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'Dominating night' gives Tide worthy title

Alabama's shutout of LSU wasn't exciting, but it was effective — and that's all that matters

Image: LSU Tigers quarterback Jefferson is sacked by by Alabama Crimson Tide's DiPriest in the fourth quarter during the NCAA BCS National Championship college football game in New OrleansSean Gardner / Reuters
Alabama linebacker Trey Depriest, top, sacks LSU quarterback Jordan Jefferson during the Crimson Tide's 21-0 victory in the BCS championship game on Monday night.

The Tigers, with their perfect record and bevy of blowouts, certainly were worthy of the title game. But the Tide was the team that seemingly nobody outside of the state of Alabama wanted to see again. Some people even said that if Alabama won in a close game, LSU might still win the Associated Press vote for the championship.

Such talk flittered away Monday night like so much crimson-colored victory confetti. This was a dominating victory by a championship team. Don’t blame the Tide if it wasn’t necessarily the most exciting form of football. It was effective, and that is all that matters.

“We wanted to show to everybody that we deserved to be here,” Alabama junior linebacker Nico Johnson said. “We felt like nobody thought we should be here. This shows that we are the better team.”

As Vlachos said, “When you beat a team like LSU 21-0, you’ve proven to people that you deserve it.”

Despite everything that the Tigers accomplished this season, the fact remains they played eight quarters against Alabama without ever crossing the goal line. That’s 120 minutes of football plus an untimed overtime session, with zero touchdowns.

Kirkpatrick was asked whether he could have imagined shutting down the No. 1 team in the country like that.

“They’re the No. 2 team in the country,” Kirkpatrick quickly replied with the sly, confident smile of a national champion. “We’re No. 1.”

Cary Estes writes regularly for NBCSports.com and is a freelance writer based in Birmingham, Ala.

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