He is the best of coaches. He is the worst of coaches. He is strategic. He is “strategery.” Les Miles swamped the Alabama Crimson Tide and Nick Saban in Baton Rouge. Les Miles was swamped by Alabama and Nick Saban in Baton Rouge. There is no getting beyond the coaches in this game. Unfortunately for LSU, Les Miles typified the best and worst.

Les Miles gambled. The gambles did not pay off. Fake field goals while the opponent is in a safe defense? Stupid. Kicking an even longer field goal later in the game? This is Les Miles for you! Going for it on fourth when you should kick? Yep, Les Miles did it Saturday night. Breaking down the tactical errors during an LSU season would be a fulltime job for an LSU blog.

So, how was LSU in position to win Saturday night in Baton Rouge?

LSU played better football.

This is really the strength of a Les Miles team—they play hard, block and tackle and play special teams. What LSU displayed was character and moxie. Miles excels in the strategic elements of the game—the grand strategy level. He knows what his team is—a powerful offense and defensive team that utilizes its fertile recruiting ground. He runs the ball and passes with the quarterback taking snaps under center. From a strategic view, Miles knows what he wants to do, gets the players to do it and because he is good at this, he puts his teams into a position as a perennial contender in the SEC.

His strategic vision was translated into the game plan. The Tigers came from behind and dominated the second half with strong defense forcing Alabama’s offense to the sideline and an effective passing attack that kept LSU’s drives alive.

Unfortunately, Miles made tactical errors by refusing to play the percentages.

Fans criticize the NFL for kicking field goals, and often conservative play. There is a reason the best coaches at the highest level tend to do the same things. With money on the line, you do the smart thing.

John Madden loved to say that sometimes the hardest thing to do is the smart thing, and the smart thing is to take the points and kick and play field position football.

There is a reason this has been a dictum in football since the earliest days. It works.

When a coach believes he cannot beat a team, or that his team needs a confidence boost then he will gamble.

Saturday night in Death Valley, the gambling hurt LSU.

What went wrong for Alabama? Very poor execution. This was the worst an Alabama team has looked since the Utah game in the Sugar Bowl following the 2008 season. Some of this is was a result of LSU’s good play. Some of it was a result of mistakes that young players—even players involved in Nick Saban’s Process—make in SEC games.

And yet, Alabama found a way to win this game. Alabama won this game on the road. Alabama won this game in Death Valley, the place where dreams come to die.

What does this win say about Alabama and Nick Saban?

Simple: Alabama remains in contention for an SEC championship and a chance to do the unthinkable with back-to-back BCS titles. This win declares that Nick Saban is a colossus. This win also explains something about the state of LSU football. As Shakespeare put it:

Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus; and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs, and peep about
To find ourselves dishonourable graves.
Men at some time are masters of their fates:
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.

The fault rests in Les Miles. There isn’t any getting past this point. Les is what Les is. His tactical decisions undermine his strategic vision. It wasn’t his stars that cost LSU the game, it was his own personal faults.

37 thoughts on “Alabama swamps LSU in Death Valley thriller”

    1. RC with you comments here you prove you are up there with the worst of the worst bama fans. Your class and intelligence level is on par with Updyke and the teabagger. Your comments also prove that you, like many, not most, bama fans are worst winners than loosers.

      Your team won the game, the final score said so; Congratulations, but your team got beat Saturday night.

      You and most of your kind were predicting a blow out of the terrible LSU team, coached by an idiot. NO WAY LSU’s putrid offense could stay of the field with Alabama’s all world defense ya’ll said. NO WAY Mettenburger, which you said many vile things about could play as well as McCarron ya’ll said.

      A lot of crap comes out of your mouth RC that indicates what kind of person you are.

      If you look like a duck, act like a duck and sound like a duck, you are probably a duck. You are a duck RC.
      I know you are probably not smart enough to catch the meaning of what I just said about you, but hey you called me a Goat Phucker first, so if you can’t take it (which you’ve proven in the past you can’t) don’t dish it out.

      PS. Good luck against the Aggies. Did you see how much worse they beat MS. State in Starkville than Bama did?

      1. I NEVER said we would blowout LSU, you stupid Corndog!! PROVE IT. Second, you are a RACIST…You called me the “N” word last year when I was getting the best of you AFTER your team was thrashed in the BCS Title Game. YOU ARE the worst of the worst Backwoods Mud Dog Cajuns I ever met. I would like to see the children in your family with their slanted eyes. You probably don’t understand that reference either. See SHY PEOPLE, SOUTHERN COMFORT and DELIVERANCE for more instruction

        1. Alabama had 400 yard of offense against MSU, A&M had 700 yards, yea thats right 700 yards of offense on MSU. A&M also had two touchdowns called back, one of them on one of the worst replay calls I have ever seen. MSU put had approximately the same amount of offense on both Alabama and A&M.

          Bino either you are a new college football or you are just stupid, if you think only the score tells the whole story of how a game went. So yes A&M beat MSU far worse than bama did.

          Are all you gumps really that stupid?

          1. Bama ran less than half of the amount of plays A&M ran. Two completely different styles of offense. Bama played more backups. Against good defenses, A&M has had problems. But, like LSU, A&M will have to play their best game of the year to have a chance to win. If you are going to make comparisons, if LSU could manage to beat them, Bama should be able to put them away, too. Just going by Tooths stupid logic anyway.

            A&M had more yardage than LSU in that game. Was LSU just lucky or what Tooth? The score does tell the most important part of the story, like WHO WON THE GAME. You are a fool, Tooth.

        2. Hey bino and brando after seeing your team fall to the Aggies and Johnny Football maybe you’ll listen to The Truth a little better next time.

      2. Dang Tooth, you just can’t get anything right. A&M should have beat LSU as well. Hell, Auburn should have beat you guys too, according to your logic.

          1. Really? Go back and read my post again. Maybe you should pay a little more attention. Or don’t. You will still be an idiot either way.

    1. Bullshyt Crimsonite.

      Saturday night Les Miles took a less talented team and not only went toe to toe with them, but beat them in every statitistiacal category except the score. It is a fact that Les Miles has had more success against Nick Saban, who you think is the greatest college football coach in the history of the game, behind the Bear of course. So why would anybody call for the head of a coach who has proven he can do more with less than Saban can do with more??

      If you don’t think Alabama was lucky to get out of Baton Rouge with a victory Saturday night, then you are just incapable of being honest with yourself.

      Saturday night in Tiger Stadium, LSU had a chance and came close to winning that game. Yet every time i suggested that here before the game, you and others said I was crazy (or worse). Well the truth was the truth, but in the end bama won the game and that’s all that counts. I won’t go on and on about how the better team Saturday night didn’t win the game, like you and others here did after the regular season game last year.

      1. “beat in every stat category.” BWAHAHAHAHAHAAH. 21-17 LOSER…THAT’S THE ONLY “STAT” THAT COUNTS, the “W” STAT

      2. Texas A&M beat LSU in every statistic as well. The irony from last seasons game in Tuscaloosa blows right past you. But that didn’t stop you last year, and now, this year you have went 180 on that. Just another year, and more hypocritical bullshit from you. How does it feel to get your guts ripped out by Bama, in two entirely different ways? Revenge just wasn’t enough. I give LSU credit for bringing it, but Bama deserves a lot of credit for overcoming the circumstances, and winning when it counts. The better team won. Last year, it took Bama mistakes to allow LSU the opportunity to win. This year, LSU took advantage of an Alabama mistake to take the lead in the 4th. It was not an LSU forced fumble, but a mistake on Bama’s part. LSU took advantage for sure, but if Bama goes up 21-10, the game was effectively over at that point. Throw up your stats all you want. We all know Bama was fortunate to get the win. But it is because they went out and took it at the end.

          1. And your point is…..?

            Really tooth, what you are bringing is weak. Wasn’t it you that said the only stat that matters is the scoreboard? It is not like LSU shut Bama out and didn’t let them cross the 50 yard line or anything. Fact is, LSU had everything going for them to actually win the game. Home field advantage, a frenzied record crowd, revenge factor and momentum with less than two minutes left in the game. What another monumental choke job! Your team couldn’t stop Bama when it counted the most, once again! And that is likely the best game LSU will play this season, but it wasn’t enough.

      3. Hey RC – bama had more total yards than The Aggies, more yards per pass play and more yards per rushing attempt – BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH. 29-24 LOSER
        ‘THAT’S THE ONLY “STAT” THAT COUNTS, the “W” STAT RIGHT?

        KARMA IS A BITCH ISN’T IT rc?

  1. The LORD is my shepherd;

    I shall not want.

    He maketh me to lie down in green football fields;

    He leadeth me beside the ragin Cajuns.

    He restoreth my BCS ranking;

    He leadeth me in the points of righteousness for BCS sake.

    Yea, though I walk into the LSU valley of death,

    I will fear no Mad Hatter; for thou art with Saban.

    Thy football and Alabama’s staff they comfort me.

    Thou preparest a challenge before me in the presence of mine LSU enemies;

    Thou anointest the scoreboard with the most points.

    My tears of joy runneth over.

    Surely goodness and BCS Championships shall follow me all the days of Saban’s life;

    And I will dwell in the house of Alabama football forever.

    Amen.

    Ezekial 20:29 – Then I said unto them, What is the high place whereunto ye go? And the name thereof is called Bamah unto this day.

  2. I thought some of Alabama’s coaches were to blame as well. Not to take from LSU playing very well, but our coaches did not seem to adjust to what was working well and away from what was not working well. LSU was picking up our blitzes most of the time and we were leaving our backs on an island in man, yet we kept on doing it. We were running the ball down their throats and McCarron obviously did not have the hot hand, yet we kept on trying to pass it. The play calling could have cost us the game as well.

    1. I agree. I kept thinking that they would make some adjustments, especially at the half. I thought the running game was working. I do think that the fumble in the red zone was the turning point for the LSU comeback. The defense was getting worn down after all the three and outs and turnovers. If we score and go up 21-10 instead of fumble, I think it may have been a different outcome.

    2. In a sense you are right, st least defensively, but the problem was a little more complex than that. They put in a lot of new shit we hadn’t seen before and the crowd noise which wad said to be the loudest in history made damn near impossible to communicate and LSU ran tje same # of plays as Oregon did against USC. That’s what happened on the plays where a reciever was wide ass open. Plus Meth- head was playing out of his fuking mind. On every one of those critical completions the pass was exactly where a defender could not get to it – exactly like AJ’s were in January. Payback was a bitch. As for offensively we seemed to be feeling a little desperate and didn’t want to chance wasting a down on a run that didn’t work as quite a few didn’t against that defense. Still the passing wasn’t the problem. The problem was that the receivers fucked a few catches, AJ fucked several throws, and nobody was getting any seperation even thoe AJ had all night to find someone on nearly every play. Don’t want to ever hear anyone say again that Fluker can’t pass block, and he was up against one of those lightening quick All American DE’s all night. He even got so pissed when the guy batted one of AJ’s passes tjat he cold cocked his ass after the play was long over. Miracle an official didn’t see thaat shit. Was even worse than what Copeland got called for. LMAO!

  3. Coach Leslie had the perfect storm brewing. An extra week to prepare, Death Valley at night, revenge and pride for motivation, a punishing ground game and improving QB and O-line. A great defense. A field position punter. Les Miles made it all about Les Miles and blew his shot.

    1. “Death Valley at night, revenge” funny you would say those things would have anything to do with this game, because everytime I suggested that they would have an effect on the game prior to Saturday night, you gumps said I was crazy.

      So in the end bino, what you are saying is that bama didn’t beat LSU, Les Miles did? Have you sent him a thank you note yet.

        1. Looked like AJ throwing to Norwood and TJ on the final drive that beat LSU. I’ve always known Miles is a dumbass. Chavis’ defense is what wins for him.

          1. What a contradiction bino! You say AJ throwing to Norwood and TJ on the finial drive is what beat LSU! And then you say Chavis’ defense is what wins for Miles. Excuse me dumb ass but wasn’t that Chavis’ defense that AJ was completing those passes to Norwood and TJ against?

            What a dumbass confilicting comment by you bino.

      1. I predicted the game by how your team had been playing all season. Your QB played the best game he will ever play, and LSU overall played its best game of the year. I said LSU would have to play their best game, and if Bama played as well as they did the past two games, Bama would win. I was wrong.

        LSU’s best game against Bama’s worst game was not enough for LSU to win. And yes, THANK YOU LES MILES! We knew we could count on you!

  4. Fuck off Tooth. Your team played a super game. Way over their heads. That was the only time this year you’ll see that team on the field. Give ’em credit. In spite of that and Bama playing an overall horrible game, there were flashes if the real Bama team. You know the one that had lots of LSU fans ready to go home at the end if the half. The one that got the stops when necesary and couldn’t be stopped when it counted. LSU fans wabted to change the results by second guessing Miles choices. It is what it is. If TJ hadn’t dropped AJ’s handoff the score would have already been 21-17. If AJ hadn’t overthrown Cioper when he was running clear behind the defense. If Cyrus hadn’t fumbled a punt he should have never tried to return. If a frog had wings he wouldn’t bump his butt when he jumps. That works both ways. LSU admited they’ve been working toward that game since Jan 10. One day a week has been dedicated to practice against Alabama. I sugested as much a month agi cause that’s just how unfocused LSU looked all year in their other games. You okayed a great game and Saturday night you outplayed us for 2.75 quarters – but yuo are not a better football team. As for the majority of the LSU fan base, I know what I heard in respect to Miles during the 30 hours I was in Red Stick. Nobody here expects you to conceed anything. YOU are what you are, and we don’t care. As for A&M your tv must have a different picture than my laptop. A&M ran up and down the fiekd against State – hust like they did against LSU and everybody. But they only scored the same 38 as Bama did. And State scored twice while it was still a game and had several more sciring opportunities. Against Bana their line td came at the end against iyr 3rd string. To date tgere us only 2 team in our schedule who have lost worst to some bidy other than Bama. LSU to Florida and Ole Miss to Texas. Try to keep ut factual in here moron. Oh wait! RTR!

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