@MikeDeTiger I appreciate the post.
LSU's schedule difference was merely playing Oregon OOC. Plus the SECCG, obviously. The rest was the same. Same SEC west opponents, same lower-ranked OOC (WV vs PSU), same East opponent difficulty.
On pass rush being connected to pass D, sure it is. LSU had 39 sacks to Bama's 30. So the stats sort of go against your point there.
2011 LSU was an all-time great team, and its defense was its strength, especially the DBs. But Bama's outcomes were better, imo. You're sitting here citing individual plays. Look at the meta data. LSU opponents ran almost 900 plays.
But again, thank you for taking the time.
I think Oregon and UGA is a big deal, and I also thought WVU was a much more high-powered offense than PSU, but I might not be remembering that correctly.
That said, I don't think it can account for all the difference in stats. Which is crazy for Alabama, because LSU's stats for pass D were really, really good.
Rather than thinking about it in terms of individual plays, I actually think of it in terms of scheme and assignment. And to some degree, ethos. What I mean is, conceptually, what were those teams about? I always thought of that Bama defense as a rocky cliff on which ships (other teams) dashed themselves and were destroyed. They were a boa constrictor. They sought to give nothing on every play, and they were brutally good at it. On a per-play basis, they were unparalleled. LSU was a flaming buzzsaw from a video game, flying around like a rabid bat. If you could stay away from it, you could get yards. You probably couldn't get points because eventually the buzzsaw got you. On a per-drive basis, they were also brutally good at eventually finding the havok play.
Both their schemes seemed very intentional that way. They did what they were asked to do, mostly. Interestingly, I'd describe Saban's defenses at LSU more similar to what Chavis was doing that year than what Saban's typical Bama defenses were. That might have something to do with his switch to a lot of 3-4 personnel at Bama, I don't know. He had LBs at Bama that he could never have dreamed of at LSU.
So I admit I'm more inclined to look past the numbers, using them mainly as a guide, a starting reference, but being more inclined to the idea of 1) what was the assignment, 2) how good were they at pulling it off? And, even there, I still don't fault anybody for choosing the Bama secondary. They were ridiculously effective.
Also feel compelled to add at this point......sigh.....how much more fun was LSU football back in those days? For me, almost infinitely. The players actually wanted to be there for something other than a paycheck. Imagine that.
