The Aggies won’t be sitting around the table passing around turkey, gravy and cranberry sauce on Thursday, but they’ll still have a full plate to deal with. LSU rolls into Kyle Field on Thursday, intent on bruising and battering the Texas A&M defense with its power running game.

That’s a scary proposition for the Aggies defense. Texas A&M has been among the worst in the conference in pretty much all facets of defense this season: 11th in scoring defense, 13th in both run and pass defense. While LSU is more or less incapable of completing a forward pass, they sure do like to run the ball.

The Tigers turn around and hand it off 47.8 times per game, more than 68 percent of their snaps. They seem to get better the more they run, averaging just a shade under 5 yards per carry in the seven games in which they’ve run it 50 or more times. Texas A&M, meanwhile, has given up 5.5 yards per carry in games in which they’ve faced 40 or more carries.

Do the Aggies have any chance of stopping LSU from driving a steamroller down the middle of Kyle Field? If they do, it’s going to have to start at the interior. That’s where the majority of LSU’s running plays start out, with a variety of power and toss dives. It’s also where LSU’s line is currently weakest.

When the Tigers offense shipwrecked against Arkansas, it had a lot to do with missing two interior linemen; guard Vadal Alexander missed the game with a hand injury and center Elliott Porter left with an ankle injury. Alexander should be back on Thursday, but Porter will miss the game. That means some shifting around on LSU’s offensive line, something that caused problems for them earlier in the season.

Does A&M have the personnel to take advantage of that? Myles Garrett and Ivan Robinson should both be healthy for Thursday, a big boost for the defensive line after they struggled without those two against Missouri. Otaro Alaka will be raring to go at linebacker as well, and he’ll be need to come up and stuff LSU’s bevy of ball carriers.

The prognosis still isn’t great. Texas A&M hasn’t been able to stop anyone even with everyone healthy. LSU is going to try to overpower the Aggies with its physical running style. Whether A&M can slow it will be the key to a victory.