Alabama 21, LSU 0

Congratulations to Alabama on their dominating 21-0 victory over the LSU Tigers. The Tide defense swamped LSU, miring the Tigers in their own territory all night.
How dominant was the Alabama defense?

• This was the first National Championship game to end in a shutout.
• ‘Bama’s defense held LSU to just 44 plays, five first downs, and 92 yards net offense.
• It wasn’t until there were 8 minutes left in the game that LSU’s Jordan Jefferson managed to squirt across the 50-yard line for the first time. In the next four plays LSU lost yardage on the first three and the ball on the fourth.
• Each team possessed the ball 11 times. LSU’s 11 possessions ended with nine punts, one lost fumble and one interception.

In contrast, Alabama’s eleven possessions ended with just three punts, seven field goal attempts and one touchdown (with 4:36 left in the game). Not great, but more than enough.

A.J. McCarron did just enough to get the Alabama place kicker, Jordan Shelley, closer to the end zone this time around. McCarron completed 23 of 34 passes for 234 yards. Trent Richardson carried the ball 20 times for 96 yards and a 34-yard TD while teammate Eddie Lacy rushed 11 times for 43 yards. Alabama ended the night with 384 net yards on offense.

Alabama used just one place kicker this time and Jordan Shelley converted on five of seven field goal attempts. He connected from 23, 34, 41, 35, and 44 yards out. The latter was a career best. (During the first meeting, Shelley and Cade Foster missed four field goals—all 44-yards or longer.) He also had one attempt blocked and pushed one j-u-s-t to the right of the uprights. Just to make things interesting—and slightly comical—Shelley dinked the attempted extra point off the right upright after Richardson’s TD run in the fourth quarter.

******

One thing marred the viewing of this game for me: Brent Musburger. Something about his voice and intonation just drives me wild. Perhaps it's the "I'm smarter than you, folks" implication in the way he talks. The fact he kept using the nickname “Honey Badger” instead of Tyrann Mathieu’s name while calling plays was just salt on the cake. Mentioning a nickname is one thing, but to constantly use it during play-by-play is amateurish.

(On a side note, perhaps if the Honey Badger gave a shit LSU might have looked better last night. As it was, those camera shots of the dead-eyed, deer-in-the-headlights stare shared by all the LSU players but especially of the "Honey Badger" late in the game were a clear indication of just how dominating Alabama's play was.)

And pairing Musberger up with Kirk Herbstreit….I don’t know. Herbstreit occasionally brings something positive to the table (Last night he pointed out that Alabama had permitted only 9 touchdowns all year; fewer than were scored by West Virginia against Clemson in the Orange Bowl.), but his voice just doesn’t have the right timbre to appeal to be. He’s that whiny fan down the end of the bar.