Grantland Year in Review on LSU-Bama I

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The Eric Reid interception on the goal line in Tuscaloosa. Ripping the ball away from a bigger man midair. Don't blame the tight end; there was no way he could've been prepared for that. It had never happened to him before, not at practice and not in high school and never even in the street or parking lot as a kid. The final score of the game was 9-6, so the big play wasn't going to come on offense. But it almost did. Michael Williams almost caught the ball. I felt elated after that play, elated that one team had done something to distinguish itself from the other, but I also felt grief for Saban and Jim McElwain. The first time all day they show some daring, and they get burnt for it. They blinked, I suppose. Fear of the futility of running normal plays against LSU coupled with fear of your kicker's ineptitude. The Alabama receiving corps is lacking this season, which is probably why the best one of them, Marquis Maze, wound up trying to throw a touchdown rather than trying to catch one. The ball floated, which is expected on these trick plays in which non-quarterbacks are asked to throw. It floated just enough. The LSU-Alabama game was one during which you kept waiting and waiting for something other than brutality (not that the brutality wasn't impressive and inspiring and even beautiful), waiting for something else. What else, though? That's the thing. There was no way to know what else until it happened. And then it did. Alabama strained its offensive character, and an overshadowed defensive back who on most teams would be the star of the secondary turned in a play for the ages

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