The Joe Burrow Touchdown Bracket: Day 10

We’ve completed the Round of 64 for the first region of our Joe Burrow bracket. The Big Dick Joe Region had chalk aside from the No. 10 and 11 seeds pulling off a pair of upsets; now we’ll jump over to what we’re calling the Cigar Region.

Today’s matchup is a 1 vs. 16 vote, though the two have some parallels. Both were road conference games, and both came inside the red zone. But the magnitude of each? Well let’s get to the contenders and you be the judge.

No. 1: Clyde Edwards-Helaire’s Wheel Route vs. Alabama

The context:

There’s never been a sports moment where I’ve audibly gasped. That was until Burrow found Clyde Edwards-Helaire all by himself in the Alabama end zone.

LSU is finally, FINALLY, getting back at Alabama after a torturous decade: losing the 2011 national championship, the TJ Yeldon screen in 2012, Zach Mettenberger getting sacked on four consecutive snaps, blowing the 2014 game, Leonard Fournette’s Hesiman campaign vanishing into thin air, and getting shut out not once but twice at home.

Boy did LSU ever return the favor that day.

Eight years of frustration was being dished out in full throughout the first half: Tua’s fumble; Ja’Marr Chase putting Trevon Diggs on a poster; Bama’s punter literally getting hit in the face with the football; Terrace Marshall making a break for the end zone with nobody around him, and Clyde going airborne over the goal line.

Just when we thought the first half couldn’t get any better, Patrick Queen picks off Tua; as an added bonus, LSU gets even better field position thanks to Landon Dickerson deliberately hitting Kary Vincent after the play was over.

One snap is all it takes to make Alabama pay for the turnover and the cheap, dirty hit. With Clyde to Burrow’s left, Edwards-Helaire runs a wheel route and is all by himself. Burrow hits him in the end zone and suddenly Alabama, the biggest bully on LSU’s block, the team that has made life hell for the Tigers over the course of the decade, is on the mat looking for their mouth piece like Mike Tyson after Buster Douglas knocked him out.

No. 16 Racey McMath’s 6-yard slant vs. Vanderbilt

The context

This play was set up by Vanderbilt’s attempt at some shenanigans backfiring on the Commodores. Vanderbilt tries the iconic Saints Super Bowl 44 onside kick to start the second half only it’s recovered by LSU’s Micah Baskerville who, ironically enough, returns the ball 44 yards to the LSU six. Then McMath takes care of the rest with a pretty routine slant pattern. At least the botched onside kick was cool.