OK, that was convincing

Wow. Let the record show that my previous post should be stricken from the interwebs and forgotten by everybody. That was a convincing win; it ended at 21-0 but could have been much worse. Alabama is a deserving national champion.

I'm not sure exactly how many games LSU would have to play against Alabama to score more than 21 offensive points, but it's a lot. Seriously: 92 total yards, five first downs and one possession across midfield (only briefly before a strip sack ended it) tonight and six regulation points in two games. That's complete and utter defensive domination. Nick Saban just pwned Steve Kragthorpe and Greg Studwara.

On a related note, Alabama's defense should and will go down as one of the best in history. The numbers say so: 183 yards and 8.15 points per game. Ridiculous.

That said, the shutout doesn't mean as much to me (given LSU's off-and-on bouts of total offensive crapitude this year) as the ability to consistently move the ball and produce points of any type. Alabama had 10 field-goal attempts (!), one touchdown and one almost touchdown against LSU in two games, which is waaaay more than LSU did against Alabama. That's why I'm now willing to believe I now believe that Alabama is a better team than LSU and the resume stuff is totally irrelevant. I can't really argue after that.

BTW, Saban might be the dirtiest dirtbag in the land of dirtbags but is also the best coach in the country. The guy now has three national championships in 11 years in the SEC; Urban Meyer is the only other active coach with more than one anywhere. Lou Holtz's senility is sometimes beautifully accurate:

"Saban ... is a greedy sucker, and I say that very complimentary."

That's perfect, although I'm not sure greediness is possible for an emotionless robot coach with no heart and only a bunch of .exe files that must be executed perfectly at the risk of SABAN ERROR YELL!

Anyway ... Alabama. Like I said earlier, I (and everybody else) would've loved to have seen Bama-Oklahoma State for that one definitive data point, but since it's not gonna happen, I gotta go with the two things I know: (a) Alabama is better than LSU and (b) a convincing win over the unanimous No. 1 team in the country >>> a miraculous overtime win over the No. 4-ish team in the country.

Alabama it is.