The sun had long set in the western sky, retreating from a wretchedly familiar scene in Tiger Stadium: The stands emptying out as LSU took one in the teeth from Alabama.

As both teams played out the final few minutes of Saturday’s stunning 31-13 Crimson Tide victory, someone from LSU got the bright idea to crank up The Killers’ “Mr. Brightside” over the Tiger Stadium PA system.

Such bad timing, but so fitting. Brandon Flowers’ plaintive vocals summed up the feelings of a mournful nation of Tiger fans perfectly:

“… I just can’t look

“It’s killing me

“And taking control …”

The flip side of that hit piece was the knot of Alabama fans, reveling yet again in their happy hunting ground, taunting the vanishing LSU legions with the refrain, “We just beat the hell out of you!”

So the Crimson Tide did. For the seventh time in its last eight trips to Death Valley.

Under the current Southeastern Conference scheduling format, this marked the end of the annual LSU-Alabama series dating back to 1964. The Tide won’t be back to beat the Tigers here again until 2030.

For LSU, it can’t be long enough. The prospect of the rest of the SEC conspiring to vote LSU out of the conference probably looks pretty appealing right now.

A day that started with the bright, blue promise of a perfect — albeit daytime — kickoff in Tiger Stadium ended in the dark night of another soul-crushing loss to THAT team.

Can’t blame Nick Saban anymore. He’s a TV commentator and commercial pitchman now. Now Kalen DeBoer is the scarecrow in LSU’s post-Halloween cornfield. He’s 3-0 against LSU.

And Lane Kiffin? LSU’s highly prized, highly touted, highly paid first-year coach is now 0-6 combined against Alabama (where he was once offensive coordinator) while at LSU and Ole Miss.

So typical. And so much for spending so many millions trying to change what seems like LSU’s fate against its most dominant foe.

Kiffin had far fewer answers for how this game got away from LSU than he did members of his Victory Hill entourage (Victory Hill, that’s funny) on Saturday that included Kevin Costner, Shaquille O’Neal, Paul Skenes and Angel Reese. To his credit, Kiffin didn’t try to continue the ridiculous wail that the SEC put this game in the daytime to try to water down LSU’s home-field advantage.

“It is where we are,” Kiffin said after the Tigers fell to 6-3, 3-3 in the SEC. “We have to go back to work. We can’t sit around and feel bad.”

Well, you can, but it will do little good. Texas drops anchor in Tiger Stadium a week from now, needing to win to stay in the thick of the College Football Playoff chase.

Before this game, LSU was one of those CFP contenders. I suppose you could find an empty chalkboard somewhere on campus and draw up an Oppenheimer-ish equation that still results in the Tigers making the 12-team playoff field if they win out against the Longhorns, Tennessee and Arkansas.

No need for such academic pursuits. Bama dropped the big one on LSU on Saturday.

Statistics can be strange. If you squint just right and look at them from a certain angle, it’s hard to comprehend how the Tigers lost this one — or at least lost so badly.

LSU outgained Alabama 457-285. Sam Leavitt had 380 yards passing compared to Keelon Russell’s 206.

But a deeper dive into the numbers told the tale of why the Tigers’ operation was a sort of success but the patient still died.

LSU bled out in the red zone — really anywhere on Alabama’s side of the field. Eight of the Tigers’ drives got inside the Tide 40, and four of them reached the red zone. And yet LSU managed just 13 points.

The Tigers had a litany of laments. Missed fourth-down conversions (LSU was 0 of 4). A missed field goal. A Leavitt interception.

And yet, late in the third quarter, LSU overcame both Alabama and itself to take a 13-10 lead at the 2:44 mark on a 5-yard toss right touchdown by Dilin Jones.

The Tigers, who trailed 10-3 at halftime, finally had the momentum. As day turned into night, Tiger Stadium was rocking — and not because of The Killers or Shaq pumping cannon-fired T-shirts into the stands.

Across the way, Alabama was just tuning its instruments for a big finish. Right off the bat, first play, Russell threw a sideline pattern that Rico Scott turned into a 57-yard catch-and-run to the LSU 18. Four plays later, Alabama was back in front for good as Russell found a wide-open Josh Ford in the end zone on a 7-yard touchdown pass — more of a lob, really — with 36 seconds left in the quarter.

The Tigers were still very much in it going to the fourth quarter down 17-13, but instead of rallying, they imploded. LSU went turnover on downs, punt, turnover on downs and turnover on downs the rest of the way, plus a muffed punt (the Tigers lost the turnover battle 2-0 and the sack battle 4-2) as Bama went punt, touchdown, touchdown, punt, victory formation.

All too familiar for LSU, which now tries to regroup and wait for next year.

At least next year won’t include a game against Alabama.