Happy Friday, everyone. LSU rolls into town tomorrow for what is likely to be a whipping. Your previews;
Everything will open up.
LSU will look and play like a fresh team for about 20 minutes. It’s going to bring the A effort, come up with a slew of quirky plays, and it’s going to be a fight for a while. But one Alabama scoring run later – helped by a few LSU offensive stalls – and this will all be over.
And then Bama will keep running the ball to close it out.
Alabama 48, LSU 20
Alabama will win handily, but oddsmakers are giving LSU four touchdowns. That’s insane. Johnson will make at least a few big plays through the air to get the Tigers in the high teens or low 20s. At that point, it’s all about when Saban will take his foot off of the gas. He’ll do that long before it gets to be a four-touchdown game. Prediction: LSU (+28.5)
But I will say that this is still considered a rivalry game. And rivalry games are tough to predict. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not having a hard time picking the Red Elephants to stampede to a win. I just can’t figure out if they’ll win by four touchdowns or more. Something tells me LSU will show some amount of pride and make it a little bit closer than the boys in Vegas think.
Prediction: Alabama 42, LSU 24
Alabama 47, LSU 17
The question isn’t whether the Tigers can spring a “Pigs Will Fly”-sized upset like in 1993. The question is whether the Crimson Tide will cover the point spread (-29½). Alabama isn’t quite its dominant self these days, but is still plenty good enough to run circles around the depleted Tigers. LSU’s main goal should not be upset, but coming home Saturday night with no major injuries.
That last one is from Scott Rabalais at The Advocate in Baton Rouge. A few analysts seem to think that Max Johnson will be stiff enough competition to keep it close for a while, but I’m not seeing it, particularly without Kayshon Boutte. Saban has been preaching consistency, finishing, and playing compete games all season and now has had an open week to hammer it home. Look for Alabama to kick off the November stretch run with a bang. Call it 51-20, but only because LSU picks up a garbage time score.
Of course, that is merely my opinion. Vote and leave us yours in the comments.
Poll
What will be the result of LSU at Alabama?
This poll is closed
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72%
Asses quit early, Alabama covers 28
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23%
A bit uninspiring, Alabama by 15-27
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3%
Coach O rips his shirt off at midfield and gets a Red Bull bath to celebrate his moral victory, Tide by 1-14
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0%
LSU wins (LOL)
Yet another LSU defensive starter seems to have injured himself at practice this week.
Smith fully participated during the open portion of practice Tuesday. He wasn’t seen at practice Wednesday.
If Smith can’t play, Orgeron said senior Soni Fonua will start at defensive end opposite sophomore BJ Ojulari. Fonua has never started a game in his three seasons at LSU.
As I wrote yesterday, these guys should never get a stop.
Of course, Saban will never admit such things.
— Injuries hurt LSU all season but Saban said he sees young players stepping up to show progress. “They are a very capable team and I think they’re a very dangerous team,” Saban said. Twice, Saban said, this Alabama team might have overlooked a few teams this year including the loss at Texas A&M but he sees them having a better mindset entering this game.
— Saban went in depth talking about the evolution of defensive players and the size/athleticism they need. He said it started against Utah in the 2009 Sugar Bowl when Terrence Cody was standing next to him all game because Utah was always throwing the ball and he wasn’t quick enough to rush the passer.
On the latter point, Alabama is going to have to stop heavy run games against Auburn and hopefully Georgia this year. We all saw what happened in College Station. Hopefully they can make some adjustments and play the bigger bodies up front more in those games.
Speaking of Georgia, their sack leader was suspended indefinitely after being accused of rape. The allegation is that a young woman woke up to find him on top of her.
Steve Sadow, Anderson’s attorney, released a statement on behalf of Anderson.
“Adam denies in the strongest terms possible the unfounded and unsupported allegations of sexual misconduct,” he said. “He has been notified of the allegations made to the police and to the UGA Equal Opportunity Office (EOO), and has come to learn that the complainant has already apparently made inconsistent claims - that she was “unconscious” during the conduct to the EOO but “awoke” from sleep by the conduct to the police.
Call me silly, but I’m not seeing a lot of inconsistency there. Guess we will see how it turns out.
Last, Gus is now full G5, and I don’t mean the airplane.
UCF coach Gus Malzahn is ticked Cincinnati started the CFP rankings No. 6. Cincy beat UCF 56-21 earlier this year. Malzahn to @YahooSports: “I’ve played UGA and Bama every year. I know exactly what it looks like. They’re right there. They’re a team that can win the whole thing.”
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) November 3, 2021
Needless to say, Gus is just trying to an excuse an ass whipping that he took from the Bearcats. I’m sure they appreciate his support though.
That’s about it for today. Have a great weekend.
Roll Tide.