The Hat Prevails: No. 12 LSU Upsets No. 5 Alabama, 24-21

SB Nation's And The Valley Shook says being in the crowd for Saturday's LSU upset of Alabama was "like being inside a drum":

The crowd was the kind that you have dreams in June about. Loud and unrelenting, with genuine hate for our opponent (and the refs....and some of the playcalling) and such joy at our successes. When Randle ran back that big pass on that unbelievably quick drive, the crowd exploded. It was the greatest single moment in Death Valley in years, better even than the missed FG in the Arkansas OT game last season. Overall, you have to go back to the epic '07 Florida game to find a better experience. This was the Death Valley that so much has been written about, "The Drum" that Bear Bryant talked about. I don't know what 392,500 people would sound like, but I have to agree with Miles in saying that we had to have come close.

SB Nation's Roll Bama Roll takes stock of the 2010 Crimson Tide after Saturday's 24-21 loss to LSU, and confronts the sobering prospect of that rare year without a national title bid:

Busted flat in Baton Rouge, it would seem. We've written for weeks here at RBR that we would find out for certain what this team was made of when we made the road trip to play LSU, and I'm afraid to say that indeed came to fruition. Unfortunately, the returns simply are not what we had hoped for. We are not a bad team by any stretch of the imagination, but having said that we are not really a particularly good team either, and we are certainly nothing resembling a great team (no matter how loosely defined). No offense to LSU, they clearly deserved to win yesterday afternoon, but had we really been as good as we had all hoped (and some expected), we would have won this game with no great difficulty.

Les Miles, in the fourth quarter of the game he won today versus Alabama, reached down to the ground, picked up a piece of the Tiger Stadium sod onto his tongue. It could have been an act of reverence, a kind of sacrament. It could have been a nervous tic picked up from years of playing offensive line. Les Miles could have eaten grass because, like a starving man wandering the deserts mad from hunger, he is insane and hungry.

The mystery will remain, but it wasn’t alone. Why did LSU, on a 4th and 1 call in the fourth quarter, call a reverse to Rueben Randle? Why, against the allegedly watertight Alabama defense, did it work? Why, when everyone in the stadium knew LSU will go for a fake anywhere on the field at any time, did Alabama offer up a clean alley on the left side of the punt formation for LSU to exploit in the third? Why was Jordan Jefferson on the screen as something called “Player of the Game”, and how did that happen?

Alabama didn’t fall to the Tigers because of voodoo alone. Alabama failed to consistently move the ball all game long thanks to relentless pressure from the LSU defense, particularly from the pair of lB Kelvin Sheppard and DT Drake Nevis. Nevis and Sheppard teamed up on the pivotal defensive play of the game, a strip of McElroy by Nevis and fumble recovery by Sheppard that effectively ended Alabama’s reasonable chances of winning the game.

Alabama did mount a manic drive at the end of the game capped by a Julio Jones TD catch, but it would end with a botched hook and lateral and the other enduring image of the night: Nick Saban, stunned and exasperated, looking up at the Tiger Stadium crowd in full throat and running to shake the hand of the man who, unlike Saban, had a team with a live shot at a spot in Atlanta and—in a scenario only possible in the dreams of men who eat grass off the ground—a shot at a spot in a BCS bowl.

Please do not read this update while operating heavy machinery: LSU, the team whose offense has sputtered loudly beneath a rain of Tiger Stadium boos all season, scored a 75 yard TD through the air. You also shouldn’t be reading anything while operating heavy machinery period, but especially this.

What’s more shocking is that it was the much-maligned Jordan Jefferson who threw a beautiful pass to Rueben Randle, who then ran it in against a massive coverage bust by Alabama. Alabama then responded with their usual methodical cool, capping an 11 play drive with a five yard Mark Ingram TD, but that’s normal. LSU staying in the game with their offense going into the fourth is anything but usual, and worth special mention.

We return to action in Baton Rouge with the Trent Richardson show. The sophomore phenom gets off a 22-yard run down to LSU's 1-yard line, is stuffed twice at the goal line, and finally catches a quick pass from Greg McElroy for the game's first touchdown.

It will be the only score of the quarter, and it knocks Trent Richardson down with a knee contusion in the process, but he can be seen in the sidelines riding the stationary bike and is expected to return to action.

Jordan Jefferson can't get good running room, and the Tigers punt. Mark Ingram can't get good running room, and the Tide punt. Two more three-and-outs, one featuring a harangue of Jarrett Lee's lack of quarterbacking prowess by a huffy Gary Danielson in the booth. Nobody's making anything happen on special teams. A thoroughly soporific half of football draws to a close, with Alabama leading LSU, 7-3.

It's a quiet first quarter so far in Baton Rouge, with the rancor in the stands wildly outpacing the action on the field. The Tide and Tigers trade three-and-outs to open play, and a Kelvin Sheppard interception of Greg McElroy provides the first real breath of life.

It's a breath that comes to no fruition, as LSU can't get more than six yards deep in Alabama territory, and settles for a 45-yard field goal.

Trent Richardson, it should be noted, has returned two kickoffs this quarter. One for ten yards on the opening kick, and one near-disaster now as he false-starts out of the endzone before taking a knee.

Julio Jones fumbles on the Tide's second play from scrimmage, but recovers to convert the downs on the next play. Bama won't get much more off this drive, and punts at their own 30. Six plays later, the Tigers punt back. Preston Dial, Julio Jones, and Mark Ingram provide the bursts of yardage needed on the next drive, and as the third quarter ends, the Tide is at LSU's 32, trailing 0-3 in Baton Rouge.

SB Nation's Roll Bama Roll looks at the bigger picture for Alabama in today's game against LSU:

Where exactly do we stand as a team right now? That's admittedly a tough question to answer given the information we have at hand. The schedule over the first eight weeks turned out to be relatively easy as a handful of opponents expected to be strong turned out to be unusually weak, and in the wake of the South Carolina debacle there is only so much a team can prove by beating a couple of bad teams. No one is complaining about the 7-1 overall record or the fact that we control our own destiny in the national championship race, but it is relatively easy to question what it all means right now. Moving forward, the schedule clearly gets tougher, and we'll have to play at a higher level to run the table from here.

As we've said ever since the loss to South Carolina, for better or for worse we're going to find out what this team is made of when we make the trip to Baton Rouge this weekend.

SB Nation's And The Valley Shook breaks down statistical advantages for the upcoming Alabama-LSU game:

On third downs, LSU is the better short-yardage rushing offense, but Alabama is the better short-yardage rushing defense. The Tigers average 3.53 yards per carry in third and 3 yards or less, and converts for the first 61 percent of the time. Bama, on the other hand, averages 2.95 yards per carry and converts 44 percent of the time. But the Tide defense has allowed just seven conversions in 19 third and 3 or less attempts (37 percent). LSU has allowed 14 conversions in 23 attempts - 61 percent. Bama allows 2.4 ypc on third and short, LSU 3.7.

LSU has been better at stopping opposing running games early, but Bama has been better at stopping them late. The Tigers allow just 2.9 yards per carry in the first half, but that average increases to 4.5 in the second half (though I would love to know what effect Cam Newton has had on those numbers). Bama allows 4.5 yards per rush in the first half, but that average drops to 3.07 in the second half.