The Alabama Crimson Tide dominate the LSU Tigers in Death Valley to win the SEC West outright. They will face the Georgia Bulldogs in the SEC Championship.
In the most hyped game of the 2018 college football season, the No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide clobbered the No. 3 LSU Tigers on the road in Death Valley, shutting out the Bayou Bengals, 29-0.
This most recent win by the Crimson Tide helped Nick Saban’s team win the SEC West outright for the fifth time in seven years. Alabama will face the SEC East champion Georgia Bulldogs in the conference title bout at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Dec. 1.
This will be a rematch of the 2017 National Championship game, one where Alabama beat Georgia in overtime. Even more interesting, the last meeting between these two SEC powerhouses was at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. Look for the winner of that game to almost certainly reach the College Football Playoff.
So about that game between SEC West rivals in Death Valley? It wasn’t even close, as LSU had almost no offense against the vaunted Alabama defense. Though new starting quarterback Joe Burrow has had success versus other solid programs, he spent most of his time getting crushed by the persistent Alabama pass rush.
While Burrow didn’t turn the ball over until late in the fourth quarter, LSU’s issues weren’t just in the passing game or keeping its signal caller upright. LSU managed just 12 rushing yards at home. 12. That’s all. You can’t even begin to think about beating Alabama if you can’t compete in the trenches.
So with this rout of LSU in their own building, realistically, only two SEC teams can even dream about reaching the Playoff at this point: top-seeded Alabama and a certain top-five team in Georgia. LSU had a good run this year but frankly lacked the offensive firepower to continually hang with the more complete teams in its own conference.
Alabama was again led by its Heisman Trophy front-runner in quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. He completed 25 of 42 passes for 295 yards, two touchdowns and his first interception of the season. He also had three rushes for 49 yards and a touchdown. This was the first time that he played in the fourth quarter of a game this season. That is how good Alabama has been this season.
Even though the Crimson Tide won going away, LSU was the best team Alabama has faced this season. Surely, the rival Auburn Tigers will give Alabama their best shot in the Iron Bowl Thanksgiving Weekend. Georgia would almost certainly do the same thing in a month’s time in Atlanta for the SEC Championship.
Interestingly, this will only be the second time that Alabama will play Georgia in an SEC Championship Game. The only time these two schools met for the conference title was back in 2012. Alabama narrowly held on to beat the Dawgs at the old Georgia Dome thanks to an Aaron Murray tipped pass in the red zone. Alabama would go on crush the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the national championship.
Overall, Alabama is the best team in the nation by a wide margin. Though the Clemson Tigers look very good as well, Alabama should be the No. 1 team going forward until they lose. At this time, Alabama is on pace to be the first team to go 15-0 in the College Football Playoff era. Dismantling the Bayou Bengals in Baton Rouge helps the Crimson Tide get one step closer to the goal of back-to-back national championships.