Written by Jesse Lamovsky

---

(Writer’s Note: this piece will serve double-duty as the wrap-up to my December Madness series as well as a preview-of-sorts of Monday night’s BCS Championship Game, right down to my prediction of the winner. Although the course of events in the actual game will obviously be different, I believe that for a number of reasons- special teams, big plays on defense and superior playmaking at quarterback- Louisiana State will beat Alabama for the second time and nail down its rightful claim as National Champion.)

 

#1 Louisiana State (17-0) 20, #2 Alabama (14-2) 11

In their first meeting back on November 5 in Tuscaloosa, LSU and Alabama combined for five field goals, no touchdowns and 534 yards of total offense- 243 fewer than Baylor amassed in the real-live farce that was the Alamo Bowl. The Tigers and Tide boasted the best two statistical defenses in America, leading most observers to believe that their Championship Game rematch would play out much like the original- hard-hitting and low-scoring.

For three quarters in the Superdome on New Year’s Night, that’s exactly how it unfolded. Thanks to a safety and a field goal, Alabama nursed a 5-3 lead into the fourth period. But the final fifteen minutes saw an LSU explosion, as a series of miscues and big plays blew the game open and paved the way for the Tigers to finish their dream season with a historic victory.

The Superdome has been the home of the Sugar Bowl- the longtime reward for the SEC Champion- for nearly four decades, and the venerable structure was packed and deafening for this battle between the cream of God’s Conference. LSU fans held the edge, of course, but plenty of Crimson Tide partisans had made their way West and were making their presence felt long before kickoff. The atmosphere was almost frenzied inside the Dome, and it was no surprise that both teams came out tight, influenced by both the environment and the stakes.

Alabama’s turn came first. Trent Richardson immediately got the Tide rooters roaring when he burst up the middle for 21 yards on the first play from scrimmage. They didn’t roar for long, as a false-start penalty and Marquis Maze’s drop of a third-down pass forced a Cody Mandell punt. LSU didn’t fare any better. The Tigers were assessed their own false start on the first play, crippling a drive that was smothered in three quick plays. Brad Wing punted the ball back to Alabama, and the tone for the first quarter had been set.

It was a quarter marred by defense, dropped passes and, most especially, whistles. Frazzled by the noise inside the Superdome, each team was called for a pair of false starts apiece. With the defenses swarming and the offenses shooting themselves in the foot, it was no surprise to anyone that the quarter ended in a 0-0 tie.

To a large extent the previous matchup in November had been won, and lost, by the kicking games. While Alabama went 2-of-6 on field goals, LSU went 3-of-3 and got a brilliant night punting from Brad Wing, who pinned the Tide inside their twenty on four occasions. So while the scoreless first quarter was no shock, the Tiger punt team’s involvement in the game’s first score, with 10:41 to go before halftime, was. Set up to punt from his own 15, Wing watched helplessly as Joey Crappell launched a snap worthy of his name, one that flew far over the punter’s head and bounded inside the five. Wing’s only recourse was to boot the ball out of the back of the end zone, which he did. Alabama had a 2-0 lead.

Inspired by the unexpected score, the Tide got the free kick and capitalized- though not as much as they would have liked. With Richardson flashing his All-American form, Alabama moved 48 yards in seven plays, barely missing a touchdown when Morris Claiborne broke up a potential touchdown pass from McCarron to Maze. Jeremy Shelley, who had an attempt blocked in the previous meeting, now cashed in from 39 yards, and the Tide led 5-0 midway through the second.

With the way things were going, five points seemed to be enough. The Tigers had totaled 239 yards in Tuscaloosa two months prior and were repeating that barren performance in the Crescent City. In addition to struggling to penetrate Alabama’s top-ranked defense, LSU was struggling to avoid penalties- six of them in the first half, mostly on dead-ball whistles. The Tigers needed a break- and finally got one before halftime. Russell Shepard’s spectacular 19-yard grab on third-and-long broke the adhesions, and the home-state team moved to its first score of the night on Drew Alleman’s 40-yarder at the halftime gun.

Usually a halftime score of 5-3 would be met with raised eyebrows. Not tonight, with a baseball score expected and anticipated. Six quarters and an overtime of football had been played between the teams this season without a touchdown being scored, and the way things were going- with neither team getting closer than the 22-yard line- it might well be eight.

LSU didn’t need a touchdown to take the lead, however. The Tigers got untracked on their second possession of the third period, moving deep into Alabama territory behind the passing and running of Jordan Jefferson. With five minutes left in the quarter Leslie the Hat sent the reliable Drew Alleman out to convert the 37-yarder that would hand the Bengals their first lead of the night. LSU fans roared in anticipation of the score as the field-goal unit set up.

They didn’t stay roaring for long. Fading dramatically as soon as it left his foot, Alleman’s kick glanced off the left upright and wobbled wide, preserving Alabama’s slim lead. It was only his second miss from inside forty yards all season. Now it was the turn of the Tide contingent to roar. Two months earlier their team had given away a game against LSU thanks in large part to kicking miscues. Now, with the biggest prize in the sport on the line, the Tigers were returning the favor.

Alabama’s offense immediately worked to capitalize on the shift in momentum. Eddie Lacy’s 15-yard burst on the first play set the tone for a well-considered drive consumed most of the remaining third quarter clock and carried deep into LSU territory. With 58 seconds left in the period the Tide had first-and-goal at the two. A touchdown, the first scored in nearly seven full quarters between the teams, would make it a two-score game at 12-3. The Tigers would have to score twice to win- and one of those scores would have to be a touchdown. Small wonder if the Tide, and their fans, thought they were six feet away from a National Championship.

Trent Richardson took the handoff, jackknifed over the pile and landed in the end zone. Problem was, he didn’t bring the football. It lay by the pile outside the goal line where the running back had lost it on takeoff. Defensive lineman Kendrick Adams dug it out and rumbled out to the twenty before he was collared from behind. It was only the second lost fumble of Richardson’s career- and it couldn’t have come at a more propitious time for the Tigers.

LSU then went back to work offensively. With the big play being Rueben Randle’s 23-yard catch on third-and-twenty, the Tigers drove 67 yards in ten plays. With 10:51 to play Drew Alleman redeemed his earlier miss with a make from thirty yards and Louisiana State had its first lead of the night, 6-5.

The play of the night came three-and-a-half minutes later with Alabama facing fourth-and-three from the LSU 48-yard line. Faced with a choice of going for it or pinning the Tigers with a punt, Nick Saban did neither. Instead Saban called for a fake punt, with the snap going to up-back Brad Smelley. The play had worked early in the season against Penn State, but it didn’t work this time. Smelley was stacked up after a gain of one and the Tigers took over in great field position with 7:13 left.

Things went from bad to worse for Alabama on the next play. Faking a handoff, Jefferson faded back and went deep right down the middle for Randle, who made a diving catch at the two. Michael Ford barged over two plays later and with 6:01 remaining it was 13-5. LSU had now scored ten points in less than five minutes- a veritable explosion by the standards of this matchup.

Now, with a touchdown and a two-point conversion separating the teams and time becoming a factor, the pressure was squarely on the Alabama offense and quarterback A.J. McCarron, who had struggled for much of the postseason. In the face of the LSU defense and the screaming purple-and-gold fans, the sophomore quarterback finally took wing. Completing 5-of-7 pass attempts, McCarron led the Tide down the field to their first touchdown of the night, finishing the drive with a nine-yard strike to a diving Michael Williams in the corner of the end zone. With 2:31 to play it was 13-11.

With Alabama needing a two-point conversion to tie, the only choice was Trent Richardson. The junior tailback took McCarron’s handoff, bounced off the pile, ran left and was dragged down one yard short of the goal line, preserving LSU’s slim lead.

As it turned out, that was the last gasp for the Tide. LSU recovered the onside kick at midfield, and iced the result three minutes later. On third-and-one from the Alabama 41, Spencer Ware burst through the Tide’s goal line defense and sprinted untouched to the end zone, making it 17 Tiger points in the final period. Morris Claiborne intercepted McCarron’s final desperation pass and that was it. LSU had won the first NCAA Division I-A Football Championship in its typical come-from-behind style, finishing a perfect season.

The final statistics were close, as expected. LSU outgained Alabama 284-249, not a significant amount. Other than his goal-line fumble- admittedly a big “other”- Trent Richardson had a big night, with 25 carries for 112 yards and five catches for 55. For LSU the offensive leaders were Spencer Ware, who picked up 78 yards on 13 carries with the clinching touchdown and Rueben Randle, with six catches for 97 yards. At the end of the night, the deciding factors were Alabama miscues- Richardson’s fumble, the fake punt- and the big plays LSU used to capitalize on those miscues.

The issue may have been doubt up until the final moments, but when it was all said and done it was yet again clear that this was the Year of the Tiger in college football.