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The SEC West could be decided Saturday. Or the Tide could lose.
Alabama is facing the No. 3 team in the nation Saturday. On the road. In one of college football’s most hostile environments.
And is still favored by two touchdowns.
The Crimson Tide have leveled up from their typically-great ways to produce a historically dominant team in 2018. The leap from great to elite has been spurred by Tua Tagavailoa’s emergence as a Heisman Trophy frontrunner. The second-year quarterback hasn’t played much due to Alabama’s streak of blowout wins, but he’s been electric on the field; 25 passing touchdowns, a 70.4% completion rate, and — holy crap — zero interceptions.
But if any team can put an end to the Tide’s run, it’s LSU. The Tigers have faced a murderer’s row of competition early in 2018, knocking off three top-10 teams en route to a 7-1 record. That’s left Ed Orgeron’s team as the only program with a realistic shot of stopping Bama’s march to the SEC West title — but as a 15-point underdog, a win Saturday would be the biggest accomplishment of Orgeron’s career and LSU’s biggest victory since earning the 2007 national title.
Alabama vs. LSU prediction:
The S&P+ ratings unsurprisingly see Bama as the nation’s top team. The numbers aren’t as favorable for LSU, who comes in 13th. Maybe that’s thanks to the devaluation of wins over former top-10 teams Miami and Auburn, who now kinda suck. Or maybe it’s because numbers can’t quantify the Cajun rage that motivates the Tigers beyond their means and leads to big-time wins on the Bayou.
Still, it’s Bama, who typically beat LSU, but rarely by a shocking amount. Tide by 11.
Time, TV channel, and streaming info
- Time: 8 p.m. ET
- Location: Tiger Stadium, Baton Rouge, LA
- TV: CBS
- Streaming: SEC on CBS, fuboTV
- Odds: Alabama is favored by 15 points.
Alabama vs. LSU news:
- Is Tua Tagovailoa overrated hahahah nope he’s really that good holy crap.
I think we’ll be able to slow them down on the ground. We’re 21st in the country stopping the run according to S&P. We’ve also held them to way under their per game averages the last two years on the ground. I’m comfortable with that.
Where things get dicey is in their passing attack because of how good Tua is. He’s able to go through progressions, deliver accurate balls down the field and take the checkdowns when he needs to. I was blown away watching the film. I knew the numbers stood out. But the film makes it all the more impressive.
- But Tagovailoa’s never faced a defense as strong as the Tigers— for four quarters, at least.
- LSU is great at starting drives, but not finishing them. That will be a problem Saturday.
- Ed Orgeron: “ We’re going to go to win the game, I can tell you that.” (several thinking emojis here)
Is Joe Burrow’s inexperience against Alabama a good trait to have?
Hear me out. Alabama isn’t just a team; it’s a specter that hangs over the college football season, a demoralizing force that razes your village and salts the earth behind it.
Only Burrow only kinda knows that, because he’s never played the Tide before. So he’s going to have a little more confidence, a little more swagger than, say, a player who only managed 10 points against Alabama in 2017. Or got shut out in 2016. The first-year starter has plenty of swagger coming into the biggest game of his football career. The question is how much he’ll have coming out of it.