Alabama Football: Who has best shot to dethrone the Crimson Tide?
LSU is the only one of the top contenders who will 100 percent get their crack at the Crimson Tide, and they have the advantage of being the only one who draws the Crimson Tide at home.
Death Valley will be rocking Saturday night as LSU welcomes in Alabama with the SEC West on the line, and in LSU’s case – it’s a playoff elimination game. Ed Orgeron sorely needs a win over Alabama for validation of his post, even though the Tigers have had a season beyond reasonable expectations to this point.
All of that progress will be for nothing unless Orgeron can do the unthinkable and slay the Crimson dragon that stands in his path to winning a championship at LSU. Expect Coach O to pull out all the stops this weekend in Baton Rouge.
How they can win
This is far and away the most talented, and most aggressive, defense Alabama has faced to this point in the season. The Tigers have the talent in the secondary led by Greedy Williams, Kristian Fulton, and Grant Delpit, to match up with Alabama’s receivers and make it tough for Tua to find openings downfield. They’ll get off the field more defensively than any other team has.
Orgeron has been much more aggressive this season than in year’s past, and it has worked to his benefit as the Tigers sit at No. 3 in the country. That was never more evident than him rolling-the-dice in true Les Miles fashion three weeks ago against Georgia, with his Tigers converting on all four fourth down tries.
He’ll be super aggressive in this game again, and will look to catch the Alabama defense off guard with new wrinkles and gadget plays. The added bonus of playing in one of college football’s most hostile environments gives the Tigers an opportunity to pull a massive upset.
Why they won’t
LSU is only ranked so highly because of the fact that they’re the only team Alabama has to play on the road, and weird things tend to happen when the sun sets in Death Valley. On paper, however, Alabama should knock off LSU and it may not be very close.
LSU still doesn’t have consistent play from the QB position, with Joe Burrow completing under 54 percent of his passes this season. Alabama is going to load the box to take away running backs Nick Brossette and Clyde Edwards-Helaire, so Burrow is going to have to hit some passes to soften them up, and I just don’t see him being able to consistently do that.
This is also merely a good LSU defense; it’s not a great one. Despite all the talk about Alabama’s defense being a little off from your typical Saban teams, they rank higher statistically almost all the way across the board than does LSU.
Alabama is too talented offensively to be bogged down all game long; I don’t see Burrow and company being able to keep pace, even with the home crowd behind them.