• LSU was juiced up and prepared for this game. Give them credit, I thought they were physical. In particular, I thought their OL acquitted themselves very well against our defensive front. I don't know the stats for TFLs or sacks, but I thought they did a decent job of pass protection against our base (not the blitz) and ran the ball ok, not great. I had really expected a little more push from our front.
• That said, if LSU was physical, we were Old Testament wrath of God. How many of their first-born sons did we strike down? Rich Brooks has all but said we were the most physical team they played (we're the "hardest to recover from"). Miles can never say that, given all the context in this rivalry, but I guarantee those ice baths are getting a workout in Baton Rouge.
• Along those lines, I'm not sure if Jordan Jefferson quit or not. He sure had the look of a player that said "no mas."
• Patrick Peterson is a great player. I would've loved to see him wearing crimson. He played well and made some great breaks on balls thrown to Julio. But here are some facts: (1) in 2008 Julio beat him one on one to set up the winning TD. (2) in 2009 Julio beat out his replacement for a screaming 73 yard go-ahead TD because PP couldn't go. Would Peterson have made the tackle? Who knows? He wasn't in the game. My image of Peterson is not kicking up divots on the INT, it's clawing his way off the field from cramps.
• Bo Bounds on talk radio in Jackson MS is advancing this argument: the missed call on the INT (and, to be fair, it was probably a missed call) "denied" LSU the "opportunity" to try to win the game, down 6. His point is that a TO is a momentum-changer and despite Bama's utter dominance of the 4th quarter (i.e., "winning time"), we'll never know what could've happened. Fair enough, but Bo, spare me the hypocrisy when somebody says Boise ought to play Cincinnati in the championship game. We'll never know, because those teams will be denied the opportunity. I'm not suggesting that officiating shouldn't be fair, and I'm not giving any credence to the conspiracy theorists, just pointing out some parallels. Football's about (among other things) meeting and overcoming adversity. Alabama did. LSU didn't.
• I'll also say this. The INT problem was a replay issue, not an "on-the-field" officiating problem. It was bang-bang on the field, and you can see on the replay that neither ref had a view of Peterson's feet. I think the right call when in doubt -- when you don't see it --  is an incomplete pass. There need to be consistent guidelines and technology for replay, but I don't blame this one on the guys on the field.
• LSU's punting was magnificent, but I actually thought P.J. did a pretty nice job. I can specifically recall 2 inside the 10 and another inside the 20, and there may have been more. Arenas was relatively limited on PR, in part due to their guy's leg.
• Tiffin's 40 yarder to push the lead to 9 came at a critical time in the game. It was clutch, and it was perfect. I think it's time to let go of Arkansas 2006. No one has ever scored more points for the Tide. Ever. Also loved that we got a touchback on the ensuing kick. He was feeling it at that point.
• Happy for G-Mac. He left some points on the field, but ended up with a pretty nice stat line and came back from his mistakes (vs. for example, a Jevan Snead meltdown). He's under a lot of scrutiny, and I think all in all began to recover some of his early season form in terms of spreading the ball around.
• I'm not sure I'd say Ingram should win the Heisman trophy, but frankly, he's our Tebow, in terms of being able to put the team on his shoulders and take us down the field. He's deserving of all the accolades he's given.
• Embarrassing admission: I enjoyed the ESPN.com "Drubner" road trip videos with Tank Conerly, et al. My 8 year old daughter and I watched them again last night.
• Last year, if you'll recall, we were still suffering through "0 for November" streaks to LSU, MSU, and Auburn. It's becoming my favorite month again. Not to put carts before horses, but I'm thrilled that we get another shot at Tebow-led Florida.

Roll Tide.