This was going to be a column about how LSU had its opportunities to shock the world in Alabama on Saturday night but let them slip away with a pair of unbelievable first-half turnovers.
I was ready to attribute the Tigers’ third road loss to turnovers and compare J.C. Copeland’s goal-line fumble and Elliott Porter’s botched snap to Zach Mettenberger’s three interceptions at Ole Miss and Odell Beckham Jr.’s muffed punt at Georgia.
But there is no comparison.
The mistakes against Ole Miss and Georgia were the difference in close games, but that wasn’t the case this time around.
Alabama is the superior football team and LSU would have caught the same beat-down whether or not it turned the ball over.
The Tigers actually weathered the two giveaways and tied the game on a Colby Delahoussaye field goal in the third quarter. But from that point on, Alabama seemingly kicked into another gear and ran the Tigers over.
And 21 Alabama points later, Les Miles and company were left to wonder what happened to them. After the game, Miles reminded reporters that teams kill themselves when they turn the ball over, and he’s right. But in this case, it wasn’t the difference.
On the same field where LSU battled Alabama and won “The Game of the Century” two seasons ago, it was obvious the Tigers didn’t have the talent and athletes to stand toe-to-toe with the Tide.
On both sides of the ball, Alabama has nothing but guys who were five-star recruits on the way in to Tuscaloosa and will be NFL Draft picks on their way out. LSU has some of those types of players on offense, but on the other side of the ball, they look small and slow comparatively.
In fairness, nearly the entire Tiger defense from a season ago is playing Sundays now. But Alabama loses players to the NFL Draft every season and has no trouble replacing them with players every bit as talented.
The ‘next man up’ mentality is huge in college football because of the high turnover from season to season.
When Alabama lost safety Vinnie Sunseri to a season-ending knee injury, Nick Saban simply replaced him with Landon Collins. For comparison, Collins, who began the season playing special teams, would be the best player in LSU’s secondary right now.
The Tigers lost an extraordinary number of players to last year’s draft, but they have done a poor job replacing it. A slight drop off had to be expected at first to account for the learning curve, but now it’s been 10 games and the lack of improvement indicates this unit just isn’t good.
I don’t think the problem is a lack of experience. The problem is that, position by position, every new starting defender is less talented than the player they replaced.
For what it’s worth, a number of them were only three- or four-start recruits, according to most recruiting services. But even five-star guys like Anthony Johnson and Craig Loston haven’t stepped up to pick up the slack defensively.
People want to blame the two turnovers for the loss because it’s easy and more comforting than acknowledging that Alabama is 21 points better than LSU. But this year it is.
Now, one bad season doesn’t mean LSU’s days as an SEC power are over. But if the top recruits in Louisiana, like the previously mentioned Collins, continue to leave home to play in Tuscaloosa, this outlier could become a trend.
And if that happens, Saturday’s game won’t be the last beating LSU takes from the Tide.
James Moran is a 21-year-old mass communication senior from Beacon, N.Y.