Casagrande: A low-energy field intruder summed up Alabama’s unimpressive win over LSU

This is an opinion column.

A man wandered onto Saban Field early during a TV timeout Saturday night.

Nobody really noticed as he moseyed in the middle of the field. The 30. The 35. Nothing.

There was no chase from a yellow jacket. Just the lowest effort field incursion in the history of sport.

Just meh.

It was perfect considering the game action that came before and after this sad attempt to cause a scene.

Alabama’s 20-9 win over LSU, like stadium security’s indifference to the intruder, was neither convincing nor inspiring.

It just was.

Just kinda sloppy — void of the kind of momentum a No. 4 team would expect this time of year.

It started right away, too. Alabama was stuffed on consecutive plays needing just one yard to convert a third and fourth down, respectively.

A timeout was required to get the full 11-man allotment on the field for the first field goal of the night. A 26-yarder was missed later in the first half.

The sword was just dull this Saturday night.

Honestly, it was surprising, given the track record in these moments for Kalen DeBoer-coached teams. At Alabama, he’s twice beaten top 10 Georgia teams, while last year’s 42-13 whipping of LSU was arguably the apex of the 2024 season.

Not so, Saturday night.

Now, wins can’t be taken for granted in this modern age of parity. Especially in the SEC. Even more so in a rivalry as intense as Alabama-LSU has been over the past two decades.

It’s hard to imagine a bummer of a postgame interview following a two-score win over this Tiger program, yet that was the scene Saturday night. Ty Simpson was peak aww-shucks, acknowledging that offensive performance was lacking.

He knows this little lull can’t linger.

Alabama can’t continue to live dangerously as defenses begin to adapt to an offense with an undeniable weakness.

The 56 rushing yards on 26 carries is the fewest Alabama has recorded since a 2023 win over Texas A&M yielded just 23 on 26 carries. Having three running backs combine for 39 yards on 16 carries (2.4 per run) isn’t sustainable.

There’s just no juice when Simpson hands off.

LSU (5-4) was just damaged enough to not make Alabama pay for these shortcomings with a ground game that wasn’t exactly explosive either.

The Tigers netted just 59 rushing yards, factoring in the three sacks that subtracted 34 yards from the total. Even with them, you saw the day that neither Alabama nor LSU hit triple-figure rushing totals.

Imagine what was racing through Nick Saban’s head as he watched from his luxury box Saturday night. The game has changed since he and the Bermuda Bruncher, Les Miles, grazed these sidelines.

LSU paid tribute to The Game of The Century by abstaining from end zone play and mirroring the point total from the 9-6 classic played here 14 Novembers ago.

The Alabama defense gets some credit there, too. Most of the troubling trends exiting this eighth straight win came on offense because the defense stood tall when it mattered.

Four times LSU entered the red zone.

Zero times it celebrated in an end zone.

The Bryant-Denny Stadium crowd — the 101,076 who remained in their seats — also gets some credit. Seven of LSU’s 10 accepted penalties were either false starts or delay of game.

It must also be noted that the least-penalized team in SEC play hit a season-low for flags. Alabama was hit with just two for 25 yards, so, as unsightly as it got at times Saturday night, it wasn’t a flag fest for the Crimson Tide.

Just a lot of meh.

This differed from the exciting win in its last outing against a considerably worse South Carolina. Where it felt like Alabama entered the open week with a tailwind by fighting from behind in Columbia, the Crimson Tide felt flat trying to finish off another preseason darling who flopped.

Just consider where things could’ve gone without a burst of energy to close the first half. After getting the ball up 10-3, 53 seconds on the clock, and 66 yards to travel without timeouts, Simpson cracked the mold. Where deep balls hadn’t been a major weapon this season, the QB hit Lotzeir Brooks for a 53-yard bomb. It was the longest downfield throw of the nine-game season for Alabama and the 13-yard toss to Ryan Williams on the next play made it 17-3.

That was enough to weather a touchdown-free second half that saw the Tide net just 100 yards on 29 snaps.

Enough to win but not leave anyone with the warm fuzzies walking out of Bryant-Denny Stadium.

Like the security guards who watched the uninvited field guest frolic, Alabama cashed the check but didn’t ensure its future.

Seriously, a media relations staffer was the only resistance to this guy’s timeout tour of the 35-yard line. She walked him to the sideline where — I’m not making this up — a police officer had to put his hot dog down to handcuff the suspect.

A low-energy night all around.

One that ended with the job completed — the perp off to the pokey and LSU back to Baton Rouge with the loss — but nobody was impressed in the process.