Jim
Kleinpeter, writing for the New Orleans Times
Picayune Monday afternoon opined, “If the Tigers contain running back
Trent Richardson, get the ball in the hands of receiver Rueben Randle and
showcase their talent on special teams, they'll have their best chance at
winning their third national title in New Orleans.”
That turned
out to be tall order that would not be filled.
So awful was QB Jordan Jefferson that LSU fans were chanting for Coach
Les Miles to put Jarrett Lee in the game.
Jefferson fumbled three times and threw an ugly interception in the
third quarter. He was sacked four times and finished with a pitiful 53 yards
passing and 18 rushing on 14 carries.
Right
tackle Alex Hurst was twice whistled for false-start penalties on first-and-10
and Senior Guard Will Blackwell did
his share of whining after the game by claiming that Bama was calling out
cadences. He said, “…this is absolutely
one of the worst officiated games I’ve seen in my career. I don’t know where
the refs were from, what conference, but in my opinion, they did a poor job.
Like I said, they called out a few cadences, which is, by the rules, illegal,
and that got us a couple of false starts, put us in holes and really killed a
couple of drives.”
If
that were truly the case, wouldn’t Coach Miles have challenged the penalties? Wouldn’t the broadcast commentators have
called attention to it? Maybe somebody
needs to change little Will’s pampers.
The Crimson
Tide rolled to victory with 384 total yards compared to the Tigers’ 53 total
yards. Bama had 21 first downs and LSU
could only muster 5. The Tigers crossed
mid-field only once.
The cock-sure
Tyrann Mathieu, known as the “Honey Badger”, was stopped cold throughout the
game, but was particularly humiliated in the fourth quarter when Alabama
stopped him when he caught the ball and was pushed back, back, back and
summarily slammed hard into the turf. It
reminded me of the guy in the DirectTV commercial who is left in a roadside
ditch.
Alabama now
has won two national titles in three years and proved, at least to me, that
they were far superior to LSU. Critics
agree that this has been the greatest season in SEC history.
And Pat, of And So It Goes In Shreveport,
must donate $100 to Wounded Warrior Project to
settle the bet we made in December.
I get to
gloat.