Nick Saban wasted Alabama’s best offensive teams of all time

Alabama has a bunch of offensive records over the last two years but will have zero national championships to show for it.

Alabama lost to LSU and they won’t be getting a reprieve by the College Football Playoff committee as they did before when they didn’t win their division. Alabama has a game with Auburn remaining but that won’t be a strong enough win to get them in, barring all sorts of chaos. They don’t deserve to make it based on who they’ve played and how they lost to LSU.

This was the end of the season for the Crimson Tide who judge their seasons based on whether it ended with a championship parade down the streets of Tuscaloosa. There will be no championship parade, not even an SEC West division title. The greatest offensive era of Alabama football will have been wasted.

Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa will have all the passing records in Alabama history but he won’t get the Heisman Trophy that felt like it was a guarantee last year, and was his for the taking this year. Tua just didn’t look like himself after undergoing ankle surgery that kept him out of the Arkansas game two weeks ago. He also made physical errors, dropping a ball in the red zone on Alabama’s first possession that proved to be an ominous sign.

Alabama didn’t get points and then LSU went 92 yards for the touchdown and they never looked back.

It’s a shame for Alabama fans who saw the Crimson Tide defense have no answer for Joe Burrow, the LSU receivers and running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire who had two touchdowns moments apart from each other at the end of the first half that deflated Alabama before the break.

Alabama’s fleet of receivers, led by Jerry Jeudy, DeVonta Smith, Henry Ruggs and Jaylen Waddle was not enough to outshine LSU’s playmakers.

Alabama running back Najee Harris was once the No. 1 recruit in the nation but he was outshined by the diminutive Edwards-Helaire. Harris was effective when he got touches but the flow of the game kept the ball out of his hands. By the time Saban put the ball in Harris’ hands, it was too late. Harris was an absolute monster who did his best Derrick Henry impression in the game but the lack of touches in the first half cost the team.

It was a bizarro world for Saban who built Alabama and previously LSU with a punishing ground game and a dominant defense. But neither of which was on display as Alabama fell to LSU for the first time in eight tries.

Who would have thought Alabama having the best offensive era in program history would result in the Tide getting shutout of national titles and seeing their win streak vs. LSU snapped?

Don’t anticipate Saban reverting to his old ways of game managers under center and this loss isn’t entirely on Tua, but the blame starts and ends with the head coach.

This is one of the most talented Crimson Tide teams of all time with a legendary quarterback and a wide receiver unit that may never be replicated in program history. By every measure, their offense is one of the three or four best in the nation.

The lack of a typical Alabama defense to complement that offense when it struggles coupled with LSU being really, really good is why Alabama will not win the national title this year.

You can blame Saban.

You can blame Tua and you can wonder what would have been different if he was healthy.

You can blame receivers for dropped passes.

You can blame the offensive coaching staff and the exodus of assistants in recent years.

You can blame the officials if it helps you sleep at night.

There’s a lot of it to go around.

But the truth remains, Alabama’s golden offensive generation that went against the script of Saban’s six previous national championships wasn’t good enough. Putting up video-game numbers looks great but allowing them in the fashion they did vs. LSU was a taste of their medicine they won’t soon forget how awful it tasted.

Defense wins championships but when you sacrifice that for offense, the price you pay is having your championship aspirations snuffed out in your home stadium.

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