I'm into the early 4th quarter.

-LSU got pretty much zero pass rush for the first 3 quarters. Mingo looked like he thought it was a feats of strength contest with Fluker

-Swagga got away with a defensive hold on an early fade throw to Randle.

-Deangelo Peterson has a vagina. Bama blitzes 7, LSU throws a WR screen behind it and Peterson can't block a CB who makes the tackle.

-Marquis Maze acts like he thinks he is Jerry Rice. I've never seen someone who is so average try to make such a spetacle of himself. Talking shite and pointing at every defender if he has a 25 yard KO return, throwing things and having a temper tantrum when the PK misses a FG as if he just ruined something Maze did, acting so dramatic on the sidelines when he twists his ankle so everyone knows to look at him.

-Basically every pass play Bama runs is either a swing/screen or a pick play. Lots of faith in AJ. We'll see if impartial refs actually call any of these picks.

-Trent really did next to nothing besides being the beneficiary of 2 blown assignments on swing passes. The only two decent runs he has had so far were due to Karnell Hatcher being at MLB. Hatcher is so fricking terrible.

-Kenny Bell should have been called for offensive pass INT in the endzone.

- Barrett Jones blatantly holds on every running play out in the open. He tries to rip the sleeves off of the DE and flips the top of the shoulder pads up. It will be interesting to see how refs who aren't his uncles call this.

-Bama is MUCH worse at defending the option than I even remembered. They've stopped it for less than 5 yards I think once so far and that was because Beckham missed his block on Menzie. Ford makes the entire front 7 look like they are pulling a sled.

- AJ has more hangtime on his deep outs than Wing has on his punts. Claiborne got the pick and he was lucky that Simon didn't make one earlier in the game.

-Ware's refusal to look outside really hurt the LSU running game. There were several runs (including one near the goalline) that probably any of the other 3 LSU RBs bounces outside for good yardage.

-Why LSU had Ron Brooks returning Foster's weak kickoffs is beyond me. He is a very good CB but a guaranteed 12 yard KO return every time.

-Jarvis Landry ran smack into Randle on that pass in the endzone that was just off his fingertips. Probably a wide open TD if that doesn't happen.

I have to say, I don't see Bama staying within 2 TDs on 1/9.

TO BE CONTINUED

CONTINUED FROM OP...

- Kenny Bell got away with a clear block in the back at the end of Maze's long WR screen catch and run

-Smelley's open field blocking is the key to many of Bama's plays. He takes a play from the Barret Jones grab the jersey sleeves and drive your feet book. On the 24 yard run by Trent he form tackled Brandon Taylor and even looked up towards the ref at the end as if to say please don't call this.

-Ego Ferguson and Josh Downs were at DT on Trent's 24 yard run. He needs to capitalize on when the 4th and 5th DTs are on the field like that in the title game.

-Verne and Gary's open cheerleading for Trent, I think gave viewers a false impression of Trent having a really good game or always being on the verge of breaking something.

-Maze's ankle looked great on the WR screen catch and run but miraculously less than a minute later he can barely walk after he misjudges the Wing punt.

-Tahj Jones got double teamed on Trent's 9 yard run. He looked like a cornerback taking on those blocks.

-Maze again has no heart. Runs straight out of bounds 2 yards short of the first down when he sees Eric Reid running towards him.

-Still pretty much nothing out of Trent on the ground. His muscles look cool though.

-Trent tackled twice in a row by one DB for a big loss after I type that last comment.

-Screen to Trent works well but he had lost so many yards on the two previous runs that he is still a couple yards short of the first down.

-Swagga flopping his self into a concussion still makes me chuckle

-JJ completes a first down pass to Clement out of his own endzone then has the field part like the red sea when he scrambles and everyone from Bama is chasing WRs in man.

-I forgot to mention one of the times Bama got pressure in the first half was T Blob missing his assigment at center. Lonergan > T Blob

-Also, from the 1st half. The play where Nick pitched that shite fit when GayJ threw the quick overthrown fade route and Gary said the WR on the other side was "wide open for a TD" was not as clear as Gary and Nick's tantrum made it seem. White did come open because of a pick but he was running at the 20 yard line with his back to the QB the entire time, Reid spotted him and was coming from the middle of the field at about 10 yard line. Bama probably could have gotten a completetion, but I doubt it would have been a TD and AJ still would have had to make a long throw across the field which seems to take him about 5 seconds to get the ball there.

-LSU was actually having success on offense on their last drive of the 4th until Miles went super conservative and called 3 Ware up the gut runs in a row.

-Another WR screen with 0:50 left in the game. Another clear Smelley hold in the open field not called Maze still only gets about 2 yards so his ankle must have started hurting again mid-play.

-Trent up the middle on the last play of regulation with no gain or effort. I'm thinking of a Q word here.

-Bugeyeed ref needs to sign up for toast masters or something. So nervous giving out the OT rules to millions at home.

-Bama stays with the screen/passing to Trent cuteness in OT despite LSU clearly having shown they've caught on to it in the 2nd half.

-Another Bama substitution penalty. A clear sign the game is too big for these guys. I'm sure being in NOLA on the big stage will ease this though.

-GayJ layed down into the last sack in OT. Untouched. Heart of a lion. Throwing that ball away gives the crap PK probably 5 yards of breathing room.

-Cade Foster lol

-I think a big takeaway from this is tight butthole Saban will tighten up that butthole about 10 extra notches on Jan. 9th seeing as how the trick play cost them immediately following Trent's lone big run of the game and how throwing the ball on 1st and 2nd down in OT cost them.

- Ford again makes the Bama LBs look like they are the Acme Piano Moving Company. #35 in particular might as well have stayed in the locker room at halftime with how slow he played in the 2nd half and OT.

THE END

ETA:

Go back and watch how successful bama was at stopping Michael Ford, even when he was running up the middle on non-option plays. Bama shut down the slow Spencer Ware toss dive up the gut but so has everyone else since 11/5 also. The threat of Ford's speed to the outside also opened up the middle for enough room for him to convert first downs when needed.

LSU only stalled when Ware was in and some of that was due to T Bob getting blown up at OG. When LSU got the ball on the bama 15 after the Claiborne INT, T Bob single handedly killed the drive by letting his man make two tackles in the backfield in a row. He has lost pretty much all of his PT now and I'm sure the coaches' pet thing will go out the window with the national title on the line.

This post was edited on 12/19/11 at 9:22 am