Gruesome coronation enshrines Alabama’s defense as the new gold standard

Bama's '61 defense (pre-spread era) was awesome. In 11 games, they had 6 shutouts, allowed 3 TDs (none after game 4), only 1 PAT, and 2 FGs in the other 5. 25 total points, 2.27 PPG. I think this D is on par with it. A high-powered offense (Stanford, Ok. St.) would have scored some points last night, but they would not have had their usual production, and Trent would have run ragged all over them. "Defenses win championships." Remember Oklahoma's 5 60+ yard games? They managed just 14 against Florida. In the '06 Cotton Bowl, Texas Tech took the nation's #2 offense up against Bama's #2 D. TT had averaged 40 PPG, but just managed 10. People used to video game football don't like it, but in the real game, you're supposed to stop the other team from scoring! Boring? Not to REAL fans!

I'm not an Alabama fan... But it gets old hearing that Alabama didn't play a good offense. I mean after all... LSU only averaged 38.5pts per game playing the hardest schedule in the country by far.

Alabama's defense is getting almost disrespected in this... They played LSU twice and held them to a total of 9pts. Alabama Defense allowed 9 TD's ALL SEASON... These are crazy numbers.

Oklahoma St... You had a good season... You don't deserve to be in the conversation. You lost to a team ranked 77th in the country. You were favored by 29pts. If Alabama had that loss on their record YOU WOULD BE CRUSHING THEM & THE SEC...

Saban... Credit where credit is due... You da man sir!

The thing that amuses me most is the fans who say "(insert team here) would score all over that Bama defense"...really? Is this where we have gotten in college football that we dont know what the value of defense is anymore? Ladies and gentlemen, by some measures, this was the greatest defense any team has fielded since they started keeping defensive stats in 1936. Does that not mean anything to you?

Take it a step further, say you believe that this bama D could not stop your mighty (insert team here) offense, what about someone better? How about a NFL defense, like the Pittsburg Steelers or the 49ers D. Could they stop (insert team here's) offense? My point here is understand its not as simple as showing up and expecting to put up 40-50 points, no matter who the opponent is. If you cannot recognize that the quality of the defense you face will GREATLY affect the number of points your (insert team here) can score, you really need to become a better student of the game.

LSU, during the game, reminded me of Ohio State in 2007 when that team faced the Florida Gators in the BCS title game. LSU, like Ohio State, came into the game with an impressive resume of wins as any other, looking as one of the more dominant teams in recent years. But from the game's onset, they flopped horribly and showed that their aura of invincibility as nothing more than a farce. Don't get me wrong. I am not a LSU or SEC fan but I still think LSU is one of the best teams in the nation, perhaps still the second best team. But Alabama reduced the grandeur of LSU football to naught.

Wetzel… You prove without a doubt that sportswriters know the least about their subject.

Matt: Glad to see you watched the game and can write intelligently about your chosen topic…

Looks like Jordan Jefferson is better at bar room brawling than quarterbacking, played like the criminal he is. Congrats to Alabama, but what a boring game.

LSU. should hand out tissues to their fans lol! the SUCK u Neaux,

well said Matt.

To Wetzel: Did you actually think for any length of time before you wrote such crap for the whole world to see? You have got to be a complete #$%$ The National Championship is not about entertaining you, it is about determining the best team in college football. Do you actually believe that Oklahoma States "high powered offense" could have done anything against either one of these teams defense? My apologies Matt, Wetzel was too big of a coward to leave a place for comment on his #$%$ column.

lovin all the haters on these boards. Never seen so much #$%$ jealousy, and delusions of grandeur. You are a sad and trivial bunch. Supporting a bunch of who?, neverwas, and wannabe teams compared to Alabama and any other team in the SEC. You support a bunch of teams that have the "every once in a while every squirrel gets a nut" fluke season that are mediocre at best for the majority of the time. Frankly I would like to see a better system, because regardless of the system the SEC will dominate, and probably more so than other the present one. AU got screwed by this system years back, so change it give this bunch of whiny losers and fakers that participate in irrelevant conferences a chance to get spanked by real teams in real conferences, then maybe just maybe when it's changed and they get the crap kicked out of them the BSU's and OSU's will finally shut up. The only thing is they play in a crap conference playing cupcake teams week in and week out, one 'dominate' team in a weak conference does not make a championship team, but even then they lose to a decent unranked team, right BSU/OSU? You couldn't handle the SEC conference all the time...

Alabama earned it. It's just a shame they didn't play a team with an offense that would challenge their defense. The Pac 12 had a few. OSU had one. LSU's "Big Boys" were non-existent. It will be interesting to see what the viewership was at the beginning of the game and again after halftime. What a yawner.

Oklahoma State could have scored a touchdown.

Best defense of the spread era? Really? Doesn't 2008 USC -- playing in a much less offensively-challenged league -- have at least an argument?

Best defense of the BCS era is (annoyingly) 2001 Miami. I'd rather not talk about what happened to the best SU team of 2000s by far (it's sad that this is true of a borderline top 25 team) when they played that team.

Yeah the greatest defense of all time doesn't lose games at home.

Pound for pound, 1985 Air Force Academy had the best defense, finishing 12-1!

Thumbs UP if you were smart enough to skip the "Corrupt Bowl" and feel good about it.

Hard to call a group the best defense ever when they failed to play an offense all year with an actual pulse.

1991-92 Washington Huskies. Best Defense period.

Well, glad I decided not to watch. Better to end the year with the Stanford-Cowboys game.

That was a horrible game to watch, one of the worst I have ever seen!