Alabama defeated LSU 21-0 Monday to win the 2012 BCS national title in New Orleans.
LSU was favored going into the game as the SEC champions, but its SEC West rival proved to be more prepared. The Crimson Tide dominated LSU defensively, holding the Tigers to just five first downs and 92 total yards.
Alabama’s game plan was tailored around forcing Jordan Jefferson to beat them with his arm, and the LSU quarterback was woeful, throwing for just 53 yards and committing two turnovers.
Everyone will hail the Alabama defense, but the difference in this game was the quarterbacks. LSU has as good of a defense as Alabama, but Tide quarterback A.J. McCarron played well enough to help his team win (23 of 34 for 234 yards), while Jefferson left LSU people wondering when Jarrett Lee would enter the game.
Blame it on the coaching of Les Miles that he never did. In fact, blame all of this game on the coaching of Miles, who was brilliant this year up until this game as it seemed he had absolutely no tricks left up his sleeve nor anything new to throw at the Alabama defense.
Denver highlights wild card weekend
The first round of playoff action was almost as ugly and lopsided as the national championship with New Orleans thumping Detroit 45-28, Houston shutting down Cincinnati 31-10 and the New York Giants stomping Atlanta 24-2. Leave it to Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos to put some life into an otherwise boring football weekend.
The Broncos upset Pittsburgh 29-23 in overtime. Tebow completed just 10 passes, but threw for 316 yards and two touchdowns, one of which came on the first play of overtime as he hit receiver Demaryius Thomas for an 80-yard touchdown. The route by Thomas was a simple slant pattern, but he stiff-armed a defender and broke lose toward the sidelines, sending the Denver crowd into a frenzy.
Denver will play at New England Saturday at 8 p.m. and New Orleans will play at San Francisco at 4:30 p.m. Sunday’s games will feature Houston at Baltimore at 1 p.m. and Green Bay hosting the Giants at 4:30 p.m.
