BATON ROUGE, La. — It wasn’t billed as the game of the century. It just felt like it.
After Kansas State, Notre Dame and Oregon had played — and won — their games, Alabama and LSU reminded us one more time about the singular truth that exits in college football: The national championship always comes down to the SEC, the uber conference.
Want to know why the last six BCS champs have come from this league? Watch a replay of last night’s epic that ended with Alabama rallying for a 21-17 win at Tiger Stadium.
“We told our players, and it was kind of ironic they would have to overcome a lot of things to win a game here,’’ Alabama coach Nick Saban said. “I’ve never been prouder of a bunch of guys to overcome adversity.’’
LSU, trailing 14-3 in the third quarter and watching any chance of playing for the title slipping away like fog on the bayou, staged a comeback for the ages against the program of the decade. The Tigers, behind a 1-yard touchdown dive by Jeremy Hill late in the third quarter and a 14-yard TD pass from Zach Mettenberger to Jarvis Landry in the fourth took a 17-14 lead and held onto it until a scant 51 seconds remained.
Then No. 1 Alabama drove a dagger into the record crowd of 93,374 in Death Valley.
“There are some sick guys in that room,’’ LSU coach Les Miles said of his players after the bitter defeat.
The Crimson Tide, led by Heisman Trophy candidate quarterback AJ McCarron, went 72 yards in five plays with McCarron throwing a perfect screen pass to T.J. Yeldon — against a blitzing LSU defense — that went 28 yards for the touchdown.
Saban said earlier this week he showed his players a tape of the Navy Seal Team that took out Osama Bin Laden. He pointed out that a lot of things went wrong on the mission, but the team adapted and got the mission done.
Alabama (9-0) protected its top ranking and its dream of back-to-back national titles. The Tide have won 57 games over a five-year span, tying an SEC record. Fifth-ranked LSU (7-2) is out of the championship picture.
On their winning drive, the Tide got the ball with 1:34 left. McCarron, with no timeouts remaining, was 4-for-5 for 72 yards and the touchdown. He has thrown 19 touchdown passes and no interceptions this season.
With the winning catch-and-run, Yeldon atoned for a fumble on the LSU 10 late in third quarter when the Tide seemed poised to build on a 14-10 lead.
Meanwhile the other unbeaten teams — Kansas State, which beat Oklahoma State, 44-30, Notre Dame, which overcame a 20-6 deficit to edge Pittsburgh, 29-26 in triple overtime, and Oregon, which blitzed USC, 62-51 — are left to fight for the right to face Alabama.
Mettenberger was at his best on the drive that put the Tigers up 17-14. He was 4-of-5 for 82 yards including one huge third down conversation before finding Landry for the go-ahead score.
The drama had just begun.
LSU’s defense held again and the Tigers drove to the Alabama 24, where they faced a fourth-and-1 at the 24. Miles, of course, went for it, eschewing a field goal and a probable seven-point lead. Alabama stuffed the run and held with 8:41 left.
The Tigers’ defense rose up again, but when Drew Alleman missed a 45-yard field goal with 1:34 remaining, the Tide had one last chance. McCarron made it count.
“That drive was something I’ll never forget,’’ Saban said.
Of course not, it was the game of the century.