BATON ROUGE — With plot lines running as deep as the neighboring Mississippi River, one facet of Saturday’s showdown between No. 1 Alabama (9-0, 5-0 SEC) and No. 15 LSU (6-2, 3-2) should reveal the winner — the running game.
Alabama leads the SEC in both rushing offense and rushing defense, gaining 205.3 yards per game and allowing just 65.6. LSU is third in the conference in rushing offense (186.1) and No. 5 in rushing defense (105.8).
In the Tigers’ two lopsided losses against Florida (51-21) and Georgia (52-38), the defense gave up a combined 459 yards and six touchdowns rushing — Gators (265-3), Bulldogs (194-3).
LSU will have to find a way to nick a Bama run defense that’s allowed just one team to top 100 yards (Ole Miss, 158) this season. The last player to top the century mark against the Crimson Tide was Ole Miss’ BenJarvus Green-Ellis (131) on Oct. 13, 2007.
The head-to-head matchup to watch will be Bama’s Glenn Coffee against LSU’s Charles Scott. Coffee is fourth in the SEC at 99.3 yards per game and Scott second at 111.1.
“I think they will find that we rush the football pretty well,” LSU coach Les Miles said. “I think we can also execute the pass with an extra guy in the box and pressure on the outside with press corners. It’s going to be a nice matchup.”
LSU is 26-0 under Miles when rushing for more than 100 yards and holding the opponent to less than 100 yards.
“There are a few things that have hurt us (on defense), but we know for sure this week for us to be successful we have to stop their running game,” LSU defensive end Tyson Jackson said. “We have to do a better job of dictating what an offense has to do than the other way around. Stopping their running game is a definite focus for us this week.”
shreveporttimes.com
11/5/08
