LSU overcomes turnovers and penalties to upend Alabama

TUSCALOOSA | After his third-ranked Tigers had held off the 17th-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide 41-34 on Saturday night, LSU head coach Les Miles jogged to the Northeast corner of Bryant-Denny Stadium to bask in the chants of “We Love Les.”

About an hour earlier, the same LSU fan section might have wanted to throw cups and bottles at their head coach as the Tigers were trailing 27-17 late in the third quarter and appeared to be playing their way out of a national-championship race.

Three interceptions thrown by Matt Flynn in the second quarter and more than 100 yards in penalties allowed the Crimson Tide to build its 10-point lead.

“I tell you that’s as many mistakes as I’ve seen in a football game in my life,” Miles admitted. “I promise you this, that will never happen again. I promise you that. Our football team will be coached very aggressively from this point forward. They’ll never play that poorly again.”

LSU rallied to tie the game, but fell behind again after a 61-yard punt return for a touchdown by Javier Arenas midway through the fourth quarter made the score 34-27.

Again the Tigers had to claw their way back to tie the game and then take advantage of an Alabama fumble for their 41-34 margin.

“I can only tell you that there’s a fighting heart in that room,” Miles said. “I enjoy coaching that team. I don’t know if they’ll enjoy me when they see me in Baton Rouge on Monday.”

Miles, who used an expletive to attack the Alabama program in the offseason, changed his stance following his team’s hard-fought victory. He tried to diffuse the pre-game tension with compliments about the Crimson Tide’s gritty performance.

“I want to say I thought Alabama played a damn good football game,” Miles said. “I thought they put pressure on us from the start.

“Frankly, this had nothing to do with who coaches for them or who coaches LSU. This is about two football teams and the position in the [SEC] West. I credit Nick Saban. He’s done a damn good job with this football team.”

The Tigers jumped out to a 17-3 lead in the opening minutes of the second quarter, but after that LSU had a first-half meltdown.

Flynn threw three interceptions and Alabama rallied with 17 points for a 20-17 halftime lead.

“We’ve got to stop doing this,” Flynn said. “This team has a lot of heart, and a lot of grown men out here that understand they’ve got to keep fighting until the end because you never know what will happen.

“We just came out and fought hard. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’m certainly proud to be a part of this team. When it comes down to it, this offense just finds a way to make plays and put points on the board.”

Besides the three interceptions, the Tigers were penalized 14 times for 130 yards. The mental mistakes had LSU playing from behind the rest of the game.

“We don’t have to do this to ourselves,” Miles said. “This was quality guys, veterans, leaders of our football team. I’m not talking about freshmen, first-time players. I’m talking about guys that have been through the wars. I can promise you that will be addressed slowly, painfully and over a long amount of time.”