Casagrande: Alabama punched LSU in the face the old-fashioned way

This is an opinion column.

There was 1:55 left on the third-quarter clock inside a rapidly emptying Tiger Stadium when something completely irrelevant happened.

Alabama took the first play of its seventh night drive and threw a pass to tight end CJ Dippre. He wrestled through a lazy tackle attempt and fought forward, finally stopped after 12 yards with 105 seconds left in the quarter.

Those 12 yards, it turned out, would be the last of Alabama's passing output in a slog of a Saturday night in what's sometimes called Death Valley.

That was a statement within the gut punch Alabama delivered on a wicked evening in Baton Rouge.

The 42-13 final score would have been enough but there was something about how the Crimson Tide did it. This wasn't the anxiety bomb of the September win over Georgia. No 75-yard touchdown heave required in early November.

Nope. Because the number that stood out in the LSU stomp wasn't a big one.

Try 109.

That's the passing yardage total Dippre completed a little more than 13 minutes into the second half.

Alabama savaged LSU the old fashioned way.

They did the murderball thing to get its groove back and this topsy turvy season found a new level on a night at the crossroad. Losers were trading playoff brackets for Christmas in Orlando and Jalen Milroe made sure he wouldn't be Merry with Mickey.

He did it the old-school way - with his legs.

Trivia time. When was the last time Alabama won an SEC game with fewer passing yards than it recorded last night?

Answer: The 2016 visit to LSU. The score that night? Alabama 10, LSU 0.

Jalen Hurts threw for 107 yards in a scoreless game going into the fourth quarter eight years ago.

This is also the same rivalry that saw Alabama throw for 418 and LSU 393 in a 46-41 Tiger win back in 2019. But these aren't the Tua Tagovailoa vs. Joe Burrow days anymore.

Milroe's doing it his way.

This one was a mauling long before the Alabama QB made a mockery of LSU's proud defensive heritage on the first play of the fourth quarter. This was a Tiger team that walked into the stadium Saturday night with playoff hopes and two weeks to prepare for Milroe after he ran for four touchdowns in an ego-bruising loss last year.

Well, his 72-yard scamper on Play 1 of Quarter 4 would be Touchdown 4 of his reintroduction. He'd fallen from the ranks of Heisman front runners after a few rough weeks. The Tide senior was the toast of the sport after running for 117 yards in the beating of then-No. 2 Georgia but that side of his game completely disappeared.

Instead, Milroe was a font of turnovers from the Vanderbilt-South Carolina-Tennessee stretch. He ran for just 57 combined yards in those three games or 1.5 yards a pop if you're into averages.

The bottom line number Saturday was 185 in terms of rushing yards on 12 runs. That's an average of 15.4 a try against the nation's 15th-ranked team.

Alabama was clearly the more physical team out there Saturday night. Milroe's a special kind of fast and that's certainly a big factor in running for 185 yards but his offensive line controlled the point of attack.

And Alabama was committed to grinding this out.

The Crimson Tide ran the ball on 21 of its 29 first-down plays at LSU for an average of 6.7 yards. Against Tennessee, that split was 17 runs and 18 throws on first downs on an afternoon that ended in a 24-17 loss.

Alabama threw the ball just 18 times total at LSU - tying the season-low in terms of attempts when showing mercy in the 63-0 beating of WKU on opening weekend.

The Tide simply didn't need to throw it that often in the 29-point rout. This is a team that converted 10 of 13 third-downs - seven of which with runs - at LSU (76.9%). That's the same team that was 11 for 32 (34.4%) in its three-game slump.

Those were some dark days.

These are not.

Alabama's in control if it wants to make the first 12-team playoff. LSU's effectively cooked because it didn't learn from last year's debacle with Milroe and it couldn't match Alabama's physicality.

And it got ugly.

This was a statement delivered with what the Crimson Tide didn't to do as much as what they did.