David Pollack suggests unorthodox defensive game plan for LSU against Alabama
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It’s not often that the talk surrounding an LSU-Alabama game is about what the defenses can do to stop the opposing offenses.
But that’s the case this year, especially for the No. 3 Tigers as they seek to slow down the top-ranked Crimson Tide’s nation-leading scoring offense. With quarterback Tua Tagovailoa engineering Alabama’s aerial attack in addition to a dominant run game, stopping Alabama has suddenly become a matter of teams picking their poison.
College football pundits have spent the last two weeks giving their opinion on what LSU should, and ESPN analyst David Pollack gave reporters his extremely unusual take on Friday.
David Pollack's defensive plan for #LSU: "This is the stupidest opinion you’ll hear all week. I would let Bama run the football. Never have we said that in a million runs."
— Cody Worsham (@CodyWorsham) November 2, 2018
Pollack: "I know that sounds stupid. It probably is. I’m not very bright."
— Cody Worsham (@CodyWorsham) November 2, 2018
There may be some merit to this strategy, as silly as it sounds on the surface. Tagovailoa has transformed the Tide into a big-play offense, but keeping the game constricted to the red zone takes away much of the space he so expertly utilizes and prevents Nick Saban’s squad from striking for those back-breaking chunk plays.
Still, in a rivalry that’s this heated, it’s hard to imagine LSU just letting Alabama run the ball at will. We’ll see how Tigers coach Ed Orgeron and defensive coordinator Dave Aranda approach the Crimson Tide’s dynamic offense when kickoff finally arrives at 8 p.m. ET on Saturday.
Marcus covers SEC football for Saturday Down South.
