What Alabama Head Coach Kalen DeBoer Said After LSU Win

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- No. 4 Alabama football got off to a slow start, but ultimately returned from its bye week with a 20-9 victory over the LSU Tigers to remain unbeaten in SEC play.

The Crimson Tide had another successful end of half drive to take the halftime score to 17-3, but the Tigers scored on the opening drive of the second half to keep the game close. Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer spent time with reporters after the game to talk about what went right and what went wrong for the Crimson Tide.

This article will be updated with a full transcript and video from DeBoer's post game press conference.

Full Transcript

Kalen DeBoer's Opening Statement

"Yeah, you bet. It's always good to get a W, definitely not satisfied with the way we played at times. Made enough plays, but certainly got to continue to improve, got to get back to work tomorrow and our guys know that. Proud of the defense holding them to field goals. Four red zone attempts and walking away with nine points. That's a great job by those guys. Penalties, I like what I see there and then turnovers, won the turnover battle. So obviously, a big play there at the end, and just there's some plays out there that we've got to make. That will help a lot of our offense, and defensively, I thought we fought for four quarters. Quietly just going out there, taking care of business, really locked in on anything that we might've saw that was a little bit different, but again, for the most part we found a way to win and that's what matters."

Do you feel like the defense has turned a corner?

"I feel like they've been playing pretty solid. I feel like, whether it's turned a corner, I feel like they keep getting better. Last week, I think there were some things we gave up an explosive on one play, and I thought we were stingy at times. They got a short field last week, two weeks ago I guess, against South Carolina. I think there is a mindset that they have. I think there's a mindset that is built on trust. Guys are doing their job. There's less of the explosive plays where one guy makes a mistake, doesn't fit a gap. We're seeing less and less of that and so, again, just doing your job, understanding how to play certain blocks, knowing where your help's at, leveraging, and then guys getting to the ball. They have a mindset right now where if they hustle they will end up creating breaks. We just missed a couple opportunities, I think, with the ball on the ground or the ball getting tipped in the air. We'll keep making those plays, and they're timely at the end of the game and early in the game to give us a little cushion there in the beginning. I like the way they play. I like their mindset, and I'm confident they'll go back again to work again tomorrow."

How have you seen the defense step up in critical moments?

"Yeah, I think again, when the turnover happened tonight and they get put in that spot where it is a short field they did a nice job. Even got inside the 10 if I remember right, and we just keep reminding the guys to continue to make them snap it again, and our crowd comes and helps us out getting some false starts. That's huge. That was a problem for them the entire game. So huge props to our fans for staying in there with us in the big moments and helping us out there. Our guys feed off that energy and that puts the offense in a tough spot when they're behind the sticks, especially in the red zone. So there's times when we go for it on fourth down over the course of the year and that's me trusting the defense as much as I am trusting the offense, and there's times when they've had their backs to the wall for whatever reason, a takeaway by the opponent. They've just buckled down and settled in and trusted each other."

What did you think of the run game tonight and what can Alabama do to get it going on a consistent basis?

"Yeah, we only had 56 yards so it needs to be better, and I think there's a lot of things. I think there's other things we can to do to make a defense have to cover us, and we missed opportunities that would help open up the box a little bit, but we certainly - either one of two things on each play is do a better job blocking, or do a good job of being physical with the ball in our hands too and falling ahead for yards. Those extra one or two yards, three yards that you can get by running through arm tackles and things like that, those can hurt. We've got to do a better job giving lanes for the running back to go hit confidently and hit it hard. It's everything. It's an effort across the board. When we run on the perimeter, let's make sure we get the blocks out there, but we certainly got to be better than we were."

Ty called timeout in the second quarter before the play that set up a first and ten in the red zone. Why?

"Yeah, especially in the first half, but really anytime you never want your quarterback snapping the ball if there's anything that doesn't feel right. There was just something that didn't feel right with who the line was pointing to, and I think with the clock coming down, he wanted to make sure that we were able to get our cleats in the dirt, everyone be on the same page, so I thought it was really a smart play by him. If a bad situation happens, we can't make a bad situation worse, and he kept us out of that and, like you said, made the throw and got the PI and helped us score."

Did you feel like the atmosphere surrounding felt like it was a rivalry game?

"Yeah, our guys knew that we were going to get a team that, if they were in the fight, they were going to stay in the fight. We knew what we were up against. That's the way we treated it and I think our guys practiced hard. I know they practiced hard. There's just some things where we can do better to separate ourselves in the third quarter when we have a chance to put a game away. There's been a couple of games now where we haven't done that, and that's what we've got to get better at."

Can you assess the deep passing and the return of Lotzeir Brooks to the lineup?

"Yeah, I think to answer really, both questions with one, I think that throw to Lottie at the end of the half was huge. Again, getting some momentum going to the locker room. We knew they were going to get the ball to start the third quarter, really no timeouts for us and for us to go down the field that quickly. Ty and Lottie seem to hookup when we're the most covered and so that's a great play by those guys and then the throw to Ryan for the touchdown there at the end of the half was huge too. Lottie, there was a tackle he broke, I saw at the end of the game, we all saw it, and he just has that knack with the ball in his hands. He adds an element of explosiveness to the team. He was huge on special teams as well. I think that's the part that it started with at the beginning of the season, what he can bring to special teams, whether it's return game or punt, kickoff, all those areas he's an explosive player.

As far as overall throwing the ball down the field, we haven't been as consistent as I think we can be. We've got the players to do it. There's a fine line, a ball just off the fingertips, timing not quite there and so we've got to continue to work at that. We've shown we can do it."

Is it difficult to prepare for a team led by an interim coach?

"Yeah, we just acknowledge the fact that it could happen and that we were going to get their best, a rivalry game, this situation that we're facing and what it was. In the end we need to focus on us and that's what we really challenged our guys to do the last two weeks was focus on us, keep taking the steps moving forward and again we want to improve each and every week. We certainly have room where we we can continue to get better. That's the disappointing thing, but also the exciting thing. Disappointed that we fell short in some areas, but excited that I know they're correctable. I know that some of the things we can do better will help us win games and be better than what we were out there. So we continue to move on. We continue to keep the focus on that principle in our program of continuing to chase the improvement."