There are still three weeks left in Alabama’s regular season, but Paul Finebaum wonders if the Crimson Tide’s season has been defined following the 46-41 loss to LSU. They need help down the stretch to improve their strength of schedule and improve their postseason standing, but that may be difficult to find.

Asked on his regular weekly appearance on the Birmingham-based WJOX, 94.5 FM program “The Roundtable,” the SEC Network host said he was more surprised about the Alabama defense than the LSU offense.

“Certainly not a big surprise and we’ve heard it all year,” Finebaum said. “Whether you go back to Dylan Moses and all the injuries that occurred, I don’t know, but there are some startling aspects that will be digested after the season depending on how it ends. What I mean by that, is if LSU’s a national champion and Alabama’s playing in the consolation game in the Sugar Bowl, there could be a lot of question marks about where does everything go. But that happens. We’re not talking about a program there that’s measured by being bowl eligible and getting to a New Year’s Six bowl, we’re talking about a program that defines itself by did we win the national championship or not.”

Now Alabama finds itself in the difficult situation of needing Auburn to beat Georgia this week to improve the Crimson Tide’s strength of schedule.

“Even though we’re in a different era, we’ve been down this road countless times, this has a similar feel of ’11 when two weekends after the 9-6 loss everything went Alabama’s way,” Finebaum said. “Little bit of some other situations like two years ago, when Alabama needed help, but the problem is I don’t know where Alabama’s going to get the help. Certainly Alabama fans have to cheer for Auburn. They need some quality wins and right now Auburn beating Georgia is a big deal because if Alabama does beat Auburn, and we’re just assuming right now, they’ll have a win over a three-loss team versus a four-loss team. That’s how they’re going to define themselves and they need some help.”