Overhead editorial illustration of a crimson tight end securing a football at a gold goal line as route arcs converge

Alabama Put Two Tight Ends in the End Zone—The Red-Zone Test LSU Must Solve

9 hours ago

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Alabama’s fourth-quarter finish against Texas A&M carried a warning LSU cannot reduce to Keelon Russell’s arm or Rico Scott’s explosiveness. The Crimson Tide put two different tight ends in the end zone, widening the list of threats LSU must identify near the goal line.

Quick Answer

Alabama tight ends Marshall Pritchett and Kaleb Edwards each caught a fourth-quarter touchdown in the Crimson Tide’s 31-20 win over Texas A&M on October 24, 2026. Alabama’s official recap called it the team’s first game this season with multiple tight-end touchdown catches. For LSU, the wrinkle creates a red-zone identification test before the November 7 game in Tiger Stadium.

What Alabama showed with two tight-end touchdowns

The official Alabama recap noted that Pritchett and Edwards both scored in the fourth quarter. It was the first time in 2026 that multiple Alabama tight ends caught touchdown passes in the same game.

That detail matters because it expands the picture LSU must prepare to defend. One productive tight end can be treated as a player-specific problem. Two scoring from the same position group suggests a structural answer in Alabama’s red-zone offense: formations and route concepts that create favorable leverage regardless of which tight end is on the field.

TigerHype’s fourth-quarter Alabama warning focused on the Crimson Tide’s ability to close. The tight-end touchdowns show how Alabama did it—by finding finishing routes from players LSU cannot dismiss as secondary options.

Why tight ends complicate LSU’s red-zone math

The red zone compresses space and changes the coverage tradeoff. Safeties cannot simply retreat. Linebackers must respect the run. Corners lose some of the sideline cushion that helps them defend vertical routes. Tight ends sit directly inside those conflicts.

If LSU treats a heavy formation as a run alert, Alabama can release a tight end behind a linebacker or across the formation. If the Tigers widen too quickly to match routes, the offense can run into a lighter box. The same personnel grouping can ask LSU to make two opposite decisions without substituting.

That is why communication must begin before the snap. LSU needs clear rules for motion, condensed splits and stacked releases. The defender responsible for a tight end cannot assume the route belongs to someone else when the formation shifts. In the red zone, one delayed exchange can become six points before the pass rush has time to matter.

How LSU can answer without weakening the front

Jordan Ross’s recent pressure production gives LSU a useful starting point. TigerHype’s Jordan Ross pressure-plan analysis explains why a credible four-man rush lets the Tigers keep more bodies in coverage.

That matters against tight ends because LSU may need a safety or underneath defender available to bracket an inside release. If the Tigers must blitz to affect Russell, Alabama can replace the blitzer with a quick throw to Pritchett or Edwards. Pressure with four preserves LSU’s ability to overlap routes without abandoning the run fit.

The answer is not to double every tight end. It is to change the picture. LSU can press one release, pass off another, rotate late and force Russell to confirm which defender owns the middle. The goal is to make a red-zone throw arrive after the initial rhythm, when Ross and the front have a chance to close the pocket.

What Alabama’s limited rushing day does—and does not—mean

Alabama ran for only 68 yards against Texas A&M, a number TigerHype examined in its November 7 scouting report. LSU should attack that vulnerability, but it cannot treat the run as irrelevant.

Tight-end packages are dangerous precisely because they force a defense to honor both possibilities. Even an inefficient rushing attack can make play-action effective if defenders step forward near the goal line. LSU’s discipline must survive the temptation to overcorrect for Alabama’s 68-yard ground performance.

The open-date checklist for LSU

LSU’s most important work is assignment clarity. The Tigers need answers for which defender carries an inside-breaking tight end, who replaces a motioning player in the fit, how coverage changes when both tight ends release and when the front can pressure without exposing the goal line.

Alabama’s two-tight-end scoring game does not mean the Crimson Tide will copy the same calls in Baton Rouge. It means LSU must prepare for a position group that can finish drives in more than one way. The red-zone test is identification under stress—and Alabama just put it on film.