A furious last-minute drive keeps Alabama alive, and Nick Saban logs his fourth straight win over Les Miles and LSU.
It was rarely pretty, but it was a victory, and Alabama's still on track for a spot in the College Football Playoff after a struggle-filled 20-13 overtime win at LSU.
After a punt-filled second half, LSU appeared to gain the upper hand in the last minute; T.J. Yeldon fumbled inside the Alabama 10 in a tie game, and Colby Delahoussaye banged home a 39-yard field goal with 50 seconds left. Delahoussaye squibbed the ensuing kick out of bounds, though, and Alabama was able to drive for a game-tying field goal with three seconds left.
Watching these two teams go head-to-head—the players, the schemes, the head coaches calling the shots—is not dissimilar to watching a major tournament in golf, one of those affairs where the playing conditions are so difficult that it takes superhuman precision to just not have a calamity. That's how difficult each team made it for each other tonight. And sure enough, each team had some truly great moments—the game demanded it.
Here's the level of play it took to score a touchdown in regulation:
You can't help but marvel at that level of execution. You can also wish it happened more often, of course—points are fun, we're not robots, we understand this—but these were great plays on the big stage.
Three things we learned
1. Blake Sims is not great... but he's good. Blake was woeful throwing the ball for most of the game, and 45 attempts to get 209 yards is not a good habit to get into. But when his team needed him the most, Sims came up with two clutch drives, guiding the Tide to victory.
2. Les Miles' mojo finally runs out. Despite having an offense that sputtered nearly as badly as Alabama's did, Les Miles looked like he'd pick up yet another victory under the lights of Tiger Stadium after the Yeldon injury and fumble. That would not be the case this night, as the breaks fell uniformly for Bama after that.
3. Alabama stays alive. Now that the SEC West is murkier than ever, Alabama just needs to win out. The Tide did exactly that, and we've got an enormous matchup coming between Mississippi State and the Tide for control of the division.
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