Not that everyone had forgotten about Alabama football, it being, of course, Alabama football, but the Crimson Tide spent much of last month trapped in a contradiction. They remained locked atop the rankings and a step or two from the spotlight, which centered on Oregon, Florida State and Ohio State.
Alabama continued forward, turning a string of lackluster matchups into a series of lopsided victories. If those games, and a stretch of three BCS championships in the past four seasons, resulted in some Alabama fatigue, in annual dominance taken for granted, the Crimson Tide could ignore the relative quiet and polish their hardware.
LSU came to town Saturday, and while the hype around this contest did not mirror the “Game of the Century” narrative from two years ago, the Tigers had won five of their past six games at Alabama, which had stumbled once in November in each of the past two seasons. That provided enough intrigue, even if it ended after about two quarters, as Alabama pulled away from LSU and moved another step toward an undefeated season.
The Crimson Tide (9-0, 6-0 SEC) withstood the Tigers (7-3, 3-3), winning 38-17 at Bryant-Denny Stadium. With three games left in the regular season, Alabama, barring a major upset, is primed to head into its Iron Bowl with Auburn undefeated.
On Saturday, Alabama so dominated that it deserved one of those giddy, rapid-fire claps from Les Miles, the Tigers coach. Quarterback AJ McCarron threw three touchdown passes; running back T.J. Yeldon sprinted in for two more; and Alabama’s defense, exposed in the first half, stiffened as the game went on.
“I thought we played a lot better in the second half,” said coach Nick Saban, who celebrated the win by jumping into McCarron’s arms for a hug.
“Look, man, AJ and I have been through a lot,” Saban said. “Some of it you have seen on TV, and some of it you haven’t.”
Earlier in the week, undefeated Baylor decimated Oklahoma, and Stanford upended undefeated Oregon. That meant the weekend ended with four no-loss teams: Florida State, Ohio State, Baylor and, of course, Alabama, which gave no reason to believe it is not the most formidable team of all. Again, though, Saban was taking nothing for granted.
“Last year, when we won this game, we didn’t play very well the next week,” he said.
LSU looked strong early, dominating much of the first quarter and yet still trailing 3-0 after a handful of mistakes, the kind of self-destruction on which Alabama feasts. Fullback J.C. Copeland, feet from the end zone, carrying off left tackle, had the ball knocked loose by linebacker Tana Patrick, and Alabama recovered.
Quarterback Zach Mettenberger, sharp for the most part in the first half, was hit near his waist with a shotgun snap he never saw coming. The center fired it at Mettenberger as he walked to the line. Again, Alabama recovered.
Fans of Florida State, Ohio State and Baylor, the three undefeated teams behind Alabama in the BCS standings, surely threw a remote control or six at their respective televisions. Saban lit into one of his players on the sideline — after a fumble was recovered.
The Tigers stanched the bleeding, though, temporarily halting the blowout. Running back Jeremy Hill bowled into the end zone for one score, and Mettenberger threw a touchdown pass to Travin Dural for another. LSU actually outgained Alabama, 232-193, in the first half.
But there were those mistakes. The kind that doom Crimson Tide opponents. Like on Alabama’s first of two second-quarter touchdown drives, when an interference penalty on LSU allowed McCarron to later find tight end O.J. Howard on a slant route.
The Tide led 17-14 at the half. McCarron had broken the school’s career passing-yards mark in the second quarter. But Alabama did not look invincible. Its defense looked more like the one that surrendered 42 points to Texas A&M in September than the one that allowed 26 points in the six games after that one.
The Tigers evened the score after halftime on a 41-yard field goal by Colby Delahoussaye. About 27 minutes of game clock remained, the score tied at 17-17. It seemed like the time for Alabama to take control, as Alabama tends to.
Take control it did, of this game and the SEC and all of college football. This is what we have come to expect from Alabama: undefeated seasons that can be taken for granted on occasion.
