Alabama vs. LSU: Crimson Tide Dominate Tigers to Win BCS National Championship

Only one word can describe the BCS national championship tilt between the Alabama Crimson Tide and the LSU Tigers:

Domination.

That was a bad thing for the Tigers, and a very, very good thing for the Crimson Tide.

If you missed it, you missed the Crimson Tide absolutely owning the BCS title game from start to finish. They got on the board early and let their defense do the rest, downing LSU by the final score of 21-0.

As for how it all played out, why don't we go ahead and take a closer look?

Recap

It didn't take long for Alabama's defense to set the tone for this game, as the Tide held LSU's offense to a three-and-out on its first possession. Little did the Tigers know that things were not going to improve from that point on.

Roughly halfway through the first quarter, the Crimson Tide helped itself to fantastic field position thanks to a thrilling 49-yard punt return by Marquis Maze. Unfortunately, Maze pulled up limping at the end of the play, and he ultimately had to leave the game with a hamstring injury. His night was done at that moment.

But the Tide made good use of Maze's punt return, as Jeremy Shelley drilled a 23-yard field goal to give Alabama a 3-0 lead.

After that, Alabama's defense went back to work. The Tide didn't let the Tigers gain an inch, and quarterback Jordan Jefferson's confidence got weaker and weaker with each passing second.

In the second quarter, Shelley would push Alabama's lead to 6-0 with a 34-yard field goal. He would add a 41-yarder as the first half came to a close to stretch Alabama's lead to 9-0.

So in one half of work, Alabama surpassed the number of points it scored against LSU in the Game of the Century back on Nov. 5. Though the game was still very much within reach for LSU, it already looked like it was over after 30 minutes.

The Tide began the third quarter by adding yet another Shelley field goal to stretch their lead to 12-0. 

Not long after, Jefferson finally made a crucial mistake, throwing an interception to C.J. Mosley (who was injured on the play) that set Alabama up on the LSU 27-yard line. Close-up shots of Jefferson showed a quarterback who seemed to have no idea where he was or what he was doing.

Luckily, the interception didn't end up hurting, as Shelley finally missed one.

But Alabama's defense was not deterred. It kept doing what it had been doing all game long: Suffocating LSU's offense and setting up its own offense with great field position.

Shelley thanked his defense by banging through another field goal at the end of the third quarter to make it 15-0.

Still, LSU began the fourth quarter knowing that it only needed two touchdowns to tie the game. The Tigers were still very much in it. All they needed was a little luck.

They didn't find any. LSU finally managed to cross midfield on its second possession of the fourth quarter (yup, it took that long), but the possession ended when Jefferson fumbled the ball away on a fourth-and-18 play.

Alabama took over looking to milk some clock. Instead, Trent Richardson took a second-down handoff a few plays later and rumbled in for a game-sealing 34-yard touchdown.

That made it 21-0, and that was all she wrote.

Reaction

Dominance of this sort necessitates a closer look, so I'd like to point out a few key numbers.

All totaled, LSU gained 92 yards, 53 passing and 39 rushing.

In four quarters, LSU gained five first downs. 

LSU faced 12 third downs, and converted two of them.

In the end, the Tigers scored zero points. They are victims of the first shutout in the brief history of the 2012 BCS National Championship Game.

Long story short, Alabama proved it was a better team than LSU on Monday night. Like, by far.

It wasn't pretty, mind you. I wasn't a huge fan of the Game of the Century, but at least it was competitive. The Tigers never stood a chance in the title game, and Alabama didn't look very interesting in giving them a chance.

Therefore, it's not all that surprising that Twitter wasn't a very big fan of this game. These two tweets (one, two) from USC quarterback Matt Barkley pretty much say it all:

I have to admit, I remember agreeing with him at the time.

But oh well. The point of the BCS title game is to crown a champion, right? Nobody ever said that the process has to be fun.

It merely has to be definitive. That was the key question heading into this game, as a dominant victory by LSU would have invariably raised questions about who truly deserved to play the Tigers in the title game. Had they blown out Alabama, people would have been whining and complaining about how Oklahoma State should have been there.

Well, it's pretty hard to make that argument now. The Crimson Tide went, and the Crimson Tide rolled.