Scott, Williams Prove LSU Has SEC’s Best Rushing Attack

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Charles Scott, LSU gouge Bama defense for 201 yards

by Matt Reynolds
Tiger Rag Assistant Editor

(At left) Keiland Williams rumbles foryardage against the Tide (Photo by Steve Franz/LSU)

Once again on Saturday, the LSU Tigers proved they can run the ball on any team in the conference.

For the eighth time this season, the Tigers rushed for more than 160 yards against their opponent, as they chalked up 201 rushing yards against the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Prior to Saturday, Alabama allowed an average of 65.6 yards rushing per game – the second-best mark in the nation – and had surrendered 100 rushing yards once (158 to Ole Miss).

While most of the talk all week was how the problem for LSU would be moving the ball against the Alabama front, it turned out that Jarrett Lee was the Tigers worst enemy and not Terrance “Mt.” Cody.

Lee’s four interceptions, including one returned for a touchdown, doomed the Tigers.

“It’s frustrating in a way,” LSU running back Keilan Williams said of the interceptions. “But who can do a better job than (Jarrett) Lee. Lee is a great quarterback. When he is on, he is on. And he will make a few mistakes but that’s just the nature of the game and we will have to rebound. I can’t do any better and no one else in that locker room can do any better, so Lee is our guy and we are sticking with him.

“Offensively, we moved the football,” Miles said. “We did good things, rushed the football well, and the story is we didn’t manage our mistakes.”

Running back Charles Scott led the way with 92 yards on the ground; the highest individual total against Alabama this season (Arkansas’ Michael Smith had 91). Williams wasn’t far behind with 13 carries and 88 yards.

“You have to be able to throw the ball and run the ball,” Williams said. “I thought we were able to control the line of scrimmage tonight. We were able to break off some nice runs. As far as the passing situation goes, we left some plays on the field and we feel like we could have done some things better.”

Alabama opponents had managed just one rushing touchdown in nine games this season. Scott doubled that total on his own Saturday.

The game LSU was not able to run for over 160 yards as a team was against Florida, who the Tigers trailed 17 points after the first quarter of play, making it virtually impossible to establish a running game.

LSU (6-3, 3-3 SEC) has rushed for over 200 yards four times this season (Appalachian State, North Texas, Tulane and Alabama). On the season, the Tigers have rushed for 1,690 yards and now rank third in the conference in rushing offense and 28th nationally.

“We shot ourselves in the foot a few times out there today,” Williams said. “It’s real disappointing. You kind of find yourself looking for answers after a game like today. You sit and question what you could have done differently or what the team could have done differently. Walking off the field tonight in second place was very disappointing. Especially to a team we felt that we were better than.”

Scott is now closing in on the 1,000 yard mark for the season after another bruising performance against a salty Alabama defense. The junior now has 981 yards on 156 attempts while pilling up 13 touchdowns.

Still, a disappointed Scott said after the game he thought the blame shouldn’t be thrown on Lee for the loss, but on the team for not being able to take advantage of situations where the Tigers could have put the game away.

“Jarrett Lee’s interceptions are absolutely not the reason we lost the game,” Scott said. “There were so many times we could have made some plays and take over the game and we didn’t do it….We had one thing in mind today regardless of who we were playing and that was we were going to come out and play our ass off. I really felt like we did that tonight. When you have a change to take over the game you have to put your foot on the pedal and run with it. We didn’t do that.”