The Alabama-LSU rivalry has been one of the fiercest in the SEC and the country for more than a decade. This has become known as the “Saban Bowl” since Nick Saban was hired at Alabama in 2007.
In the Saban Bowl era of this game, the Tide has 11 wins compared to the Bayou Bengal’s four. However, this game is alway intense and leads to some healthy hatred between the competitors.
Ever since the 2012 National Championship Game , the rivalry has been hotter than ever before. Alabama dominates the series and will look to win tonight for their 10th win out of the last 11 against the Tigers.
Alabama football started out the season a little bit shaky by Bama standards with a close game to a sub-par Florida team and a loss to unranked Texas A&M shortly after. Yet, Alabama has taken those early season woes and flipped the script into a motivating factor for the Tide.
Alabama will most likely win this game, but with other undefeated and highly ranked teams lurking in the CFB Playoff Rankings, Saban’s squad is looking to beat up on the Bayou Boys today. Here is how they can get that done.
Bryce Young keeps using his legs
Look, everyone knows Alabama’s recent history with Tua Tagovailoa and Jaylen Waddle and their leg injuries. However, the statistics speak for themselves.
Young’s rushing yards were in the negative all season long (except for one game against Mercer) and Alabama has struggled in a few games to get the passing game going.
Yet, the Tide’s passing attack has looked better than ever and has been more efficient in the previous two games. Young had a QBR in the 90’s, half the sacks of the Texas A&M and Ole Miss games, and over 700 combined passing yards in both of the last two SEC matchups.
What are his rushing yards looking like in those same two games? 60 yards on the ground and his only two rushing touchdowns of the entire season. It is always wise to sort of baby your quarterback when you are able to.
However, Young is so much more effective since he has put a focus on using his legs to scramble out of tight situations, and it has been huge for the Tide.
If he continues to just rely on his athleticism whenever he needs to get out of a pickle, the Tide’s offensive production will continue to increase and LSU will be very limited on coverage against the top receivers in the nation.
Alabama’s defensive line matches the linebacker play
The defensive line for the Tide is an extremely talented unit, and anyone knows that a good defensive line makes the linebacker core look better. While the defensive line has been good all year, the headline says keys to dominating LSU, not playing well.
Phidarian Mathis has been the most dominant player on the Bama defensive line with 27 total tackles, nine solos, and 4.5 sacks. As far as statistics go, that 4.5 sacks is extremely impressive because of a hidden stat. Those sacks are for 27 yards of total loss.
There are an impressive five defenders for Alabama that have over 20 solo tackles, but not one of them is a defensive lineman. Three are linebackers and two are defensive backs.
Henry To’oTo’o is leading the linebacker room as most projected in the pre-season with 59 total tackles including 22 solos. Will Anderson Jr., the other top linebacker, has 25 solo tackles and leads the team with 8.5 sacks so far.
Byron Young and Tim Smith are the two defensive linemen that can make that next step this week, and if they do LSU will go back to not being able to run a single running play in this game, and Alabama’s secondary will have an absolute field day with it.
The Crimson Tide welcomes rival LSU into Tuscaloosa at 6:00 P.M. CT. tonight in Bryant-Denny Stadium. Tide players and coaches are looking for some revenge from the 2019 post-game locker room comments from Coach O in his last season, while LSU will be looking to just stay in the game.
If Alabama can break out early and follow these two things, they will run the Bayou Bengals out of the stadium by the half.
Hayden Crigler is a contributing college football and college basketball writer for Yellowhammer News. You can contact him through email: [email protected] or on Twitter: @hayden_crigler.
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