Aaron Suttles
TideSports.com Senior Writer
BATON ROUGE, La. | Loud is an understatement.
What Blake Sims and the Alabama offense faced ranged more in the ear-splitting category, in a crazed-Cajun environment that befitted its name "Saturday Night in Death Valley."
But in the midst of that chaos, down three points with less than a minute remaining in the game and again in overtime, when Tiger Stadium shook with the sound of thunder, Alabama made the plays.
It lived to play another day with dreams intact.
For a team that eyes division, conference and national championships, it's all in front of the Crimson Tide these next three weeks. Alabama (8-1, 5-1) resides alone in second place in the SEC West behind only the No. 1 team in the country, Mississippi State, which travels the 80 or so miles east next week for a showdown that has more than just division standing implications.
Beyond that, all remaining regular season games originate from inside the friendly confines of Bryant-Denny Stadium, where Alabama plays like and essentially is a completely different team.
Better than that, the Crimson Tide controls the path to its goals. Win out and a SEC West title gives way for a chance for a SEC title. Win there and it's a near certainty that a 13-1 Alabama would be one of four teams selected for the inaugural College Football Playoff.
Alabama began the night on the outside looking in at the top four, at No. 5. Saturday's results, particularly Auburn's loss to Texas A&M earlier in the day, could change that. Auburn came into the day as the No. 3 team ranked by the committee.
All of that, of course, will be settled on the field over the next three weeks.
What cannot be overlooked, however, are the monumental struggles Alabama's showed outside of Tuscaloosa.
Another road test resulted in another failed offensive performance Saturday night.
At Ole Miss: 10 points scored by the offense, at Arkansas: 14 points by the offense, at LSU: 13 points scored by the offense in regulation.
The offense sputtered and stalled for most of the night, failing to find a groove for the most part. A heavy pass-to-run ratio (46-to-29) was quizzical given the balance that UA coach Nick Saban strives for, and it resulted in a disjointed offensive performance with Blake Sims never seeming to get into any kind of rhythm.
Do the road struggles hint at larger problems with the team, a fundamental flaw?
It's tough to say.
The defense took LSU's best shot, a dominant Tigers offensive line and a bevy of bruising runners, and refused to flinch. Kicker Adam Griffith split the uprights on a field goal with the game on the line, a skill that has been in short supply of late in Tuscaloosa.
And no matter how clumsy the offense looked at times, when it mattered, at the end of regulation in the two-minute drill and in overtime when two Leon Brown penalties presented more self-inflicted adversity, Sims and his offense found a way to overcome. Saban said after the game it was the time for his team to show people "you know how to win."
"There's a lot of things we have to do better, there's no doubt about that, but I tell you what, anytime you can win in a place like thisā¦it's a great win for Alabama, and I'm really proud of our players," Saban said.
If Alabama can continue to show people it knows how to win, its dreams are within grasp.
- See more at: https://alabama.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1702097#sthash.BiPtSEcs.dpuf
TideSports.com Senior Writer
BATON ROUGE, La. | Loud is an understatement.
What Blake Sims and the Alabama offense faced ranged more in the ear-splitting category, in a crazed-Cajun environment that befitted its name "Saturday Night in Death Valley."
But in the midst of that chaos, down three points with less than a minute remaining in the game and again in overtime, when Tiger Stadium shook with the sound of thunder, Alabama made the plays.
It lived to play another day with dreams intact.
For a team that eyes division, conference and national championships, it's all in front of the Crimson Tide these next three weeks. Alabama (8-1, 5-1) resides alone in second place in the SEC West behind only the No. 1 team in the country, Mississippi State, which travels the 80 or so miles east next week for a showdown that has more than just division standing implications.
Beyond that, all remaining regular season games originate from inside the friendly confines of Bryant-Denny Stadium, where Alabama plays like and essentially is a completely different team.
Better than that, the Crimson Tide controls the path to its goals. Win out and a SEC West title gives way for a chance for a SEC title. Win there and it's a near certainty that a 13-1 Alabama would be one of four teams selected for the inaugural College Football Playoff.
Alabama began the night on the outside looking in at the top four, at No. 5. Saturday's results, particularly Auburn's loss to Texas A&M earlier in the day, could change that. Auburn came into the day as the No. 3 team ranked by the committee.
All of that, of course, will be settled on the field over the next three weeks.
What cannot be overlooked, however, are the monumental struggles Alabama's showed outside of Tuscaloosa.
Another road test resulted in another failed offensive performance Saturday night.
At Ole Miss: 10 points scored by the offense, at Arkansas: 14 points by the offense, at LSU: 13 points scored by the offense in regulation.
The offense sputtered and stalled for most of the night, failing to find a groove for the most part. A heavy pass-to-run ratio (46-to-29) was quizzical given the balance that UA coach Nick Saban strives for, and it resulted in a disjointed offensive performance with Blake Sims never seeming to get into any kind of rhythm.
Do the road struggles hint at larger problems with the team, a fundamental flaw?
It's tough to say.
The defense took LSU's best shot, a dominant Tigers offensive line and a bevy of bruising runners, and refused to flinch. Kicker Adam Griffith split the uprights on a field goal with the game on the line, a skill that has been in short supply of late in Tuscaloosa.
And no matter how clumsy the offense looked at times, when it mattered, at the end of regulation in the two-minute drill and in overtime when two Leon Brown penalties presented more self-inflicted adversity, Sims and his offense found a way to overcome. Saban said after the game it was the time for his team to show people "you know how to win."
"There's a lot of things we have to do better, there's no doubt about that, but I tell you what, anytime you can win in a place like thisā¦it's a great win for Alabama, and I'm really proud of our players," Saban said.
If Alabama can continue to show people it knows how to win, its dreams are within grasp.
- See more at: https://alabama.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1702097#sthash.BiPtSEcs.dpuf
