Ding ... ding

First of all, a disclosure:

I'm jacked about tonight's BCS title game. It does have a feel of a heavyweight fight. As exciting as high-powered offenses can be to watch, sometimes it's just as fun to watch to physical, talented teams slugging it out.

As much as I joined the chorus of moaning and groaning when this rematch became reality, it's still an intriguing matchup and I'll be glued to the TV.

With that out of the way, let's please dispense with the notion that the first game was some sort of masterpiece.

That's the predictable message that was perpetuated the last few days in New Orleans by the participants and some media.

Here's Bruce Feldman's take:

When I think of that game in early November, the first word that comes to mind was riveting. It was three-plus hours of drama that got ratcheted up with every subsequent turn of the game. John Chavis, LSU's veteran defensive coordinator, called it the most physical game he's ever been a part of. 'Bama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart called the first game "beautiful."

"It was grown men battling," Smart said Saturday morning, adding that he too felt it was the most physical game he's been involved with. "There were a lot of top-speed collisions. Go ask the NFL personnel people. They loved it. They were watching good-on-good and they enjoyed it."

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I guess. Nothing at all wrong with a 9-6 game, but if you recall some of the details the artistic value tends to fade quite significantly.

That game in Tuscaloosa contained four interceptions, four missed field goals, 13 penalties, one fumble and one botched punt.

And Alabama's overtime possession summed up the imperfection perfectly:

First down: A.J. McCarron pass incomplete to Trent Richardson.

Second down: Penalty on Alabama for substitution infraction.

Second down: McCarron pass incomplete to Richardson.

Third down: McCarron sacked by Sam Montgomery.

Fourth down: Cade Foster misses 52-yard field goal.

What's that phrase they use in golf for a guy who implodes at the worst possible moment? Vomited all over himself.

That's exactly how to put it when you incur a substitution penalty at the 25 in overtime, and when your quarterback suffers a case of brain lock and takes a sack with his team in field-goal range.

Unforgivable. Absolutely unforgivable. That sequence made this more disasterpiece than masterpiece.

In the same column by Feldman, Alabama linebacker Courtney Upshaw makes a good point when he says this matchup is preferable to some of the shootouts he's seen lately.

"One team scores in five seconds and the other team comes back and scores in two seconds," Upshaw said dismissively. "We're the SEC for a reason. We're defense-oriented."

Indeed, the SEC has nine teams among the nation's top 36 scoring defenses this season. And in the bowl season, some supposedly powerful rushing offenses from elsewhere didn't hold up well against teams from the SEC.

Kansas State produced 87 yards on the ground against Arkansas. Virginia had 123 against Auburn. Nebraska had 137 against South Carolina. And Ohio State had 137 against Florida.

So while we might hate the system that gives us a rematch when "every game matters" in the regular season, while we wonder what to do if Alabama wins tonight, while we wonder what Oklahoma State would do against LSU, and while we question the beauty of Round One, it's hard to dispute Les Miles' take that this is "big-boy football."

And big-boy football is fun to watch, even if some of us once clamored to watch something else.

Ding ... ding.

LW