Youthful LSU, experienced Alabama proved they are who we thought they were

The late Dennis Green will always be remembered as a solid NFL coach with Minnesota and Arizona.

What he is most remembered for is his famous post-game rant after his Arizona Cardinals suffered a disheartening 24-23 loss to the Bears on Monday Night Football on Oct. 16, 2006.

Arizona, playing at home, led 23-3 in the third quarter but the Cardinals blew it as Chicago scored two defensive touchdowns, allowed a Devin Hester punt return for a touchdown and then Neil Rackers hooked a 40-yard field goal attempt that would have won it as the Bears completed the comeback victory.

You may recall the Bears went on to win the NFC, beating the New Orleans Saints at Soldier Field before losing to the Indianapolis Colts in the Super Bowl.

“The Bears are who we thought they were,” Green said in frustration. “That’s why we took the damn field. If you want to crown them, crown them, but they are who we thought they were and we let them off the hook.

Saturday night in Baton Rouge, Alabama was who we thought they were and LSU was who we thought they were.

The only hook off of which the Crimson Tide let LSU was taking their foot off the pedal and not scoring 70 or more points in a 55-17 victory at Tiger Stadium.

Alabama is exactly what we thought.

Najee Harris is the best pure running back in the country.

Mac Jones is one of the top five, if not top three quarterbacks in the country.

The offensive line is tough.

The defense is not great but good enough to place Alabama in the top spot nationally.

By the way, Alabama finally has a kicker, one who has not missed a field goal.

LSU is exactly who we thought they were.

After a good performance at Texas A&M, the defense returned to its doldrums, a step or two slow, missing tackles and, of course, covering little or nobody in the secondary.

Even when Derek Stingley Jr. blanketed Amite’s Devonta Smith, the latter made one of the best catches of the year for a touchdown.

Of course, the rest of the time, the “who’s got who” pass defense returned.

Secondary members got beat, make that torched.

Then, the socially distanced pass defense returned as well, with several complete busts in coverages, allowing Alabama receivers to run free, wide, wide open.

Alabama is elite, even without Jaylen Waddle, who was hurt earlier this season.

What else is new?

My friend, Ed Daniels, made the case that this Alabama team is more talented than last year’s team, which lost to LSU 46-41 in Tuscaloosa.

I politely disagree.

Jones is good but not as good as Tua Tagovailoa.

Jerry Jeudy and Henry Ruggs were first-round draft picks, selected 12th and 15th, respectively, by Las Vegas and Denver.

Tackle Jedrick Wills was the 10th pick overall in the draft, by Cleveland.

Safety Xavier McKinney was a second round pick (36th) by the Giants.

Corner Trevon Diggs went 51st to Dallas.

Defensive tackle Raekwon Davis went 56th overall to Miami.

Alabama had nine players drafted in 2020, a normal occurrence.

The Crimson Tide figures to have six, perhaps seven players picked in the first round of the 2021 draft, including Harris, Jones, offensive lineman Alex Leatherwood, linebacker Dylan Moses, Smith corner Patrick Surtain and Waddle.

That is what Alabama produces annually.

LSU produced 14 draft picks in 2020, tying an all-time record. You knew the Tigers could not be as good this year but literally no one expected LSU to fall this far. Preseason polls had LSU as high as No. 6 going into the season.

Then came the Mississippi State debacle. Then came the Missouri debacle. Then came the injury to Brennan.

Conversely, before the season were to begin, LSU had two players who could be first-round picks in Ja’Marr Chase and Terrace Marshall.

Neither played for the Tigers Saturday night.

Instead, what you saw from LSU was a veritable smorgasbord, consisting of junior college transfers, graduate transfers from small programs, many freshmen and sophomores and a few average veteran players sprinkled in with one future first round pick in Stingley.

That was a recipe for disaster.

What else could we have expected?

Alabama’s best players did not opt out.

The best example of this is Harris, a senior, who would have certainly been drafted and looks the part of a future NFL star.

That is a culture, one that perhaps the best coach in the history of college football has built.

That is like rubbing Icy Heat in the open cut that is LSU football, 2020.

Nick Saban is that good and LSU must compete with him annually and he does not appear to have lost any of his game or desire to coach.

Saban loses top players. He loses top assistant coaches. He and his team do not miss a beat as Alabama is annually in contention for the national championship.

Two of LSU’s best players (Chase, Marshall) did opt out, and that included Tyler Shelvin and Kary Vincent. Of course, Stingley is the other top player and he missed the season opener with Mississippi State which set the tone for this dismal LSU season.

LSU also lost its quarterback, Myles Brennan, a future draft pick, in the middle of the season.

It is safe to say that the Tigers would be considerably better with Chase, Marshall, Shelvin, Vincent and Brennan.

No, LSU would not have beaten Alabama, no way.

No, LSU would not have contended for an SEC or national championship.

Yes, LSU would have a better final record than ending up 3-7, which the Tigers would have if they lose to Florida and Ole Miss the next two weeks. A loss to the heavily favored Gators alone would clinch the program’s first losing season since 1999.

The encouragement for LSU fans is that the host of players that mattered who were on the field last night will be back next year.

Freshmen Kayshon Boutte, Trey Bradford, TJ Finley, Arik Gilbert, Jacobian Guillory, Max Johnson, Koy Moore, BJ Olulari, Eli Ricks and Jaquelin Roy have all showed promise, with good futures. The oldest saying in football is the best thing about freshmen is that they become sophomores. We shall see.

Sophomores Chris Curry, John Emery, Cordale Flott, Maurice Hampton Jr., Jaray Jenkins, Trey Palmer, Tyrion Davis-Price, Dare Rosenthal, Stingley, Jay Ward, Cam Wire and Cade York all figure to back.

Brennan could be back.

Finley and Johnson have showed promise but without any consistent running game and poor offensive line play, it is hard to assess just how good both or either could be.

There is a good, highly ranked recruiting class set to join the fray, if Ed Orgeron can hold on to his recruits, though the class is thin on offensive linemen.

With all due respect, LSU will not lose significant players among its seniors or juniors that may depart. While some are contributors, they are replaceable, very replaceable in most instances.

LSU will be better next year than the team than the team that could not run the ball against anyone good (or even Missouri), better than the team that got embarrassed by Mississippi State and Missouri and got destroyed at Auburn. Better than the team that was blown out by its biggest rival, at home, Saturday night.

How much better depends on recruiting and player development.

It also depends on coaching.

No one can make the argument that LSU is better off without Joe Brady and Dave Aranda.

Coaches need to put their players in the best position to succeed, which both of those coaches did. Has that truly been the case this year?

Alabama amassed 650 yards. It could have been more, much more.

Alabama scored 55 points. It could have been more, much more.

There was a reason Alabama was a 29.5 point favorite, on the road. It should have been more.

There is hope that this LSU season will be simply another of the nightmarish memories we will all have of 2020.

While LSU may not contend for a national title in 2021, barring dramatic, make that very dramatic improvement, the Tigers will be better, hopefully significantly better in 2021.

The Tigers play Florida this coming week. It will, once again, not be pretty with a blowout very likely. The Gators will play Alabama for the SEC title the following week while a hungry Ole Miss team comes to Tiger Stadium.

LSU players, coaches and fans will watch that one to see just how far they have to progress to return to being back in the mix of being a legitimate Top 25 team, much less a Top 10 team and national contender.

Barring unforeseen developments on and off the field, I expect that to happen.

Then, we can talk about how LSU has become who we thought they were.