Alabama vs. LSU: Grading the Tigers' Loss in the BCS Championship Game

The LSU Tigers had a memorable regular season where everything seemed to go perfect for Les Miles' team.

Monday night's BCS national championship was anything but memorable for the Tigers.

LSU was down-right embarrassed against a dominant Alabama defense as the Tide stomped the Tigers 21-0 in the much-anticipated BCS national title game, which was a rematch of a Nov. 5 matchup won by LSU.

Jordan Jefferson looked confused and outmatched all night as the LSU offense became the first offensive unit to fail to score a single point in BCS championship game history. In fact, Jefferson and the Tigers' offense only crossed the 50-yard line on one occasion in the contest.

It was a memorable defensive performance by the Crimson Tide and a forgettable one for LSU.

Let's break down this game and hand out grades for the Tigers...

...Bleacher Report Style! 

Quarterbacks

Downright pathetic.

That's the easiest way to describe the Tigers' quarterback play in tonight's BCS national championship game.

After a difficult start to his senior season, which saw quarterback Jordan Jefferson being dismissed from the team and then reinstated and winning his job back, Jefferson had a night to forget in this game. He finished the game completing 11-of-17 passes for just 53 yards and an interception.

Jefferson is known for being a dual-threat quarterback, and his rushing ability was non-existent as well. He totaled just 15 yards on 14 carries and was atrocious in his attempt to run the option on the offensive end.

Jefferson said he had one more step he wanted to take before leaving LSU.

This certainly was not the finish he had envisioned.

Grade: F 

Running Backs

This is a group that was so dominant throughout the season, but they just did not show up tonight.

Of course, some credit has to be given to Alabama's defense, but the lack of production from this unit was puzzling.

As a team, the Tigers rushed for just 39 yards on 27 carries. That's an average 1.4 yards per carry, which would be bad for a middle school football team.

To put it into better context, Kenny Hilliard led the Tigers with 16 yards on the ground.

A pretty pathetic ending to what was a truly dominant season for this LSU backfield.

Grade: F

Wide Receivers

It's tough for LSU's wide receivers to catch the ball when the quarterback is incapable of throwing them the ball.

Jordan Jefferson completed just 11 passes in the game and eight of them went to wide receivers Rueben Randle and Odell Beckham.

Of the receivers, Beckham had the best numbers, catching five balls for 38 yards. He made a few nice catches but only one was for more than 10 yards.

Randle, who was the best receiver on this team during the regular season, was near invisible in this game, catching just three passes for 13 total yards.

It's hard to give a promising grade to a unit that totaled 51 receiving yards.

Grade: D- 

Defensive Line

This is one unit that actually played descent in this game.

Alabama has a huge offensive line, and the Tigers' D-Line was undersized, but they played good at times.

However, A.J. McCarron had far too much time to throw as be picked this defense apart, which was not expected.

On the bright side, this defensive line held the Tide to just one offensive touchdown and kept them out of the end zone for 3.5 quarters.

The bottom line here is that while this unit played average, you would have expected them to put more pressure on McCarron, which just didn't seem to be the case.

Grade: C

Linebackers

In the first half, this unit played extremely well, controlling the Tides' run game and containing Trent Richardson for the most part.

But then came the second half, and this unit tumbled late.

Richardson broke lose for that 34-yard touchdown run late, which looked like it was due to LSU's linebackers not containing on the outside.

Eddie Lacy broke lose for a huge first down run, which helped seal the win for Bama' late in the game.

Overall, this defensive unit was on the field far too long, and that showed with the play of the linebackers late in the game.

Grade: C-

Defensive Backs

When Marquis Maze went out with a hamstring injury, the college football world had to believe that Alabama's passing offense was in trouble.

Not only did the Tide lose their top receiver, but LSU's secondary has been so impressive this season with All-Americans Tyrann Mathieu and Morris Claiborne.

It turned out that wasn't the case at all.

The Tide went after Mathieu in this game, and they got the best of him. Claiborne was solid as always, but this defensive backfield did not force any turnovers in a game in which they desperately needed to do so in order to stay in it.

All year, someone in this secondary has made a play to spark momentum for the Tigers, but that big play simply didn't come tonight.

I always said that LSU had the best secondary in college football this season, but you can't help but to question that after how good Alabama's defense was tonight.

Grade: C-

Special Teams

As good as this offense and defense has been all year for LSU, it can be argued that the best part of this team has been the play of the special teams.

That was far from the case on Monday night.

Tyrann Mathieu, who has been so electric all season with his return abilities, had just one punt return for one yard. On the other end, Morris Claiborne has been so good in kick returns, and he averaged just 22 yards per return in this contest.

In the punting game, freshman Brad Wing was spectacular as always, totaling nine punts for 411 yards, an average of nearly 50 yards per punt.

The kicking game was non-existent because the offense was invisible throughout the game.

It was an unusual way to go out for a unit that has been so dominant all season long.

Grade: C-

Coaching

"Bring in Jarrett Lee"

That was the chant that filled the New Orleans Superdome, but Les Miles chose to stick with Jordan Jefferson, who was downright pathetic in this game.

Les Miles is a great coach—make no mistake about that. 

But, LSU was outplayed, outworked and outcoached in this game.

Grade: C

Intangibles

The announcers made the point before this game started that it looked like 65 percent of the fans in the Superdome were LSU fans.

Given the fact that New Orleans is about an hour away from Baton Rouge and over four hours away from Tuscaloosa, that made perfect sense. But in the end, it really didn't matter.

Alabama simply came to play, and LSU did not.

Positives for LSU: I think the cheerleaders were good looking, right?

Grade: C

Overall

It's simply puzzling.

LSU was so dominant throughout this season. They not only beat their competition, they dominated their competition.

But that just wasn't the case tonight.

The Tigers offense looked flat and overmatched throughout this game. The offensive line was downright pathetic, failing to give Jordan Jefferson time to throw, and when he did have time, he missed receivers when they were open.

The defense played descent, but they were on the field too much because the offense was so ineffective.

This was the second-fewest offensive yards in a bowl game and the first shutout in BCS national championship history.

"I told my team I did not see it coming," Les Miles said. "And that's my fault."

Grade: F