Alabama takes control of SEC West by stifling Fournette and LSU, 30-16
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Version 0 of 1. TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Ambitious Louisiana State spent Saturday evening barricaded amid two walls. The first was the wall of urgent sound from the 101,821 in Bryant-Denny Stadium, a game-long din that abetted and punctuated Alabama’s 30-16 win and its full restoration to Alabama-ness after a September hiccup. The second, and the more significant, was the persistent wall of chiseled athletes who play defense for Alabama. Against that wall, LSU star running back Leonard Fournette banged repeatedly, having brought along his nation-leading 193 rushing yards per game. He began with a 2-yard run. Then he gained 1. Then he lost 5. “We made clutter for him,” Alabama linebacker Reggie Ragland said. They made enough clutter that Fournette reached halftime with nine carries for 9 yards. Then they made enough that he got to the end of the third quarter with an astounding 15 carries for 15 yards, with a longest run of 4 yards and a deficit of 30-10. “A lot of plays fell through,” LSU offensive tackle Vadal Alexander said. [College Football Rewind: Florida’s McElwain enjoys quick success] Such forced inertia freed Alabama to display its superior array of knacks — Derrick Henry’s 210 rushing yards among them — until Fournette reached the end of the night as a Heisman Trophy frontrunner whose front-running had become less frontal after 19 carries for 31 yards, 119 yards fewer in any other game this season. It came with some merit, then, when Alabama linebacker Dillon Lee praised “in my opinion the best defensive line in the country.” It figured when quarterback Jake Coker said he “heard them talking about” their mission with Fournette “a pretty good bit” during the week, such that they “were chomping at the bit to get out there.” All through the night of the clash of the rivalry that has risen to national prominence over the last 10 years, Alabama defenders such as defensive end A’Shawn Robinson, linebacker Lee, safety Eddie Jackson or defensive end Dalvin Tomlinson kept exulting at their negating. They would greet each stalling of the great No. 7 as an achievement. They might as well have thrown in some merriment about what they did to the shape of the season in the Southeastern Conference and the country. LSU, perched at No. 2 last week in the College Football Playoff Selection Committee’s first rankings, figures to tumble, while Alabama, which held down a somewhat controversial No. 4 as the only one-loss team in the top four, figures to hold or rise. [College Football Saturday: Florida clinches SEC East; Clemson, Okla. St. win] Their coach, the ever-understated Nick Saban, doesn’t care about that, but he did effuse uncommonly, repeating the phrase “a great team win” at least thrice and saying, “I’m just really proud of our team for what they were able to accomplish on the field.” From its five-turnover foibles in a 43-37 home loss to Ole Miss on Sept. 19, Alabama has recovered — to an 8-1 record, to an effective first place in the SEC West Division, to the November national relevance to which it has grown accustomed under Saban, to the quashing of the question of any fading of its near-dynasty. “Overrated!” its fans shouted after Fournette finally scored with 9 minutes 18 seconds remaining, narrowing the score to a not particularly narrow 30-16. After all, it wasn’t just that Alabama, right from the first play, had the better passing wherewithal, even with first-year starter Coker who is, after all, a senior. (He went a tidy 18-for-24 for 184 yards.) It wasn’t that LSU quarterback Brandon Harris remains spotty, his gorgeous 40-yard touchdown to Travin Dural in the second quarter offset by his hapless sitting duck on the first play of the second half, when Lee read his intent and intercepted. (That set up Alabama at the LSU 28-yard line, for a rapid surge to a 20-10 lead.) [Early Lead: Missouri football players say they’re on strike] No, it also happened that Alabama has enrolled some NFL-probable running backs of its own, and two of them ran as if they had wearied of the attention given to Fournette, even if that perhaps wasn’t their intent. While Fournette tried just to budge, the Tide pair took some long trips. Henry, the senior from Florida who came in 12th in national rushing, went for 11 yards, another time 40, another time 10, another time 10, and on a romp in the fourth quarter, 29. Kenyan Drake, the senior from Georgia, went 18, then 25 with a reception after Lee’s interception, then 16, another time 24. When they finished streaming around the field, Drake had 68 yards on 10 carries, while the dominant Henry had the 210 on 38 and had to fend off questions about whether he had employed any Fournette envy, questions Henry deftly deflected. His views included, “Credit to all of them (on the offensive line) for my success,” and, “I’m just trying to help my offense,” and, “I’m not worried about the Heisman.” So while Fournette’s 1,352 yards in his first seven games became 1,383 in eight, Henry’s 1,044 yards in his first eight games became 1,254 in nine, and his teammates could speak for him. Asked if he considers Henry the nation’s best back, Coker said, “Coming from me, yes.” Henry’s damage, of course, worsened for LSU as the game progressed, and it did so largely because of the studied excellence of Henry’s teammates on defense. By the time that unit got through spending two weeks analyzing LSU’s excellent offensive line and Fournette, they kept turning up in all the right places, and in masses. By the end of the third quarter, LSU had eight first downs, 36 rushing yards on 22 carries, four completions of 15 pass attempts for 100. In turn, all of that gave their offense a whopping advantage in possession — 79 plays to 45, 39 minutes and 27 seconds to 20 minutes and 33 seconds — such that it ended fittingly. It ended with Alabama draining off the last 8:48 without scoring or needing to score, running Henry 11 times in 13 plays, a reminder of the many capabilities of the eminent Alabama. |