Alabama at LSU: SEC Football game preview, TV schedule

Can the Tide continue the dominance that they displayed in last’s week win over Mississippi State or will the issues that led to the loss to Tennessee and struggles over the rest of the early season show their head once again? Will LSU upset the Tide and create havoc in the SEC Football West?

TV Network: ESPN

Location: Tiger Stadium

Game time: 7:00 P.M

The Alabama Crimson Tide go into this game with a record of 7-1. Their lone loss came in the SEC Football game of the year (that sentence might look dumb after the Tennessee-Georgia face-off this week) against Tennessee. Their best win of the season came against Mississippi State.

Prior to the win against Mississippi State, there were serious questions about the Tide. They had a lot of penalties and special teams were clearly a huge weakness of this team. In all honestly, this team should have two losses, as they would’ve probably lost to Texas in week 2 if Quinn Ewers didn’t get injured.

Additionally, they struggled a lot against Texas A&M (which is horrible considering where the state of that program is) and allowed Arkansas to stay in the game later than a team with this kind of talent should. It all culminated in a loss to Tennessee.

While Tennessee is a playoff contender, and in my opinion the best team in the country (the winner of Georgia-Tennessee will change that and might make this sentence look redundant in a couple of days), it’s clear that the issues that Alabama has dealt with all year are still there.

While they were heavily favored to win the game against Mississippi State, it showed to me that they are on the right track to correct their issues. A dominant win here over a solid team like LSU would further that opinion. A win here would give me more confidence that they can win out the rest of the regular season, win the SEC Football title, and make the playoff.

LSU goes into this game with a record of 6-2. They are currently ranked 15th in the country. The season started out really poor against Florida State. They lost because of special teams issues among other things. LSU was able to beat Mississippi State two weeks later, but needed 21 points in the fourth quarter.

Two weeks later, they beat Auburn, but looked really poor, especially in the fourth quarter with the turnovers they committed among other things. A week later, they got blown out by Tennessee. The week after that they beat Florida, and it seemed like this team was good but not great. That changed the following Saturday, as they shut down Ole Miss in the second half on their way to a blowout victory.

For the first year under Brian Kelly, this season hasn’t been so bad. Jayden Daniels has struggled at first but seems like he has gotten on track. Ditto for the defense, which has appeared non-existent at times, while appearing a little better in the last week.

This team is probably more good than great, but a competitive game, nonetheless a win against the Tide, would make LSU a great team in the country by pundits, even in Alabama’s semi-non completely dominant state. Additionally and more importantly to the program, the Tigers would have the inside track to the SEC West.

If LSU beat Alabama, I would say it is almost certain that they would win the SEC Football West. Considering their remaining opponents are Arkansas, UAB, and Texas A&M, they will be favored in each of their remaining three games to end the year after this one. Still beating Bama is a tall order, even for a Tide team that hasn’t looked like the teams of the past.

I think this game will come down to whether Alabama has the issues that it has had all season. While LSU and Daniels will have their moments, this game will come down to whether the Tide will have issues on special teams and have problems with penalties. The Mississippi State game hinted that the Tide’s mistakes were behind them, but the question is will this game prove it as well?

Prediction

Alabama: 28 LSU: 14

It’s really hard not to pick the Tide here. As mentioned, I think they looked better against Mississippi State. I still think they have to prove that they did not run into their issues consistently but I think things are looking better for the Tide. If the issues come back, don’t be surprised if LSU takes the upset, but for now I am taking the team that has Bryce Young and Will Anderson.