2012 BCS National Championship Recap: LSU vs Alabama

LSU Tigers vs Alabama Crimson Tide - Alabama 21, LSU 0

The Alabama Crimson Tide got a second chance against the LSU Tigers on Monday night in New Orleans.

Boy, did they ever make the most of it.

There have been only 14 BCS championship games to compare in the modern era of college football, but never before has one team been able to pitch a shutout. Alabama finally did the deed, taking a 13-0 LSU team and running it into the ground inside the Louisiana Superdome.

This was not a game that was terrifically different from the first matchup between these teams on November 5 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. In that contest, Alabama missed four field goals. Had the Crimson Tide been more accurate with their placekicking, they would have scored 18 points on the strength of six field goals. That's pretty much what they did on Monday night in the Big Easy. Alabama attempted seven field goals through the first three quarters, making five en route to a commanding 15-0 lead attained without need of a touchdown. It wasn't until the 4:36 mark of regulation time when the Crimson Tide scored their first touchdown against LSU (and in which one of these teams scored a touchdown on the other). All told, the two LSU-Bama battles in the 2011 season required 115 minutes and 24 seconds - nearly eight full quarters - to finally produce a touchdown. On a larger level, the character and texture of this tussle weren't overwhelmingly different from two months ago at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

It was the smaller and more specific details that made a difference in this Tidal wave for coach Nick Saban's Crimson flood, which drowned LSU for 60 strong minutes.

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For one thing, Alabama offensive coordinator Jim McElwain delivered a marvelous performance in his swan song as a member of Saban's staff. McElwain had already signed a deal to become the next head coach at Colorado State University, and the fact that he was headed to another program created a possibility that he would not be at his best in this contest. Instead, McElwain maxed out. He went with a pass-first attack instead of trying to cram the ball between the tackles. The emphasis on the passing game clearly caught LSU off guard. The Tigers' linebackers were frequently caught out of position as the Tide's tight ends broke open frequently on crossing routes and flat passes. McElwain also used his quarterback, A.J. McCarron, with deftness and skill. McElwain employed a lot of moving pockets and called for a constant stream of rollouts. By not confining McCarron to the tackle box, McElwain made it hard for LSU's front four to get a good read on where the action of each play was flowing. The Tigers were constantly off balance and were not able to generate much of a pass rush all night long. This enabled McCarron to hit seven-yard throws with tremendous consistency, and those easy pitch-and-catch plays enabled Alabama to move the ball down the field throughout this game. Bama couldn't finish drives, but the accumulation of field goals was more than enough for a Crimson Tide defense that held LSU to just 92 yards. LSU coach Les Miles never yanked quarterback Jordan Jefferson despite the signal caller's complete inability to lead his team on a sustained march. Backup quarterback Jarrett Lee never entered the game, a head-scratching development in light of the fact that LSU had been platooning Lee and Jefferson for much of the season.

Alabama took hold of this rematch with two-fisted totality. As a result, the Crimson Tide have their second BCS title in the past three seasons.

By: Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer

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