TUSCALOOSA — Nearly eight years of frustration wasn't going to wash away easily.

No. 2 LSU (9-0, 5-0) struck first Saturday and began tightening its group with another pair of touchdowns in the final 30 seconds of the first half.

No. 3 Alabama (8-1, 5-1) wouldn't let a 31-game home winning streak and eight straight defeats of its SEC West rivals go without an epic fight fitting of another "Game of the Century" moniker.

But in the final minutes, senior quarterback Joe Burrow and once again rose to the occasion and helped etch this season into history.

With the Crimson Tide continuing to breathe closer and closer down the Tigers' collective neck, their record-setting passer engineered a seven-play, 75-yard drive that inspired his teammates to lift him on their shoulders in postgame celebration.

A 7-yard touchdown run by junior running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire helped stretch a 5-point lead to 12, and LSU escapade an eventual 46-41 shootout to claim its first victory in the series since Nov. 5, 2011.

"I'm so happy for that team right now and that coaching staff and the state of Louisiana," an emotional coach Ed Orgeron said afterward. "Now I might be able to go to the 7-Eleven and get me a Monster or a Red Bull, and they won't have to tell me, 'Coach O, you've gotta beat those guys.' I'll tell 'em, 'I beat 'em. You can watch the game.'"

Alabama marched the opening drive quickly into the red zone with a series of big plays in Tua Tagovailoa's return from an Oct. 19 ankle injury.

But the ball slipped from the junior quarterback on a scramble inside the 5-yard line, and his Heisman-hopeful counterpart made sure to capitalize.

LSU drove 92 yards down the field in six plays, capped by passes of 23 yards to Ja'Marr Chase, 18 yards to Justin Jefferson and then the 33-yard strike to Chase at the goal line.

The touchdown was the Tigers' first score on a first drive against the Crimson Tide since 2007 and first touchdown since 2006.

"That was the mindset," junior center Lloyd Cushenberry III said. "We didn't wanna come in here calm and relaxed. We wanted to come in here with an attitude on our mind and set the tone from the first snap."

LSU stopped Tagovailoa and company for the first three possessions and stretched its early advantage to 10-0 on a 40-yard field goal by freshman Cade York.

Alabama finally came alive as sophomore punt returner Jaylen Waddle broke an immediate tackle attempt and wound his way 77 yards to the end zone to pull back to within 10-7.

The teams traded blows from there — a 75-yard drive for the Tigers, capped by a 29-yard touchdown from Burrow to Terrace Marshall Jr., followed by a quick 64-yard strike from Tagovailoa to junior wide receiver and Louisiana native DeVonta Smith.

But LSU appeared to begin cruising away to a statement in the final minutes of the half.

"We know we're the better team," junior linebacker Patrick Queen said. "We watched those guys on film. They're not the same like they used to be, so we just knew that we were the better team."

York sailed a 45-yard kick over the crossbar to push the advantage back to 19-16.

The Tigers' defense forced a three-and-out to set up a 61-yard drive and 1-yard Edwards-Helaire touchdown leap over the linemen and into the end zone with 26 seconds on the clock.

Queen intercepted Tagovailoa on the next play from scrimmage, and Burrow found Edwards-Helaire for a 13-yard score and 33-13 lead six seconds before the half.

"When we went in at halftime, we were preaching that we had 30 more minutes," junior safety JaCoby Stevens said. "'We have our foot on their throat, and we can't let up.'"

The Crimson Tide held LSU scoreless on three third-quarter drives, forcing a Burrow fumble and a pair of punts.

And junior running back Najee Harris rushed 10 times for 80 yards in the period and caught three passes for 44 yards and an acrobatic touchdown to trim the gap to 33-20.

Harris added another score on the ground on the third play of the fourth quarter to slice that margin further to 33-27.

And the rivals continued battling toward their dramatic conclusion.

"There was no panic on the sideline," Burrow said. "We knew we had to go down and score at the end of th game. We knew we were probably gonna have to score twice. So I just went around and told my guys, 'Hey, if we score two more times, we're gonna win the game.' And that's exactly what we did."

A 5-yard Edwards-Helaire run stretched the lead to 39-27, with a failed two-point conversion.

Tagovailoa capped a methodical, 14-play, 75-yard drive with a 5-yard connection with junior wide receiver Jerry Jeudy with 5:32 remaining to pull back to within 39-34

And Burrow and company's 75-yard answer and 7-yard Edwards-Helaire run with just 1:37 left on the clock appeared to all but ice away the victory with a 46-34 lead.

Tagovailoa found Smith 85 yards down the left sideline to keep Crimson Tide hope alive.

But Jefferson safely secured an onside kick attempt and allowed Burrow and Edwards-Helaire to wind down the clock.

"Sixty minutes," Orgeron said. "We knew we were gonna have to make plays. We knew it was gonna be a 60-minute game. Nothing's easy when you're going against a team like this that hasn't lost here in a long time, I imagine. We knew we were gonna have to make the plays down the road."

Burrow finished 31-for-39 with 393 yards and three touchdowns through the air and ran 14 times for another 64 yards.

Edwards-Helaire rushed 20 times for 103 yards and three scores and caught nine passes for another 77 yards and a touchdown.

Chase led the team with 140 receiving yards on six catches, and Jefferson caught seven balls for 79 yards.

"When the ball is in Joe's hands, I'm confident," Stevens said. "I'm confident he's gonna make a play. We have weapons all around Joe, and Joe's a playmaker."

Added Jefferson: "Tonight we just showed that we are a dominant offense, that we can score points on a big-time team. So that's definitely a great thing for us."

Tagovailoa finished 21-for-40 for 418 yards, four touchdowns and one interception.

Smith led all players with 213 yards and two scores on seven catches.

Harris rushed 19 times for a game-high 146 yards and touchdown and caught three passes for another 44 yards.

Jeudy caught five passes for 71 yards and a score, and Henry Ruggs III hauled in three passes for 68 yards.

"It's been a long time coming," Orgeron said. "We felt all week that we were the better football team. We said it to our team on Monday, 'We're the better football team,' but we had to go ahead and prove it. We proved it today.

"There were some things that we did very well today. There are some things that we obviously can get better at. Obviously when get up ahead, we've gotta have a killer instinct. But give them some credit. They know how to play football."