Nick Saban has harsh, honest critique of Alabama's issues against LSU

Nick Saban didn’t hold back about Alabama’s issues after the Crimson Tide snuck past LSU 20-14 on Saturday.

“There are obviously a lot of things we need to fix,” Saban said. “It didn’t look like an Alabama team out there. We struggled to run the ball and we didn’t pass protect very well. We didn’t do as well on third down, which is something that has been really good for us all year long.”

Nick Saban took full responsibility, saying all of the blame starts with him as head coach.

“I think we are all responsible for that, it starts with me,” Saban added.

“Every coach, every player, including myself, needs to put our players in a position so that they have confidence if they do their job, things are going to work and we are going to have a chance to be successful.”

On Saturday, Alabama hosts New Mexico State and should be the runaway favorite heading into the matchup. Still, the Crimson Tide front man says all of the focus heading into Saturday’s game needs to be on changing the narrative and correcting mistakes.

“We all need to focus on trying to get it right and we can’t tolerate any less than that,” Saban said. “I think that needs to be the focus this game, this week.”

Alabama players share Nick Saban’s postgame message

Despite one of the worst statistical performances of the year, Saban was especially complimentary of his young team’s fight when adversity hit on Saturday.

“The message was he loved how we went on there and fought for the whole game, 60 minutes,” wide receiver Jameson Williams said during the post-game press conference. “We got things to fix, got things to clean up but he just loved how we played a whole game, 60 minutes, and didn’t let up.”

The Alabama defense was the true difference maker and linebacker Will Anderson stole the show. Anderson finished the LSU game with 12 tackles, 4.5 of which were for a loss, and 1.5 sacks on the night.

Williams said Nick Saban stressed the team’s resiliency in his message to the team.

“We went out there, we played tough,” Anderson said. “We played until the last time of the clock. We don’t look at the scoreboard, we don’t look at the clock, we don’t look at any of that. We just play until we get a whistle blow and that’s one of the biggest things [Saban] stressed. Loved that we went out there and fought, we had each other’s back and we were just relentless.”

Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide are slated to kickoff vs. New Mexico State at 12PM ET on Saturday.