BATON ROUGE, La. — Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe had one of his best games on the ground in a Crimson Tide uniform. Milroe’s 185 rushing yards and four touchdowns led No. 11 Alabama to a 42-13 win over No. 14 LSU. The Crimson Tide rushed for 311 rushing yards as a team as it picked apart the Tigers' defense.

Milroe certainly had an explosive game on the ground. But his output was the culmination of a well-managed game and strong effort by Alabama’s running backs, who contributed in several key areas to help balance the Tide’s offense.

Neither of Alabama’s two lead running backs had a huge game on the ground. But the Tide turned to junior Jam Miller and sophomore Justice Haynes early to help establish a rhythm on the road and make manageable plays in the rainy conditions Saturday night.

“With the weather and the elements, we knew that having a controlled run game was gonna be really big,” Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer said after the game. “We popped some explosives with J-Mil. But just continue to wear down those couple 2- and 3-yard plays that we had early on turned into five, six, seven as the game wore on.”

Miller led Alabama’s running backs with 13 carries for 38 yards. His best contributions, however, came in the passing game. As Milroe looked to get comfortable moving the ball against LSU’s defense early, Miller became his outlet option. He finished with five catches for 50 yards, all of which came in the first half.

Hanyes has also been in good form as the Tide’s secondary running back in the latter part of the season. The sophomore has finished with exactly eight carries in each of the last four games. He’s also scored a touchdown in each of those, growing into a strong goal-line option for Alabama. He had a 1-yard score Saturday and finished with eight carries for 23 yards.

In addition to Alabama’s running backs being used efficiently in the passing game and red zone, both players were also been effective as blockers for Milroe to run behind on explosive plays. On each of Milroe’s touchdown runs, either Haynes or Miller raced out in front to shield Milroe from oncoming defenders, helping expand the rushing lanes for the elusive quarterback to break through.

“That’s a play that we rep so many times where I thought I did it right, we repped it again and again,” Milroe said “Just trusting the backs. Just trusting the path that it takes, being patient in the running game and just understanding our backs do a really good job when we utilize them all over the field and they do a really good job preparing and so I gotta credit those guys. They work tremendously hard, they’re very physical and they attack the game plan each and every day that they have the opportunity to play running back.”

Alabama settled into an offensive groove early, thanks to its running backs doing some of the dirty work to create opportunities for explosive plays. Haynes and Miller’s unselfishness, and ability to contribute in other ways balanced Alabama’s offense and made the Tide nearly impossible to stop as it also established control of the trenches early.

“Whenever you’re able to run the ball against a team and they can’t do anything about it they’re pretty much at your will,” Alabama offensive lineman Tyler Booker said. “So we just continued to dominate them play after play. Up front, they had nothing for us and I’m glad we were able to dominate. I’m glad we were able to put that on film. So we just have to continue to improve and get even better.”

Miller and Haynes’ contributions on the ground didn’t win Alabama the game Saturday night. Both players have had to take advantage of some limited opportunities with their legs this season and stay ready when their names are called to pick up a third-and-short or punch in a touchdown at the end of a drive.

However, when the pair contributes in blocking, receiving and red zone situations, Alabama’s offense becomes extremely difficult to stop and the Tide isn’t forced to lean on Milroe to create heroic plays in long-yardage situations. The Tide found ways to scheme and utilize its two dynamic running backs efficiently on Saturday, which got the offense humming and created the foundation for an explosive road win against an elite LSU side.

“Everyone doing their part helped take the pressure off the big moments where [Milroe’s] gotta convert on a third and extra long every drive,” DeBoer said. “And when we’re able to stay ahead of the chains, we can dink and dunk three yards, five yards, eight yards, and then, all of a sudden, a big explosive play.”