouri.

“No, I did not think that, but it is where we are, and we can’t change that. So, we got to go back to work. Don’t have time to sit around and feel bad. Got a top-10 team coming in here in Texas,” Kiffin said.

“It’s one thing, probably the one good thing about playing these types of teams in a row like this, ‘Hey, you got a chance to play another national game and get back on track,'” he added.