BATON ROUGE, La. – By the time the fourth quarter began, Death Valley had turned into a ghost town. The roars of the pregame festivities – including an imported tiger named Omar – had been silenced by an Alabama offense that couldn’t be stopped and a Tiger offense that never escaped the cage.

In what was billed as a College Football Playoff elimination game, No. 11 Alabama ran through Death Valley and took down No. 15 LSU. Fresh off a bye-week, Jalen Milroe’s showed renewed explosiveness and carried the Crimson Tide to a 42- 13 victory.

“I felt like that was probably the most complete game we’ve played,” said head coach Kalen DeBoer.

“We’ve done that to some extent here the last two games against Missouri and tonight. So coming into a tough environment, just play after play and just staying the course.”

Alabama will now wait to see where they’re ranked in Monday night’s new College Football Playoff Committee rankings – which are sure to be chaotic thanks to No. 16 Ole Miss knocking off No. 3 Georgia and No. 4 Miami falling to unranked Georgia Tech – while LSU is likely to fall out of playoff contention.

Milroe is back

In the weeks prior, it was clear that Milroe hadn’t been at 100%. While he wasn’t listed on the injury report, both his play and Alabama’s gameplan showed otherwise. In their road loss against Tennessee, Milroe threw the ball 45 times and rushed for just 11 yards. Even in their 34-0 win over Missouri, he waited until the second half to utilize his biggest weapon and put the game away.

But after a bye-week to rest, Milroe utilized his elite speed as he weaved his way into the endzone from 39 yards away on Alabama’s opening drive. From that point onward, it looked like Alabama’s gameplan had returned to being centered around their star quarterback.

When they’d completed their march through Death Valley, Milroe finished with 185 yards rushing and 4 touchdowns on the ground. His success powered the Crimson Tide offense to 311 total rushing yards – and he broke the school record for rushing touchdowns in a season.

“I think there’s a lot of other guys that helped him get to those spots where we were ahead in the chains. A lot of smaller gains that get you into positions where your whole playbook is available to you,” DeBoer said.

“And obviously, he’s got a superpower when it comes to running the football.”

Undefeated no more

Head Coach Bryan Kelly’s LSU had been undefeated in night games at Death Valley, but their inability to stop Milroe’s record breaking night cost them any chance at extending the streak.

“Look, if you are watching the game, you’re like, what did these guys do for two weeks? We have a scheme to stop the quarterback. We did not get that done,” Kelly said after the loss.

Tiger quarterback Garrett Nussmeier and the rest of LSU’s offense struggled to keep up with the Tide’s scoring. Despite a kickoff return of 50 yards on their first drive and a 45-yard outside run from Caden Durham, they were forced to settle for a field goal.

After being down 21-6 at halftime, LSU’s first drive out of the locker room didn’t go much better. The Tigers managed to pick up a pair of fourth-down conversions, but Nussmeier’s ill-advised pass in the redzone was picked off by linebacker Deontae Lawson to all but seal the game.

“I think that’s one of the biggest plays there in the game,” DeBoer said. “There’s a lot of them, right? But coming out of the locker room, that feeling where, hey, just don’t give them a touchdown early or give them any points. And to take that wind out of their sails, get the takeaway and then, I believe, we went right down the field and got the points, big swing of energy there and momentum.”

Nussmeier finished Saturday night’s game with 239 yards passing, 1 touchdown and 3 turnovers (2 interceptions and a fumble). Alabama scored 21 points off of the turnovers.

Mike Omar the Tiger

The environment – especially for a night game – is always raucous in Death Valley, but the Alabama game featured something not seen in almost a decade: a live tiger on the sidelines.

It was confirmed to the Louisiana Illuminator that the state Gov. Jeff Landry’s – literal – pet project had come to life and that a real tiger would be on the sideline of the game, it just wouldn’t be Mike VII. Instead it would be a tiger imported from Florida named Omar Bradley. The move didn’t come without controversy.

LSU’s first tiger Mike I arrived on campus in October of 1936 and since that moment, the school has had a tiger that resided in a habitat just across from the stadium. Traditionally, Mike was placed inside a cage and situated so the opposing team had to pass by him on the way to the locker room. LSU stopped the tradition in 2016 following the death of Mike VI.

But thanks to Landry’s lobbying, a tiger was brought in from the World Wild Exotic Animal Talent Agency, operated by Mitchel Kalmanson. Just hours before the game, PETA filed a complaint with Louisiana’s Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, accusing Kalmanson of violating a state law that prohibits Tigers – among other animals – from being imported into the state.

Omar was displayed in a truck-driven cage on the sideline before the game, but was wheeled off minutes later. Animal rights activists, like PETA, argue that subjecting a tiger to the noisy environment of a place like a football stadium constitutes animal abuse.

Up Next

Alabama will return home to take on Mercer Saturday, Nov. 16. Kick is set for 1 p.m. CT.