’Bama is better, y’all.
The Alabama football team is more talented than the LSU football team. It’s shown it all season, and anyone who thinks otherwise is lying to themselves.
But don’t fret, LSU fans — it doesn’t matter.
It doesn’t matter which team is better, which coach is superior or which team puts out more NFL draft picks. When the sun goes down and the crowd stands up in Tiger Stadium, all bets are off.
Throw the analysis and predictions out the window. A rivalry of this magnitude and a game of this importance trumps any perceived advantage either team may hold.
You only have to look back two years to find the last time LSU came away with a win against a favored Alabama team in Tiger Stadium.
In that game, No. 12 LSU knocked off No. 5 Alabama thanks to some huge plays, including a 75-yard Rueben Randle touchdown catch from Jordan Jefferson, a fourth-and-1 conversion to set up a go-ahead score, a two-point conversion and a trio of Josh Jasper field goals.
Two years prior to that, an overmatched LSU team got as close as possible to upsetting the Crimson Tide in Death Valley but couldn’t pull off the win.
Then-No. 1 Alabama came to Baton Rouge to play a 6-2 LSU team that would finish the regular season 7-5. On paper, the game was over before it began.
But Ricky Jean-Francois made the game too close for the Crimson Tide’s liking when he blocked a 29-yard field goal attempt on the last play of the game to send the contest into overtime. Even though the Tigers didn’t win, plays like that one are indicative of what can happen when a favored Alabama team enters Tiger Stadium at night.
It’s not just LSU and Alabama that are affected by a wild-card rivalry.
In 2007, the season of the upset, 1-3 Stanford upended No. 2 USC in Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The Trojans came in as 41-point favorites, but faltered in a huge way, losing 24-23.
Later that season, a fierce rivalry once again proved that sometimes records don’t matter. The 2007 Backyard Brawl paired 4-7 Pittsburgh against 10-1 No. 2 West Virginia in Morgantown, W. Va.
What looked at the start of the night like a surefire trip to the national title game for the Mountaineers ended in a 13-9 Pitt victory.
When two real rivals face each other in a volatile environment, there are no laws. It’s as if The Joker takes over the game and forces his reign of chaos upon the stadium.
That’s what LSU needs on Saturday.
The Mad Hatter needs to be the Joker, and throw a wrench in the works of the well-oiled Crimson Tide machine.
Because if the game plays out as planned, Alabama will have no problem.
