No arguing LSU played their butts off

Published 5:45 am Sunday, November 6, 2016

BATON ROUGE  BéBé had them sweating.

Give him that.

But if Coach O, Ed Orgeron, was coaching to land his interim dream job for good Saturday night, then it wasn’t a fair fight.

Not against Alabama.

You might as well say you were basing your retirement financial plan on hitting the lottery.

In other words, yeah, it could have happened … so you’re saying there’s a chance.

Not very likely. But … oh, who are we kidding here?

Speaking of which, has an interim head coach ever beat the nation’s No. 1 team?

Just asking.

But LSU’s 10-0 loss was the biggest scare Alabama has really gotten this year, with the Tide held 23 points below their previous low output.

“We needed to find a way to win that game tonight,” Orgeron said.

He said it wasn’t about him, and it was easy to believe him. It was about a heartbroken locker room.

“These guys were believing they could beat this football team,” Orgeron said.

Well, that’s half the battle and, actually, that did appear to be the case.

So there’s something to be said for that.

Nobody seemed content to have shut out Alabama — a Tide team averaging 44 points per game ?— for three full quarters.

The speculation all week was that Orgeron could all but wrap up a permanent contract with a monumental upset.

But was coming up short a deal-breaker?

Surely, that can’t be the only criteria.

Yet ever since the disaster of the BCS championship game following the 2011 season, the LSU program has been obsessed with beating Nick Saban, uh, Alabama.

So is that the criteria? Find somebody that can beat Alabama?

If that’s it, well, good luck with that search. Better send out a safari to the outer reaches.

If it involves scoring on the Tide — this Bama bunch, at any rate — better pack a big lunch.

I don’t know what more the Tigers could have done.

Tried to do, at least.

And yet LSU never really came close to scoring.

The best chance probably came early, when Tiger Stadium basically simulated a nuclear explosion after Jalen Mills’ interception on the game’s first possession at the Bama 33-yard line.

LSU went nowhere and got a prayer of a field goal tipped.

Never really sniffed the scoreboard again.

But don’t drag out the old complaints with the LSU offense.

The execution wasn’t always stellar, but the thought was there.

And it wasn’t for lack for trying, that’s for sure.

They threw on first down and it didn’t help much, not with quarterback Danny Etling constantly being harassed.

They spread the field out in an effort to get playmakers in space, but when a defense is as fast and sure tackling as the Tide’s, it’s no great advantage once you get there.

There were even scattered sightings of (very brief) daylight for Leonard Fournette, but those little slivers that turn into 20- and 30-yard runs against mortal defenses, quickly turned into black holes against the Tide.

But you couldn’t pass on every down. That would have turned it into a turkey shoot for the Bama defensive line that few humans can block.

True, there were some plays — a few, anyway — to be made,

“We had some guys open and couldn’t get the ball to them,” Orgeron said. “Sometimes there was pressure.”

Sometimes?

Most times. Almost all.

For three scoreless quarters, 102,321 fans were having 2011 Game of the Century — the 9-6 overtime slugfest thriller flashbacks.

But it wasn’t just how physical this game was. It was how fast it was, the speed on both defenses for the most part negating all the new-age stuff Bama now embraces and LSU is just now starting to tinker with.

In the end, Bama’s defensive front had its way with the Tigers offensive line, and not amount of scheming and play calling was going to solve it.

That will be the tough part for some LSU fans.

In the end, you have to … swallow hard … credit Alabama.

The Tide might be that good.

LSU played one of its best defensive games of our generation and still came up 10 points short.

There were a few mental mistakes — but anything physical on this night was Grade-A prime cut.

“But the effort was there,” Orgeron aid. “Our defense played awfully well except for two third downs.

“I thought we played our butts off on defense.”

No arguing that.

l

Scooter Hobbs covers LSU

athletics. Email him at

shobbs@americanpress.com