DEVILLE: Redefining the Word Agony

Tigers painfully miss out on upset of Saban, No. 1 Alabama

by Matt Deville
Tiger Rag Senior Editor

(At left) Demetrius Byrd caught Jarrett Lee’s best pass of the day for a 30-yard touchdown (Photo by Steve Franz/LSU)

It was almost too painful to watch really.

LSU lost to No. 1 Alabama 27-21 in overtime Saturday night in Tiger Stadium, which should indicate a noble effort on the part of the then 15th ranked Tigers. Considering LSU took the nation’s top-ranked team to the wire and was an eyelash from logging its fourth straight win over a No. 1 rated team, dropping a six-point loss wouldn’t be considered all that bad in the grand scheme of things.

But still, a loss is a loss and every loss is bad, especially when you lose a close one the way the Tigers did on Saturday.

But this particular loss was extra painful.

This defeat was draped in lagniappe, dipped in lemon juice and sliced with the edge of a sheet of paper. This setback was much, much worse than LSU’s two previous stumbles versus Florida and Georgia. Try slamming your hand in the car door or maybe dropping a bowling ball on your foot.

Maybe take a big swig of Tabasco sauce.

Or better yet, lock yourself in a closet and slice a couple dozen onions.

Getting the picture?

It was bad enough the Tigers lost a heartbreaker to the nation’s top-ranked team on Saturday. But that team was led by former LSU coach Nick Saban, who was making his first appearance in Tiger Stadium since leaving Baton Rouge in 2004.

The wattage in Saturday’s Tiger Stadium atmosphere was dialed up a few more notches in greeting the ex-LSU boss. Saban was booed and hissed at by the largest crowd in Tiger Stadium history when he led his Crimson Tide onto the field.

But in the end, while being escorted by over a dozen armed Louisiana State Troopers, Saban exited Death Valley with a win and his team’s No. 1 ranking securely in place – all the while waving to a throng of ardent Alabama fans, each gripping their jug of Kool-Aid.

The loss dropped LSU to 6-3 on the season and 3-3 in SEC play. The Tigers fell to No. 19 in the AP Poll and 20 in the Coaches and BCS standings.

Afterwards, over 93,000 people filed out of Tiger Stadium, many of whom were more frustrated than the Phil Fulmer Fan Club. Once a season full of promise, the Tigers now have three losses, the most since, well, Saban’s last year when LSU went 9-3 in 2004.

But was this actually a huge surprise?

The Tigers lost a veteran quarterback, experienced skill players on offense and three all-Americans on defense from last season’s BCS Title team. Plus, isn’t this season quite similar to the 2004 campaign, in which LSU suffered mightily from a BCS Title hangover?

Texas drank too much in 2005 as well and went reaching for the BC Powder in 2006.
The pattern continued after Florida raised the crystal in 2006. The Gators never were quite right in 2007, all the while slumping to a 9-4 record.

Coming into this season, things were supposed to be a little different. Despite big holes to fill on defense, the return of Ryan Perrilloux had people believing LSU could have been back in the BCS mix.

Well, you know how that turned out.

At any rate, LSU coach Les Miles was forced to turn to a pair of inexperienced quarterbacks in Jarrett Lee and Andrew Hatch. But a power running game was supposed to alleviate pressure from LSU’s green quarterbacks and simply efficient play from the signal callers was all that would be required for the Tigers to be successful.

After the two split snaps early on, injuries held Hatch back and Lee locked up a full-time gig under center.

When facing an SEC schedule featuring the likes of Auburn, Florida, Georgia and Alabama, starting a redshirt freshman quarterback is expected to produce some growing pains.

Unfortunately, no one knew just how many that would be.

Through nine games, Lee has now thrown 14 interceptions, including four on Saturday in the loss to Alabama. Of those 14 picks, six of them have been brought back for opponent touchdowns, the sixth coming Saturday when Reshad Johnson returned a second quarter interception 54 yards to tie the score at 14-14.

Johnson, who had three interceptions in the game, including the game’s biggest in overtime, was named National Player of the Week on Sunday. The Alabama safety will likely be dubbed the SEC Defensive Player of the Week as well, which will make two LSU opponents in three weeks to snare that honor.

Three games ago, Georgia linebacker Darryl Gamble grabbed two errant passes from Lee, returning both for touchdowns as the Bulldogs beat LSU 52-38.

In that game, three Lee interceptions led to 17 Georgia points, which more than accounted for the difference in the game.

On Saturday, three of Lee’s four picks – all by Johnson – directly resulted in 20 Alabama points. The first of the day led to a 15-yard scoring drive for a 7-0 Alabama lead. The second, which Johnson returned for a TD, tied the game at 14-14. And the third, coming on third and six from the 21 in overtime, all but sealed the deal for the Tide.

Attention Jamie Howard: you are officially off the hook!

Howard was vilified in 1994 for throwing six INTs in a 30-26 loss at Auburn. Three of those interceptions were brought back for touchdowns – all in the fourth quarter.

While Howard’s lowlight is probably more heinous considering the Tigers led 23-7 at the beginning of the fourth, the 1994 Tigers were a bad football team playing against the nation’s No. 11 ranked team on the road.

In two HOME games against the Nos. 9 and 1 ranked teams in the nation, Lee has thrown seven interceptions, three of which were brought back for touchdowns and six of them led to a total of 37 points.

It is understandable interceptions are part of the game and mistakes do happen. However, if you simply subtract only the ones returned for touchdowns in those two games, LSU could be 8-1 right now with wins over two top 10 teams, including the No. 1 team.

Now, it is easy to point the finger at the Lee. Even though he is averaging 1.5 interceptions per game and is on track to throw 20 picks this season, people do have to remember he is only a redshirt freshman and was thrust in duty because Perrilloux couldn’t keep his nose clean.

It was written in this space last May when Miles booted Perrilloux from the LSU roster, those who applaud Miles now for dismissing Perrilloux will likely be the same folks who boo him when the Tigers have two or three losses by mid November.

While the quarterback situation is grim, Miles is sticking by his beleaguered field general.

“I think he can play better than he played today, simply put,” Miles said afterwards. “I thought that he gave his team a chance to win. He’s a redshirt freshman. He’s taking snaps and playing competitively against a team that we need to catch the ball and make some plays through the air.”

There is some truth in what Miles said. Lee did in fact have LSU in a position to upset the nation’s No.1 team – despite throwing four interceptions.

With that being said, one must question the integrity of Alabama’s No. 1 ranking.
Let’s face it, the Tide got a huge boost from throttling Clemson in the season opener, jumping from 22 to 9th in the polls. Then, a 41-30 win over Georgia further solidified Bama’s right to be rated among the nation’s elite.

Since then, it’s become apparent Clemson (who’s currently 4-5 and fired coach Tommy Bowden) wasn’t even an average team and Georgia (who was ranked No. 1 in week one) got throttled by Florida 49-10 two weeks ago and snuck past Kentucky 42-38 on Saturday.

In the meantime, the Tide struggled to beat Tulane, Ole Miss and Kentucky – all at home – and surrendered the most rushing yards of the season on Saturday, giving up 201 to LSU. Coming into the game, Bama was allowing just 65 yards per game and had been ranked second in the nation.

Considering all of that, the Tide needed overtime to outlast a Tiger team whose quarterback threw four interceptions, which resulted in 20 of Alabama’s 27 points.

In all, Alabama sustained only one scoring drive in the game, a third quarter march covering 69 yards on seven plays.

Needless to say, it seems highly unlikely Alabama will maintain its top-billing long enough for Saban to get his second piece of crystal. The Tide clinched a spot in the SEC Title Game with Saturday’s victory and will get its shot at a Florida team that has piled up 207 points in its last four games.

While Saban and his Tide adjust the smoke and mirrors in preparation for games against Miss. State and Auburn, Tiger fans will continue wondering what might have been.
And as for Lee and his team, while Saturday’s loss was gut-wrenching, the Tigers can still reach the 10-win plateau in 2008.

“That’s part of football,” Lee said. “You have to bounce back from losses like this. We are going to bounce back because we have a lot of football still to play. We are going to move forward and keep our heads up.”

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Matt Deville is the senior editor of Tiger Rag. Reach him at matt@tigerrag.com.