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Alabama shuts out LSU for second straight Tiger Stadium trip

LSU suffered its fourth shutout in Tiger Stadium of the past 25 years Saturday.

No. 1 Alabama (9-0, 6-0) frustrated the No. 3 Tigers (7-2, 4-2) from start to finish, 29-0, in the heavily anticipated matchup to leave its hosts without a single point for the first time since the Crimson Tide's 2016 visit.

The shutout was just LSU's fourth at home in the past 25 years — all at the hands of the Crimson Tide.

"They played flawless, I thought," coach Ed Orgeron said. "They had a good game plan, and they beat us."

The Tigers entered the fourth quarter with just 108 total yards, including -3 rushing, and finish with season lows of 196 yards and 12 yards, respectively, in the contest.

LSU's previous lows of total yards and rushing yards had come two weeks ago against No. 22 Mississippi State with 239 and 110, respectively.

The Tigers struggled to convert third downs against the Alabama defense, to the tune of 5-for-16 (31.3 percent) thanks to three fourth-quarter conversions.

And the Crimson Tide dominated the time of possession throughout the evening as a result.

LSU held Alabama scoreless on its opening drive for the first time this season.

But the Crimson Tide struck on their second and fourth possessions with a 15-yard pass from Tua Tagovailoa to Henry Ruggs III and then a 23-yard field goal from former Mandeville kicker Joseph Bulovas.

The Tigers could not answer.

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"We fought, man," Orgeron said. "It was 16-0. We fought. They made some plays, but we stopped 'em in the red zone. We were fighting our tails off. We just didn't get no help from the offense. We couldn't get nothing going. And you could feel at the end, our guys got discouraged a little bit."

And even when sophomore safety Todd Harris Jr. snatched the first interception of Tagovailoa's season, Alabama would quickly regain momentum.

The Crimson Tide forced an immediate three-and-out, and Tagovailoa found Brother Martin alumnus Irv Smith Jr. for a 25-yard touchdown two plays later to take a 16-0 lead into the half.

Tagovailoa spun a third-and-8 midway through the third quarter into a 44-yard dash to the end zone to extend that margin to 22-0.

And senior running back Damien Harris added an 8-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter to push the advantage out to 29-0 on the Bulovas extra point.

Tagovailoa completed 25 of his 42 pass attempts for 295 yards, two scores and one interception and helped the Crimson Tide convert eight of 14 third-down attempts (57.1 percent).

Harris rushed 19 times for 107 yards.

And sophomore Jerry Jeudy led six Alabama receivers with eight catches for 103 yards.

Burrow completed 18 of 35 passes for 184 yards and a fourth-quarter interception by Crimson Tide junior linebacker Mack Wilson in the end zone.

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