No. 4 Alabama wins rock fight against beleaguered LSU to stay alive
By David Wasson
Published:
They can’t all be stylistic beauties, of course.
Not every victory is destined for instant induction into the College Football Hall of Fame. And when the teams in question are the Alabama Crimson Tide and LSU Tigers, well, the odds of it being a rock fight are a lot higher than the result being Louvre-worthy.
That’s exactly what the Crimson Tide and Tigers begat at Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday night: a rock fight. There’s just too much talent, too much emotion, too much history between Alabama and LSU to produce any other result.
LSU ventured into Tuscaloosa with wounded pride and almost a full fortnight of laughable off-field blunders to go with an on-field result that had the Tigers out of College Football Playoff contention before the Halloween candy was gone. Alabama was precisely in the opposite state – riding a 7-game winning streak and strutting around with a No. 4 national ranking.
But here’s the thing about rock fights… seldom does recent history or pedigree or circumstance matter. Just how many rocks you can lay your hands on. Which is why Alabama’s eventual 20-9 win felt more like survival than victory, and LSU’s 20-9 loss felt more like yet another shoot-self-in-foot effort that could have easily gone the other way.
The Crimson Tide earned a 17th-straight home victory mainly by tightening their defense like a boa constrictor the closer the Tigers got to the goal line – forcing LSU to settle for a trio of Damian Ramos field goals and keeping the Tigers out of the end zone for the first time since the 2012 national championship game. That Alabama defense also confused and confounded LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier so much that interim Tigers coach Frank Wilson benched the senior and turned into sophomore Michael Van Buren Jr. in the third quarter.
Not that all that defense turned into a lot of Alabama points, as Heisman contender Ty Simpson was less-than-sharp on his side of the ball. The junior finished 21-for-35 with 277 passing yards and a 13-yard touchdown pass to Ryan Williams right before halftime. Alabama’s rushing attack also continued to underwhelm, totaling just 56 yards and producing only a 4-yard Daniel Hill TD run in the second quarter.
That 14-point spurt in the second quarter was all the lovers of offense were able to enjoy, though, as the majority of the game dissolved into a flurry of dropped passes and inopportune penalties from LSU along with Simpson unsuccessfully trying to thread the needle to the Alabama receivers.
Alabama’s clinching sequence the perfect synopsis of the entire 60 minutes. The Tide downed a punt inside the LSU 5 and forced a 3-and-out that included the Tigers dropping a wide-open pass that would have moved the chains. After an LSU punt to midfield, Alabama’s offense stalled out at the 26 to set up a 44-yard Connor Talty field goal (his second of the game) to make it 20-9.
Like we said… rock fight.
“We came out kind of flat, I want to be honest,” Simpson said. “Our defense kept us in it, they did a great job. We are just resilient and fight and find a way to win. Anytime you win in the SEC it is a special feeling, and especially at home – because it’s defending your turf.”
In the final analysis, though, it matters not that Simpson likely got lapped in the race to Mr. Stiff Arm by Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza but that the Alabama defense did enough to keep Alabama alive in the marathon that is the march to the College Football Playoff.
It matters not that the highlight package produced by the Crimson Tide could be measured by a stopwatch instead of a sundial but that Alabama kept throwing rocks for the full 60 minutes at an LSU team with precisely nothing to lose but also without enough rocks of its own to compete.
And it matters not the Tide required a razzle-dazzle play with 1:52 remaining to convert a 4th down and salt away the victory, or that Alabama and LSU mustered just a hair more offensive yards (576, with the Tide gaining 344 against LSU’s 232) as Vanderbilt piled up all by itself (544 in an OT win against Auburn) earlier Saturday.
Because ultimately, winning ugly beats losing 10 times out of 10 – and Alabama accomplished the former to run its record to 87-straight victories against unranked teams at home. And even if it was decidedly not museum-worthy, Simpson pointed out that Saturday’s win against LSU was another defining step in what might well be a season to remember.
“I want our legacy to be that everyone doubted us at first, how we came out the first game (a loss to Florida State). But that’s just part of it. It’s Alabama against the world,” Simpson said. “Nobody thinks we are good, nobody thinks that we can win. But it’s all about us and what we do, and it will be that way until the end of the season.”
An APSE national award-winning writer and editor, David Wasson has almost four decades of experience in the print journalism business in Florida and Alabama. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and several national magazines and websites. He also hosts Gulfshore Sports with David Wasson, weekdays from 3-5 pm across Southwest Florida and on FoxSportsFM.com. His Twitter handle: @JustDWasson.
