Keelon Russell Headlines Tide Up, Tide Down From Alabama's Win Over LSU

BATON ROUGE, La. — For the first time in a month, Alabama played like a top-five team.

The Crimson Tide walked into Death Valley and did what needed to be done. This game had everything. Big-time players made big-time plays. The defense made stops in key moments, and the offense took advantage of them. Kalen DeBoer's team earned a signature win in style in the final annual meeting between two historic programs.

It wasn't all pretty, and we'll get into the good and the bad in this week's Tide Up, Tide Down, BamaCentral's reactionary postgame series that evaluates some of the best and worst players, moments, and trends from Alabama's season.

Tide Up: Keelon Russell

Russell looked exponentially more comfortable tonight than he did in Knoxville three weeks ago. It's one thing to play clean football at home against a bad Texas A&M team. It's another to do it on the road, in an atmosphere hailed as one of the toughest in the nation, against a top-15 team fighting for its season. Russell went 17-for-24 with 206 yards and three touchdowns, throwing all of them after having to be evaluated in the medical tent for an injury. The most important number of the day: zero turnovers.

He had the explosives — a 21-yard connection with Kaleb Edwards to set Alabama up on the goal line and a 57-yard Rico Scott catch-and-run jump to mind — and he had the checkdowns. He ran sparingly, but effectively. He threw the ball away when necessary. He took just two sacks against a defense that had the second-most in the conference. And he overcame a run game that was once again stagnant to keep Alabama's offense afloat in a game that could have gone haywire.

All season, Russell has sworn that he doesn't view himself as a young quarterback, but a veteran instead. He lived up to that statement today.

Tide Up: Devan Thompkins

Thompkins has skyrocketed up NFL Draft boards, even in the midst of a five-game stretch without a sack or tackle for a loss. His size, athleticism, and versatility were enough for scouts to assess the former USC Trojan as a Day One prospect despite a lack of production.

Those scouts look very smart right now. Thompkins sacked LSU QB Sam Leavitt with 43 seconds to play in the first half, knocking the Tigers out of field goal range to end the drought. On the very next snap, he again generated pressure and forced a desperate Leavitt to release an ill-advised ball right into the hands of Luke Metz for an interception that ensured Alabama kept the lead going into halftime.

Then, in the fourth quarter, Thompkins came up with another game-defining moment, sacking Leavitt on fourth down to set Alabama up just outside of the red zone, where the offense would score moments later to take a three-score lead.

The whole pass rush deserves its flowers. Yhonzae Pierre had a sack. So did Terrance Green in his return from injury. Fatutoa Henry built on his breakout game against the Aggies with consistent pressure. But the story of the day was Thompkins. He was paid to be a game-wrecker, and he was one tonight.

Tide Up: Chuck McDonald III

McDonald has fought tooth and nail for every single rep in a deep secondary, and he continues to show why he deserves more.

A sequence in the second quarter stole the show. With LSU in field goal range, McDonald blitzed Leavitt and drew what should have been called a holding call on star left tackle Jordan Seaton. The no-call left him completely out of the play, but as Leavitt scrambled, the sophomore somehow managed to catch him from behind to set up third-and-long.

Two plays later, McDonald again brought pressure and used his defensive back instincts to deflect Leavitt's pass behind the line of scrimmage to force a turnover on downs. Outside of those two plays, consistency was the word of the day for McDonald, who had no lapses to speak of. He is likely due for a bigger role moving forward, especially with the following in mind.

Tide Down: Carmelo O'Neal

It was a rough showing for O'Neal, who whiffed on multiple tackles in the win. The worst came late in the second quarter, on a 31-yard completion from Leavitt to Eugene Wilson III on a second-and-20. Had O'Neal made the tackle, LSU would've faced third-and-long, and likely would've had to punt, giving Alabama enough time for a true two-minute drill.

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Instead, the Tigers moved into field-goal range, and only failed to score because of Metz's aforementioned interception. It's surprising that McDonald didn't take more of O'Neal's snaps in the second half. If Zabien Brown has to miss more time, I expect that to happen.

Tide Down: Clean Defense

Alabama's defense has earned the "boom or bust" label. This defense will give up yardage. It will miss tackles. It will commit penalties. All three happened at Tiger Stadium, and O'Neal was far from the only culprit. The 13 points that Alabama allowed were great. The 457 yards allowed, not so much.

Metz's interception and the four fourth-down stops were the headliners, as they should be. This defense has a penchant for big moments, and that should be celebrated. But we have to acknowledge a reality of this group: it puts itself in bad situations. Remember how the two losses were sealed. There was the idiotic Dijon Lee penalty that allowed Georgia to go into victory formation, and there was the surgical nine-and-a-half-minute game-sealing drive that Tennessee put together in Neyland.

Today, everything worked out. Bravo. That's not always going to happen.

Tide Down: The Alabama-LSU Rivalry

LSU fans started streaming for the exits in the final minutes after tight end Trey'Dez Green was stopped on a fourth down in the red zone. Following that play, I walked along the sideline to get to Alabama's end of the field, and on my walk over there, I overheard a group of fans talking.

"We've just got to beat Texas and Tennessee, and we'll be fine."

I'm sorry?

We'll be fine?

The Tigers just lost their third game. They lost it convincingly, at that. "We'll be fine" is not a statement anyone should be able to say right now in relation to the LSU program.

Alabama-LSU has been one of the most relevant rivalries of the past two decades, as a result of the magnitude of the games the teams played. Obviously, there's the "Game of the Century" and Alabama's shutout win in that year's national championship rematch. But we'll jump to this decade, starting in 2022, when Alabama, with arguably the best quarterback in the nation, missed the College Football Playoff because of the Tigers' game-winning two-point conversion. That was it — Crimson Tide fans walked out of Tiger Stadium that day knowing the season was over.

In 2024, the two teams met here in the same position as this season, each with two losses. Alabama's 42-13 victory spelled the absolute end for Brian Kelly's team's playoff chances. And remember, Alabama still had no margin for error — the Crimson Tide lost to Oklahoma two weeks later and had to play in the ReliaQuest Bowl.

We should probably be happy that the SEC opted not to preserve the Alabama-LSU game as an annual matchup, because maybe, maybe, if these teams only play every other year, we'll be able to fool ourselves into thinking this game still matters. But make no mistake: the Alabama-LSU rivalry is dead. It's over. Pack it up.

There is no room for this rivalry to exist if the results of the games the teams play against each other don't alter seasons. It won't this year. And with the 24-team playoff, it likely never will again.

It sure was a good run.

Watch Keelon Russell's postgame press conference from Alabama's 31-13 win over LSU:

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