re: Is Notre Dame's defense better than LSU?

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Not really true. The difference was in the number of times the two defenses were run at not necessarily the quality/depth of the D. LSU only held Bama RB's to 6 fewer inches per rush and only had to face them 22 times vs 45 times. What would they have looked like in the second half if they had been run at that many times?

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Not including Alabama's last game-winning drive in the closing minutes of the game while LSU was in prevent, LSU held Alabama to 49 yards of offense in the second half.

49 yards.

McCarron didn't complete a pass in the second half until the last drive of the game.

And Alabama had 11 drives vs. LSU, and 13 drives vs. Georgia. So the number of offensive drives wasn't significantly different. The difference is that LSU was stopping Alabama from sustaining long drives... especially in the second half.

And one more point. IF Alabama would have run the ball more against LSU, they might have had less yards per carry on the ground. You don't know how changing the game plan to include more running plays would work. LSU might have keyed in on the run more and had an easier time stopping it.

We have never seen LSU get gashed against the run, while that was known as one of Georgia's weaknesses in the defense the whole season.