News Article: LSU wrap-up: Alabama has become the team no one wants to play

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LSU wrap-up: Alabama has become the team no one wants to play
By Jess Nicholas
TideFans.com Editor-In-Chief
Nov. 8, 2009

Alabama head coach Nick Saban talked about the concept when he was hired in 2007. He said he wanted Alabama to grow into the team no one wanted to face.

After watching one LSU player after another leave the Bryant-Denny Stadium playing surface with one physical malady or another, it became clear that those days aren’t coming at some point in the future – they’re already here.

Alabama’s most valuable player might have been Marcell Dareus. It might have been Greg McElroy, or it might have been Julio Jones. LSU’s MVP was its head trainer.

Like the South Carolina beatdown earlier in the year, the scoreboard was the only place Alabama didn’t completely dominate the game. The Tide ruled the stat sheets, it ruled the matching of wits between the two coaching staffs, and it certainly won the physical battle in both trenches – and everywhere else, for that matter.

The biggest surprise? Alabama did it with an offensive gameplan that seemed to be based in a five-wide, empty backfield set, determined to establish the pass. The plan worked – thanks largely to Alabama’s offensive line having its best showing of the year relative to the competition – and by the fourth quarter, Alabama’s running backs were gashing holes through the Tiger front seven, while confused safeties wondered whether Alabama would again try to attack through the air.

As for the Alabama defense, it continued to operate like an 11-man meat grinder. Once Alabama got a touchdown to go up 21-15, Alabama took on a look of confidence, while LSU appeared genuinely deflated. A touchdown and successful extra-point attempt would have given LSU the lead, but the message was subliminally understood even if not explicitly stated: Game over.

Slowly but surely, Alabama is becoming Alabama again. Lots of ink has been spilt and spread over the discussion of what being “back” means, but two straight trips to Atlanta ought to end the speculation. But it’s more than just a discussion based upon tangible concepts. There is also the abstract – whether Alabama “looks” physical, whether the Tide takes the fight to the opposition rather than being reactionary, whether Alabama can impose its will.

That benchmark, as far as the SEC West has gone in recent years, was LSU. The team built by Saban, and subsequently recruited admirably by Les Miles, was the watermark by which all other West teams were judged. Now, Alabama has a two-game winning streak against these Tigers, and it’s due mostly to Alabama grabbing the mantle of physical force away from Miles and his charges.

Lost in the discussion of who were the stronger, tougher men is this: Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy, who struggled mightily through a stretch of games in the middle of the season, did just about everything perfectly in this game. Alabama’s offense depends heavily on getting at least some key production from the quarterback position, so McElroy’s improvement was neither unnoticed nor unappreciated.

But the bigger story was indeed Alabama’s physical domination of LSU. With the win, Alabama wrested away from the Tigers the mantle of the West’s most physical team. Whether Alabama can lay claim to being the most physical team in the entire conference will be determined in the SEC Championship Game, in which Alabama has now guaranteed itself a spot.

This much is certain, though: Ask Jordan Jefferson, Charles Scott, T-Bob Hebert and other Bayou Bengals how physical Alabama was in this game. The final score tells the tale – as does the tally of LSU players leaving the field. It’s hard to imagine any team really wants to play Alabama right now, Florida included – and that’s just how Nick Saban probably likes it.