Ed Orgeron doubles down on hot take following close loss at Alabama

Ed Orgeron led the LSU Tigers to a near-upset in Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday, as the visiting team came just six points shy of Alabama, losing 20-14.

Before Saturday, the Tigers had gone just .500 since their national title-winning perfect season, explaining Orgeron’s impending departure as head coach. The last time LSU traveled to Alabama, Orgeron shared choice words about Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide, sparking a revenge narrative for Alabama. This season in particular, LSU’s offense has been underwhelming, its rushing attack has been largely nonexistent (save for its win over Florida) and its rushing defense was even worse. All that contributed to a 28.5-point spread favoring Alabama, but the Tigers still showed plenty of fight in keeping the game close.

After the loss, Orgeron was quick to defend his in-game decision-making on Saturday, and he even went so far as to say that LSU was the better team despite the loss.

“I still feel [we were the better team] after watching the film,” Orgeron said in LSU’s Monday afternoon press conference. “I thought our defense whooped their offense’s butt.”

LSU did not always look in position to compete with the Alabama Crimson Tide on Saturday, however. After Alabama’s 14-point second quarter, the Crimson Tide took a 14-7 lead into halftime, and Orgeron was forced to make significant defensive adjustments. Those defensive adjustments limited Alabama to just six second-half points, while creating a key late-game turnover. By relying on the blitz in the second half, Orgeron’s defense “whooped their offense’s butt.”

“We felt like we had to blitz. We felt like we had to be more diverse on defense,” Orgeron said of LSU’s halftime. “We worked our tails off last week. And I’ve got to give Coach Coyle, he’s a [defensive] analyst for us, he came up with those third-down blitzes in a couple of [big moments], and the one where we had the sack-fumble. He recommended it, we put it in. I’ve got to give the compliment to the defense; we had an adjustment period. I thought our defensive guys really, really got better during the day.”

The defense ultimately wasn’t enough, as LSU was unable to answer the calls. But Orgeron and his coaching staff was able to draw up a second-half gameplan that saw Alabama score just six points all half via two third-quarter field goals; they were scoreless for the entire fourth quarter.

Perhaps Saban could argue the same, though, as LSU scored just 14 points and turned the ball over twice in a losing effort. Even after the adjustments, Alabama’s offense still out-gained LSU, going for 308 yards of total offense compared to Orgeron’s 295.