The most insightful thing I heard coming out of players' and coaches' mouths on Saturday was that the LSU result takes our path to the CFP out of our hands. Forget blame game, forget the first half, forget fumble and INT and scoring 2 TD in last 30 seconds. The real result of this game is that we now rely on the good graces of the CFP Committee and/or game results of other teams.
SO, that means we must, in CNS' words "Don't waste a loss." We have 3 more games at a minimum before the committee makes its selection.
We're the best 1-loss team out there. Others above us (and teams in the top 10) may end up having 1+ losses. We're #4 now in the AP/USAT (which don't matter) so assuming CFP Cmte sees things through same lens, we would be in - as of today (we'll see when they release list this week).
As BamaInBham notes, this team (Def. specifically) had a pretty good game, overall. The Off. & STs put them in terrible situations several times. Even given all that happened in the 1st half, the mistakes made, etc. We were still in a position to win the game at the end if we get the onside kick. Lots of positives in the 2nd half, for sure, after some major adjustments at halftime.
I don't know if I've mellowed, if I'm better able to rationalize losses like this, or if I just understand the situation better as I get older. I had a peer ask me about boredom in following our games. I agreed I would rather be bored than interested.
Given Saturday's result, I now have a Side Bonus: Every game we play and every game the top 10 play now becomes a LOT more interesting to me.