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For abut 90 percent of the game on Saturday, LSU played well enough to beat Alabama, minus a few breakdowns. One of the biggest questions: why weren’t the Tigers playing tight coverage on Amari Cooper?
There were a few instances, particularly late in the game, where the Tigers showed they weren’t quite ready to hang. While people will point to Blake Sims leading the Crimson Tide down the field in the final seconds to tie the game, but LSU’s defense could have avoided that situation.
In the second quarter, Cooper made his presence known more so than at any other point in the game. On Alabama’s first drive of the quarter, he had 2 catches for 31 yards. On both grabs, one of them a third-and-long conversion that went for an easy 20 yards, LSU cornerback Jalen Collins was sitting five to 10 yards off the line of scrimmage lined up across from Cooper. The star receiver simply stayed underneath the coverage for effortless grabs and first down conversions.
Cooper’s touchdown catch on the next drive wasn’t as egregious. However, as you can see above, Collins is once again backpedaling at the line after the snap instead of getting up on Cooper. There are pros and cons to playing Cooper like this, as the junior is equally adept at running past a defensive back as he is making him miss. In Alabama’s offense this year, Sims tries to get the ball to Cooper within a few yards of the line of scrimmage quite often.
LSU actually did a fair job on Cooper, given that starting cornerback Rashard Robinson, expected to see plenty of time lined up across from Alabama’s record-setting pass catcher, was suspended for the game. Cooper still had 8 catches for 83 yards and a touchdown, but he did have a few uncharacteristic drops, perhaps because he was concerned about LSU’s hard-hitting back seven. Even so, those three big catches had LSU’s coaching staff called for the defensive backs to apply some physicality at the line of scrimmage.
A former freelance journalist from Philadelphia, Brett has made the trek down to SEC country to cover the greatest conference in college football.
