Rapid Reaction: No. 1 Alabama wins West, sends very loud message in historic thrashing of LSU
No. 1 Alabama clinched the SEC West championship.
It strongly avenged its home loss to LSU last season.
It sent a message that there’s really nothing that Arkansas next week or even Florida a week later in the SEC Championship Game can do to keep it out of the CFP.
In fact the Crimson Tide (9-0) did anything it wanted to do in a historic 55-17 thrashing of badly outmanned LSU (3-5) on Saturday night in Tiger Stadium. The Tide scored the most points by either team in series history.
Mac Jones saw Kyle Trask’s performance earlier in the day and raised him in the Heisman Trophy competition that likely will be decided in the SEC Championship Game. Jones threw for 385 yards and 4 TDs before handing off to Bryce Young.
DeVonta Smith sent a message that maybe that whole Heisman thing shouldn’t exclude wide receivers as he periodically went head-to-head with the Tigers star cornerback Derek Stingley Jr. and put up video-game numbers himself. Smith finished with 8 catches for 231 yards and 3 TDs. Smith now has 15 TD receptions, suddenly within range of Ja’Marr Chase’s SEC record of 20 set last year.
Alabama coach Nick Saban returned from a 1-game absence for testing positive for COVID-19 and watched his team roll to a 45-14 halftime lead.
LSU hit the Tide with a couple of big touchdown plays to toy with keeping the game interesting, but it could never slow down Jones, Smith or Najee Harris, who rushed for his team’s first 2 touchdowns. He finished with 145 yards and 3 scores.
Alabama received the opening kickoff and set the tone for the game by driving 75 yards, the final 7 of which came on Harris’ touchdown run.
LSU responded with a nice drive, mostly through the air as TJ Finley completed 5-of-7 for 48 yards as it reached the Tide 15. But Tyrion Davis-Price was stopped for no gain on both 3rd-and-1 and 4th-and 1.
Moments later, Harris’ 28-yard run helped set up his 1-yard touchdown run for a 14-0 lead.
Jones’ 24-yard touchdown pass to uncovered Jahleel Billingsley pushed the lead to 21-0 at the end of the 1st quarter.
Alabama was threatening to cover the 4-touchdown spread as the 2nd quarter began, but LSU struck with a 95-yard touchdown drive. The score appeared to come when Finley connected with Kayshon Boutte for a 44-yard catch-and-run, though television replays clearly showed that Boutte let the ball drop before it crossed the goal line. Tigers receiver Jontre Kirklin hustled over and picked up the loose ball in the end zone and was credited with a 1-yard fumble return for a touchdown.
The details didn’t matter.
It took 3 plays for Jones to negate that with a 65-yard touchdown to Smith, who didn’t let the ball go until he was about 7 yards into the end zone. That gave the Tide a 28-7 lead early in the 2nd quarter.
On the ensuing possession, John Emery Jr. ran 54 yards for a touchdown that pulled the Tigers within 28-14.
Alabama came right back with a 61-yard touchdown pass to Smith for a 35-14 lead.
That gave the Tide 5 touchdowns in 5 possessions. The first drive required 7 plays, the next 2 required 5 each and the next 2 required 3 each.
On the Tide’s 6th possession, Jones threw his first incompletion and even threw two in a row, but Bama still scored as Will Reichard kicked a 30-yard field goal for a 38-14 lead.
Jones and Smith combined on a 20-yard touchdown pass with 46 seconds left to push the margin to 45-14 as Alabama finished the half with the most points it has ever scored in Tiger Stadium. It added a few more for good measure before the night was done.
Rammer Jammer!
That went about as expected. I thought Finley played better than last week, which is a positive. The run game also did better. No one is going to stop Bama’s offense.
Classic difference beween reloading and rebuilding. The main thing WE need to rebuild is our defensive coaching staff. Lots of young tigers got the opportunity to get that chip placed on their shoulders and look forward to 2021 and on…
I know one thing Ole Ed better not bring that B.S to Tuscaloosa next year!
Only elite teams reload. LSU rebuilds.
It’s gonna take more than 1 recruiting cycle to rebuild that train wreck Coach O has allowed LSU to become. Expect similar results in 2021.
When the NCAA gets done with LSU they may be back to the LSU of the 90s…
LMAO…
Good win Bama
LSU played a football game tonight? I didn’t even know. Neither did our team apparently.
When the season started I was skeptical about Mac Jones. I was wrong. That’s all I wanted to say.
Mac Jones is a very good QB surrounded by a very good team. Kyle Trask is a really good QB surrounded by a really good team. Now who’s gonna win, very or really?
Convincing win for the Tide.
LSU played better on offense. Clearly TJ is more confident at home. Good building blocks for a very young LSU tm.
Could have been a lot worse. Bama showed mercy in the 2nd half.
The biggest positive for me was when the broadcasters mics went off. For a minute there I thought we’d get a break from Gary Danielson! Lol.
Yeah, I liked that, too.
We couldn’t be that lucky. Gary’s problem isn’t his ignorance. His problem is he is too ignorant to realize just how ignorant he makes himself appear.
We found Keith’s account!
I tip my hat to Alabama, they’ve put on a clinic on how to dominate a game. While the Tigers are a young team, they will gain experience on these losses and prepare for next year.
Mac Jones and the Bama offenses are gonna carve up our defense. Best we can hope for will be a track meet.
Florida will score often in the 1st half. Golding never has the defense prepared early. That the Gators struggle to run will make it easier to prepare.
I was impressed with the LSU young QB. To be down so many players and trying to replace all the losses, I thought their kids played hard. They will be a force next season.
Come on Bama fan you give Florida way to much credit. I understand trying to be complementary but as s true Bama fan I can’t give Florida that much slack we don’t know what is going to happen in that first quarter championship games tend to bring out another element in a team that was unexpected good or Bad. Be a real Bama fan man and don’t predict no scoring on us how much etc we don’t that. Just emphatically say Roll Tide! and we are going to beat Florida
Much as I’d like to see Florida win, I don’t give them much of a chance. This Bama offense is unstoppable.
Poor corndogs. 10+ years from now: “but we went 15-0 that one time”
Poor LSU. 10+ years from now: “but we went 15-0 that one time”
LSU, 10+ years from now: “but we went 15-0 that one time”
Is anyone really surprised?
I’ve only seen a few UF games this season. In those games Trask was in for all 4 quarters. I remember Jones in for all 4 quarters only once. Will that matter to Heisman voters? Probably not.
Eh, Bryce has 18 attempts on the year and Emory has 15. Not a huge difference in how much the back ups have played.
The difference is attempts per game. Yesterday Trash threw the ball 49 times compared to Jones’s 28. That’s 21 more attempts on Trask’s part. Of course he is going to have more touchdowns or more yards when he throws it 20 times more than Mac does. If Mac throws it the same amount he probably has 600 yards yesterday.
There are many more differences than that. I was just pointing out that it’s not like Mac sits on the sideline half of games while his backup takes a bunch of passing numbers from him. Mac enjoys defenses having to account for Bamas run game and a ridiculously stacked O line. Trasks stats get padded by the fact that he is forced to throw a bunch including in the red zone. As with all things football, stats do not tell the whole story
No what you do is the same thing numerous Florida fans do on this site. You’re trying to paint any success Mac has in a negative light.
If Mac has success it’s because of the players around him. Florida has nobody around Trask so he is obviously better. We’ve heard it all from Florida fans. Twist Anything to down play a player in Bama while hyping Florida.
When did I cast Mac Jones in a negative light? He’s one of the two best QBs in the country and it’s not even close after him and Trask. I didn’t even make a claim of who is better of the two. I don’t know that anything I’ve even said is controversial. Mac DOES enjoy having a fantastic Oline. He DOES have the benefit of having defenders be very concerned about what Harris is doing, He DOES have ridiculously talented receivers. Trask also benefits from having really good pass catchers and stat wise he benefits from a pass heavy system especially in the red zone. I don’t understand the vitriol
Yeah, that’s what happens when your team has a stable of RBs.
Agreed. We can’t even run the clock out when we get ahead. Have to keep throwing to sustain drives
And also Bryce barely passes when he comes in. It’s always a give to Najee or Robinson to run out the clock. That stat is skewed to look like the backups play the same amount. I will admit I haven’t watched Florida play when their backup is in, but because of their lack of running game I’d guess they would throw it more.
Well it seems stats only tells the whole truth when it comes to Bama…
Obviously Bryce only having three more passes than Emory means he really hasn’t played more… Handing the ball off doesn’t count..
Same thing when it comes to Mac.. Completion percentage doesn’t matter because his WRs are so great.
It’s so obvious to every gator fan on this site.
Certainly could have been worse. Bama has one of their best teams ever. We easily have our worst so far this century. I’m still thrilled we won the title last year and definitely wouldn’t trade that for just another good season this year. No problem taking the good with the bad.
I’m with you LSUMC. I’ll trade a few of these years for last year!
Really did anyone expect this to be a close game. LSU lost so much after last season and into this season. They are not able to reload like bama does, but who can? Finley looks like he could be a really good player in a couple years.
I also don’t think you can judge how Florida will do based on how LSU did. The bama Florida game looks like a track meet. While bamas D gives them the edge it wouldn’t surprise me to see a 48-45 type is sec CG final. Good luck to both. It should be a very enter championship game.
Florida can’t run the ball. That will be a problem. With no run game Bama can drop 7, 8 guys. But, that is why they play the games.
IDC who wins the SEC championship, Trask should win the Heisman. Just because Alabama is the better team doesnt mean Trask should be robbed of the Heisman by a guy who has less yards and less TDs with better players around him
Less TDs? That’s because he doesn’t throw TDs from the 3 yrd line.
He has been parroting his narrative across multiple articles each week now…
Let him think his take matters. We all know it doesn’t.
Much like his favorite team.
Trask threw the ball 49 times yesterday. Mac threw it 28. What’s going to hurt Mac is the fact that Bama actually has a run game and is balanced in that. If Mac throws the ball that much, he probably blows Trask’s numbers out of the water.
Why does it matter to you? Anybody that watches the games can see the td number is skewed by Florida’s lack of a running game.
not too dissappointed… D was trash, but A) it’s Bama, and B) Pelini will be gone by the end of the year, and C) they’ve sucked in pretty much every game (Vandy doesn’t count). Offensively wasn’t too shabby. TJ looked a bit more confident and the running game although still not good looked better, especially Emery. We got embarrased, but hopefully these young kids get to work with a whole offseason (hopefully) and the recruits coming in find their place. If Brennan comes back there’s still hope for a solid 2021.
That QB they played in the 4th quarter had much more situational awareness. Kinda reminded me of the mess Les Miles used to make at the QB position. That kid shoulda started from what I saw.