LSU's Brian Kelly takes blame for blowout loss to Alabama - ESPN

BATON ROUGE, La. — LSU coach Brian Kelly repeatedly blamed himself for a 42-13 loss to Alabama on Saturday night, a defeat that almost certainly ended any hope for a College Football Playoff berth.

The Tigers dropped to 6-3 overall and 3-2 in SEC play as Kelly acknowledged they faced an uphill climb if they wanted any shot at a conference title.

When asked how he and the team will approach the last three weeks knowing a CFP berth is now a longshot, Kelly said, «We're disappointed in the way we performed. These guys are not like, 'Hey, we're out of the playoffs.' They're disappointed, and I'm disappointed that we didn't live up to the standards of LSU football. That affects us more than the damn playoffs.

»When you put on a jersey for LSU, there's a standard of football that those three letters on your jersey, it's a prerequisite, and we didn't live up to that. That's the disappointment."

LSU had an open date to prepare for the matchup against Alabama, yet struggled to slow down quarterback Jalen Milroe and made costly mistakes on offense that allowed the game to get out of reach. Milroe has run through the LSU defense in consecutive years now — rushing for 185 yards and four touchdowns Saturday, after rushing for 155 yards in a 42-28 win over the Tigers last year. Milroe finished with more rushing yards than passing yards (109) this time around.

LSU has struggled to contain rushing quarterbacks this year. In a loss to Texas A&M their last time out, backup Aggies quarterback Marcel Reed replaced Connor Weigman and ran for 62 yards and three touchdowns to lead a comeback victory.

«If you're watching the game, you're like, 'What did these guys do for two weeks?'» Kelly said of his team. «We have a scheme to stop the