LSU’s interim HC won’t give Alabama’s defense the credit it deserves for role in benching starting QB Garrett Nussmeier
Tough to see where he’s coming from.
If you simply checked the box score after the Alabama Crimson Tide beat the LSU Tigers, you would probably wonder why the Tigers benched quarterback Garrett Nussmeier. When he left the game, he was 18 of 21 for 121 yards. He had the best completion percentage of the season and his highest QBR since Week 1.
But as usual, football goes beyond the numbers. The eye test showed that Nussmeier was timid. He was hesitant to throw downfield, and it was clear that Alabama’s defense had him uncomfortable.
But according to interim LSU HC Frank Wilson, Alabama had little to do with it.
Frank Wilson said Garrett Nussmeier did nothing wrong vs. Alabama
“Yeah. I thought he did some good things early on,” said Smith regarding Nussmeier via Bama Central on YouTube. “We moved him out of the pocket, and I thought he started the game extremely well. As we went deeper into the game, we thought it was an opportunity to change up and throw their defense off, so we went with the change. I don’t know if it’s something he did badly; we just thought it would be an advantage in what Michael [Van Buren Jr.] could give us.”
You don’t have to throw the kid under the bus to give the other team credit. It’s not as if LSU moved to Michael Van Buren Jr., and all of a sudden, everything was fixed. The game actually became further out of reach for LSU after the change, and Alabama really started to tee off on the quarterback.
The truth is, Alabama’s defense wasn’t letting anyone on LSU’s offense stretch the field vertically. The Tide pressured the quarterback at a high clip, and they were playing with a fiery tempo, as if they were the ones on offense.
Rallying downhill against the run, bowing up against the offense in the red zone, making Nussmeier and Van Buren Jr. second-guess themselves into sacks or throwaways, it was a teach tape for a unit that has been inconsistent at times over the last two seasons.
But I’m sure Alabama will be just fine. That’s three straight wins against the Tigers and a good omen going forward. It’s a good thing the players in crimson and white don’t need a pat on the back.
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