BATON ROUGE, La. — At the half of No. 15 LSU football’s Week 10 matchup against No. 9 Alabama on Saturday, Nov. 7, at Tiger Stadium, it was still anybody’s game.

By the third quarter, it was a dogfight between the longtime SEC foes. All of that came crashing down for the Tigers in the fourth quarter as Alabama’s quarterback Keelon Russell went off to lead it to a 31-13 win over the Tigers.

“I mean, you guys see the product of the game, so I don’t think it was that good of an experience,” LSU safety Ty Benefield said when asked about how it was going up against Russell. “But you’ve got to learn from that. Have to just be better.”

Neutralizing dual-threat quarterbacks like Russell have been a struggle for Tigers throughout the season with their two other losses coming against teams with dual-threat signal callers in Ole Miss and Kentucky. Those struggles continued for LSU against Russell as dual-threat backs are becoming kryptonite for the Tigers defense.

LSU football’s defense can’t execute plan for Keelon Russell

Heading into this matchup, Kiffin and his staff knew they had to have a game plan for Russell, who had already scored a combined 24 touchdowns entering the matchup. Limiting his scrambling ability was going to be key, and for the most part, LSU contained him as he rushed for just 25 yards on eight carries.

But when the Tide needed Russell’s legs the most, he delivered.

“We had a hard time getting him on the ground and catching him,” Kiffin said. “He outran us a number of times for first downs and for really critical plays. I thought we had a lot of stuff covered at times throughout the game, and we did really well in pass coverage most of the game. And then he took off running, and if you don’t get him to the ground and let him extend plays, he can play really well.”

When he wasn’t beating out LSU defenders on the ground, Russell was picking apart its secondary, throwing for 206 yards and three touchdowns, completing more than 70% of his passes. Outside of the numbers, Russell and Alabama also took advantage of LSU’s mistakes.

LSU’s special teams struggled late in the game, allowing Alabama wide receiver Ryan Coleman-Williams to return a punt for 32 yards. That return set up a quick one-play score for Russell, a score that sent LSU into a downward spiral for the remainder of the game.

“Offense wasn’t able to get going, and the defense wasn’t able to step up how we wanted to,” LSU linebacker TJ Dottery said. “Regardless of wherever they got the ball — in the red zone or backed up — I think we should have stepped up better for sure.”

LSU’s defense won’t have to wait long to get the sour taste of defeat out of its mouths, facing another dual-threat quarterback next week back at Tiger Stadium, hosting Arch Manning and No. 5 Texas on Saturday, Nov. 14.