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None of the three remaining College Football Playoff contenders in the SEC West — Alabama, Auburn and Mississippi State — has anything close to an easy path to Atlanta for the SEC Championship game and beyond. Alabama’s road is just as tricky, with games remaining against the Bulldogs as well as their rival Tigers. But with the West’s other Tigers, the Bayou Bengals of LSU, waiting for Alabama in Baton Rouge this weekend, it begs the question: could LSU be the toughest remaining game on Alabama’s slate?
Answering “yes” to that question seems ludicrous on its face, as after LSU the Crimson Tide still have to face CFP No. 1 Mississippi State, as well as No. 3 Auburn. However, Alabama gets to host both of those matchups in Bryant-Denny Stadium, where they’ve been unstoppable all season, averaging 610 yards of total offense, 48.5 points and only allowing 8.3 points and 195 yards. All of those but Alabama’s scoring total would be tops in the nation by a wide margin.
The Crimson Tide are much more pedestrian on the road; 48th in total offense, 30th in total defense, all the way down to No. 78 in scoring offense. With the way LSU completely destroyed any semblance of offense Ole Miss attempted to mount two weeks ago, going into Tiger Stadium for a night game becomes an even more frightening prospect. LSU has one of the best defenses in the country by the numbers, despite its early season inability to stop the run, and they only allow 8.5 points and 279 yards per game in Death Valley.
As if Blake Sims’ task of leading the Crimson Tide offense into a hostile environment, something he’s struggled with this season, he’ll either be without starting left tackle Cam Robinson or be operating behind a hobbled version of the stud freshman. Robinson suffered a high ankle sprain against Tennessee and, while he hasn’t been ruled out for Saturday, it’s hard to imagine him operating at anywhere near full strength unless he’s secretly Wolverine from the X-Men.
That’s a scary thought, considering who Robinson would likely be lining up against. Danielle Hunter is a 6-foot-6, 240 lb. freakish athlete at defensive end. He’s already fourth in the SEC at 10 tackles for loss and creates havoc with his size and speed as well as any defensive end in the conference.
Alabama’s defense, so stout against the run, will face its toughest opponent of the season in that regard. Arkansas is one of the best running teams in the country, but the Crimson Tide had no reason to fear much from their passing game. That allowed them to stack up the line to limit the Razorbacks to 89 yards. While LSU’s passing game has played more dismally than Arkansas’, there’s reason to believe they’ll be able to attack Alabama through the air enough to give the run game some space.
If you’ll hear Les Miles tell it, Anthony Jennings is improving rapidly, even if his passing numbers don’t show it. He also has the best big-play receiver this side of Amari Cooper, Travin Dural, around to stretch out defenses and at least draw some safety attention. Leonard Fournette and Terrence Magee, two of LSU’s top running backs, are as dangerous out of the backfield as any of Alabama’s secondary receiving threats are lined up out wide.
While Auburn and Mississippi State are contenders, where LSU is not, the Tigers are just as dangerous as the other two West teams left on Alabama’s schedule. If the Crimson Tide can make it through this weekend, the rest of the slate looks a lot less daunting.
A former freelance journalist from Philadelphia, Brett has made the trek down to SEC country to cover the greatest conference in college football.
