Alabama Football: Blame Nick Saban for the Loss? Not This Reporter

Larry Burton (Syndicated Writer) I worked the Alabama-LSU game and I asked Nick Saban after the game if a loss like this hurt worse than a blowout loss.

His answer, to abbreviate greatly, was no, it hurts worse when your team doesn't perform and isn't capable of winning.

And on Saturday night, he not only fielded a team that was capable of winning, he fielded a team that was capable of winning and one that should have won.

Was his plan conservative?

Yes.

Was his plan any more conservative than Les Miles?

No.

Was it a winning plan?

Yes.

So what went wrong?

A multitude of things.

Saban doesn't believe you should hang the blame on any one player, like a kicker who missed a chance to win the game, or a receiver who let a ball get taken away from him, or a quarterback who took a sack, or a defensive back who missed hearing his assignment or any one of the dozens of players who made a mistake that night.

You don't hang it on one player and you sure don't hang this on Nick Saban.

He didn't miss a field goal, didn't bobble a catch, didn't miss a block. He had his team mentally and physically ready for about the only team in the country that could fight them as equals and they missed six opportunities to win the game.

After the game, interviewing the players, they felt that LSU had not beaten them, but that they beat themselves by not capitalizing on those opportunities. To put it another way, they lost the game, but were not beaten.

But give Les Miles and the LSU Tigers credit. When they had to make many of those same plays, they made the ones that mattered.

Nick Saban has brought Alabama to a higher national plateau than it has been since 1980. To say that he has suddenly failed to know how to coach a game, plan a game and prepare a team is as ridiculous as anyone who would infer that.

Les Miles tried his trick plays, Nick Saban tried his. Each coach made great calls, each made bad ones too. It was a chess match that didn't come down to what the coaches did, but what the players did with the opportunities they had.

Here's a great example.

Had Micheal Williams made the catch at the one, Saban would have been hailed as a genius for such a bold call. But now it's second guessed. 99 percent of that play worked, the last one percent didn't.

That about goes for the game as well. Most of the night went well, but the very end didn't.

Saban wasn't to blame, no one player was to blame. A team lost a game and for better or worse, Saban is part of that team.

I agree with the players: The team lost that game, but they certainly weren't beaten.