It's Time To Ask, Is Alabama Unbeatable?

It’s Time to Ask, Is Alabama Unbeatable?

By: Larry Burton

 

Michigan was to have been a test for Alabama to stop a team with a decent defense and a quarterback that could hurt you as badly with his feet as he could with his arm.

 

They simply embarrassed Michigan and to some extent, the Big 10.

 

Arkansas was to have been a challenge for a new developing secondary and the offense was to be finally tested by another SEC caliber defense. But with the starting Razorback QB on the bench, the challenge for the defense never developed and the offense ran roughshod over that same SEC defense.

 

That was simply no contest.

 

Missouri, Texas A&M and Tennessee were likewise considered tests and once again Alabama simply ran over them like a speed bump on the highway to another national championship.

 

Then this past weekend, Alabama was to have been tested by a heretofore undefeated Mississippi State and an offense that had, at times, been as prolific as any in the SEC and a defense that at least on paper, was one who posed themselves to slow down the Alabama offense.

 

They proved to be yet another small bump in the road.

 

This weekend, it’s LSU and every Alabama fan knows the passion and power that these Tigers can bring to bear on the Tide. But if the Tide simply rolls over them, as at least this sportswriter expects them to do, the question must be asked, can anyone be expected to stop the Tide this season?

 

Mississippi State,Michigan, LSU, Texas A&M and the eventual opponent in the SEC Championship Game will all go to bowl games this season; they may all win their bowl games as well. It’s not like Alabama has not played capable and decent teams this season.

 

Who of the remaining undefeated teams that Alabama may play in an eventual BCS Championship Game could have conceivably beaten all of those five programs?

 

While that is an arguable question indeed, the fact that you have to at least consider that not one comes to mind easily who might not have trouble finishing that list of teams without a loss begs the question, “Then who can beat Alabama?”

 

Certainly anything is possible, but in most Alabama Championship years, there were games when the outcome of at least one or more games was in doubt. This team has simply mowed everyone down like Saturday grass.

 

Nick Saban’s greatest fear is that his team will accept the mindset of this article and others like it and start believing in their own invincibility more than maintaining the “process” it takes to win those games.

 

And therein lay the answer to the question. Who can beat Alabama? At this point, it seems like only the Crimson Tide players themselves.

 

But if the Alabama Crimson Tide players can keep their wits and hearts in the right places, expect the SEC and BCS championship games to be little more than just another speed bump.

 

While the team may prove to beat themselves, no other team seems to have a chance.