The Tigers severed Alabama's 31-game home winning streak on Saturday. Senior quarterback Joe Burrows put up 252 yards through the air in the first half. The same half that LSU hung 32 points on the defending National Runners-Up.
Put in perspective that in his first three matchups against Alabama, Ed Orgeron had his Tigers score only 10 points over three losses. Two those were shutouts.
LSU was second after the first round of the College Football Playoff rankings earlier this week. There is no way in hell they should have the same position this week.
Tell me on what planet the LSU Tigers could win four games against top-10 teams, including beating the second-best team in the nation and not claim the top spot with three games left in the regular season?
As prolific as LSU was with the victory, it also means Alabama has some work ahead of them to get back to the playoffs, being that they no longer control their own destiny. The Tigers have the steering wheel in the SEC West, and three very winnable games before the SEC Championship, which is likely to be against Georgia.
Penn State's loss to unbeaten Minnesota on Saturday takes a little bit of the luster off their impending matchup against Ohio State next week. The Buckeyes have not played a team in the top 10, let alone beat one.
For Burrows, his 30 touchdowns this season are more than his first three years of eligibility combined. The performance he displayed should garner some of the Heisman talk that was bestowed upon Alabama's Tua Tagovailoa until the past few weeks. Tagovailoa was questionable whether he would even play against LSU.
Even if Alabama would have won, LSU's resume is strong enough to get in as an at-large bid. The Big 10 is yet again not strong enough to send a second team, and the Big 12 cannot decide who wants to lose in the first round yet again. Clemson gets in via default by being the defending champions and playing in the soft ACC to pad their schedule.
Orgeron is doing the most of his second chance as a head coach. Having brought LSU to bowls in each of his first three seasons, there is a lot more hardware slated to be on his mantle by the close of this season. He took Nick Saban to school all afternoon long. Even after an early second-half sack/interception, Orgeron flummoxed Saban, with television cameras catching the Alabama legend almost dumbfounded at times.
If Alabama takes this loss to heart it could make the Iron Bowl against Auburn in a couple of weeks a lot more interesting to say the least.
After his performance in 2019 it is tough to imagine Burrows was not good enough in the eyes of Urban Meyer starting him over J.T. Barrett and Dwayne Haskins. Neither of the last two Ohio State quarterbacks won a National Championship, with Haskins the last remaining shot of any quarterback under Meyer amounting to anything in the NFL. Burrows' draft stock is skyrocketing with each week under Orgeron's tutelage. Defensive coordinator Dave Aranda is also going to get some calls to take over a mid-major program in 2020.
I give all the credit in the world for the Tide making it a game in the second half, but the result was never in doubt in the minds of anyone not from Tuscaloosa.
Somewhere Saban is still trying to figure out how his defense can tackle Clyde Edwards-Helaire. It's not like his squad gave up 180 all-purpose yards and four touchdowns to a 5-foot-8 running back, right?!
-JC24