The bowl aftermath, and links

The drastic difference between a heroic victory and a choke-job defeat usually depends on whom you're rooting for -- or covering.

You want to know what sustained elite status looks like? You think Clemson fans have high expectations? Check out this line in the game story from the New Orleans Times-Picayune:

"We had a nice plan, we just couldn't execute it because we couldn't protect our quarterback," said LSU Coach Les Miles, who for the second consecutive season has an inexplicable loss to explain.

Wow.

Granted, last year's game plan in the BCS title shellacking against Alabama was a head-scratcher. And anytime you squander an 11-point lead late in a bowl game against an ACC opponent, as LSU did the other night, it's going to cause some heartburn when you're a program that views ACC teams like ... well ... like ACC teams view MAC teams that somehow land in BCS games.

But over here in our world, where 11-win seasons aren't the automatic annual pastime they are in Baton Rouge, "inexplicable loss" usually means a 24-point loss at N.C. State ... a loss to a terrible Maryland or Duke team ... or, yeah, giving up 70 to West Virginia.

It should be pointed out that most rational observers on both sides were blown away by what they saw from Clemson. The suddenly shut-down defense, the gaudy stats on offense, the resilience and absolute refusal to lose -- it was the best advertisement for Clemson football, given the setting and the stakes, since I don't know when.

The folks at LSU are reasonable to be wondering why LSU didn't run the ball more, why Miles gave Clemson a gift by allowing Dabo Swinney to keep his three timeouts in his pocket.

But the gravity of this defeat, the treatment of it as inexplicable and unforgivable -- and as an "epic meltdown," according to this columnist -- presents us with a good illustration of life in that rarefied air that Clemson longs to reach. Everything becomes magnified, and almost every rare loss becomes at "What the Heck" loss.

Some links from what might be the most memorable Clemson game I've ever seen in person:

-- You know, I'm just not buying the convenient premise by this column that Clemson wanted it more than LSU and was happier to be there.

Was it a valid question coming in? Absolutely. But the 60 or so pulverizing hits I saw from LSU's defense showed me that dang right they wanted to be there. This was just not a "mail it in" showing from LSU, not even close.

-- In this video, you can see why people like John Chavis. Extremely classy and patient just minutes after watching his defense get sliced up on the final three drives.

Chavis takes exception to a silly question from a reporter about whether LSU played "prevent" defense on the final possession. And you know what? Good for him. He makes a totally dead-on point that the media always assumes a defense is playing prevent when it gives up big plays late. He politely asks the reporter to pay closer attention.

-- Andy Staples was at the Georgia Dome and filed this column.

The last time a Clemson team celebrated its 11th win, the 1981 Tigers had just beaten South Carolina. All that remained was a win against Nebraska in the Orange Bowl and a national title celebration. Swinney hopes his Tigers are headed that direction after a 25-24 win against LSU that turned on fourth-quarter, fourth-down magic from Clemson quarterback Tajh Boyd and a 37-yard field goal from Chandler Catanzaro as time expired. "You can't win 12 until you win 11," Swinney said. "You can't win a national championship until you win games like this."

Wait. We're getting ahead of ourselves. Before Clemson can start talking national championships, the Tigers have to overcome Florida State in the ACC Atlantic Division and South Carolina for the Palmetto State title. Those are the two teams that bested Clemson this season. But didn't Swinney earn the right to talk about big dreams? After all, what is LSU but a souped-up version of those two teams? Hadn't Swinney's Tigers just gone paw-to-paw with Les Miles' Tigers and come out victorious?

-- And Mark Bradley of the AJC writes about a landmark win for Clemson, and for the ACC.

And nobody could say justice hadn’t been served. The ACC Tigers had been much the better team, outgaining LSU by 236 yards, running 100 snaps to the SEC Tigers’ 48 and amassing 32 first downs to LSU’s nine. “This is a landmark win,” said Clemson coach Dabo Swinney, speaking four minutes after midnight, and it had that feel.

“They kept playing, all the way to fourth-and-16,” the effusive Swinney said, and his Clemson Tigers might still be savoring this one when 2013 becomes 2014.


LW