Few games have generated as much attention in the last decade or so than the annual meeting of LSU and Alabama.
For years, the Crimson Tide dominated this series. The Alabama game was a boogeyman for LSU. Beginning with the national title game in January 2012, the Crimson Tide won eight straight against the Tigers.
That came after a stretch that saw LSU win nine of 12 in the series.
The last four years have been more equal, with the two splitting the last four games. As the two prepare to meet again this fall, the game is once again shaping up to have SEC implications and potentially national ones.
Alabama is coming off a 34-20 win over Tennessee. The Crimson Tide have turned it around after a rough September where the Tide lost to Texas and struggled on the road against USF.
While Alabama beat Tennessee by two touchdowns, it wasn’t always smooth sailing there either. The Vols led 20-7 before Bama finished the game on a 27-0 run.
The Tide began the first half with three straight scoring drives. Each drive featured at least one explosive pass and at the same time, QB Jalen Milroe and RB Jase McClellan were finding big plays on the ground too.
The Bama offense is beginning to find a level of consistency. It knows its identity: Run the ball and throw it deep.
Another positive development coming out of the Tennessee game for Alabama was the continued emergence of Jermaine Burton. His line of four catches for 62 yards and a touchdown won’t blow you away, but those catches came in big moments.
Burton, the former LSU commit who began his career at Georgia, leads the Tide with 508 yards and had a 197-yard performance against Texas A&M.
Those are the positives. On the flip side, Alabama revealed some of the issues that plagued it earlier in the year are still there. True freshman left tackle Kadyn Proctor allowed two more sacks, adding to his SEC worst total of nine sacks allowed.
Milroe doesn’t do much to help with that either. Auburn’s Payton Thorne is the only QB in the SEC to have a worse pressure-to-sack rate than Milroe. On Saturday, Milroe was pressured four times, and three resulted in sacks.
And when the Alabama offense isn’t explosive, it struggles to create points. The Crimson Tide had an EPA of -18.67 when factoring out explosive plays and their success rate on late downs was just 38%.
On the other side of the ball, the defense has been good all year and dominated the second half. It’s a defense that now ranks fourth in SP+ and will be the best unit LSU’s faced all year.
LSU’s coming into this game as the underdog, but it’ll be at a much smaller margin than last year, where LSU was a two-touchdown dog at home.
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