STATE YOUR CASE
Defensive Battle
By CURTIS LUNDSTROM
There is no school like the old school.
Alabama dominated LSU in every way in the BCS Championship. It was beautiful. Alabama won a national title because Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide played old school.
Sorry folks, but defense wins ball games. We might be in a time period where offense takes center stage, but the Tide showed that good, old-fashioned football wins. Not only did Alabama record the first ever BCS-bowl shutout, they allowed LSU to cross midfield once. The Tigers had just 92 yards of offense.
To the average sports fan a shootout might be more entertaining, but to the true sports fan there’s nothing like watching a dominant defense. This game had everything: penalties, turnovers, special teams, defense and offense.
That’s right, offense. Alabama’s defense demolished LSU’s offense, and the Tide’s offense shredded the Tiger’s defense. Don’t hate the game because only one offense showed up. AJ McCarron finished with 234 yards passing, and the Tide’s receiving core made some fantastic catches.
McCarron , an offensive player, was named MVP. How do you award an individual accolade to an entire unit? You can’t, otherwise Alabama’s defense would have taken home the honor.
Simply put, Alabama had the greatest single-game defensive performance in the history of college football.
– curtis.lundstrom@aggiemail.usu.edu
BCS Bust
By TAVIN STUCKI
Roll Tide? More like, softly patter my toes, oh gentle beach wave…
I understand the old adage that the best offense is a good defense, but the LSU Alabama two-game series took it way too far.
Seriously, one touchdown in two hours of game-time? I had to sit through 1 hour, 55 minutes and 11 seconds spanning over two months before I could see these top teams get a touchdown on the scoreboard? Seriously?
I don’t care if the teams playing have the No. 1 and No. 2 defenses in the universe. Elite offenses still need to be able to score on elite defenses.
As I watched the Bowl Championship Series National Championship, a.k.a. LSU vs. Alabama 2: The Boredom Returns, I was pissed. It was the first shutout ever in a bowl game — much less the championship game.
How can a team have a legitimate claim to a No. 1 or No. 2 ranking if they can’t even put 100 yards of total offense on the board? LSU didn’t even cross the 50-yard line until well into the second half.
When I turn on the TV to watch a bowl game, I want to see some scoring. I’ll take Baylor’s Alamo Bowl or West Virginia’s Orange Bowl over LSU’s incompetence.
I’ll even take a close game with two teams I don’t even care about, like Western Michigan and Purdue in the Little Caesars Bowl over an Alabama yawn-fest any day.
– tavin.stucki@aggiemail.
usu.edu