re: I think some of you have bought the LSU hype a little bit

I agree. I know we've historically had very close games with LSU, but we've also never had an offense like this at Alabama in our lifetimes. I think a lot of Bama fans WANT this to be a close game, not only because that makes it more exciting, but also because they can finally say that Tua has really been tested.

I don't see LSU holding us to less than 40. And I don't see LSU scoring more than 20. The least we've scored this season is 39, and that was in the Mizzou game where we lost Tua, Devonta Smith, and Henry Ruggs to injury early in the second half. LSU has a great defense and an outstanding secondary, and they may be able to slow Tua down a bit, but they are not going to be able to stop him. Our defense isn't as great as it has been in previous years, but it's not as bad as a lot of people think either. They fail to realize that a lot of the points Alabama has given up this season has been against the 2nd and 3rd string defense in garbage time when we were already up 30+. Burrow, for all of LSU's hype, is still pretty mediocre. 6 TD passes and 3 interceptions for the season, and ZERO TD passes in the last three games.

For Alabama to lose or for LSU to keep it close, one or more of the following things is going to need to happen:

- Joe Burrow has the game of his life and outperforms Tua in a shootout (highly unlikely)

- LSU displays a nearly unstoppable running game (highly unlikely)

- Tua throws three or more interceptions leading to LSU touchdowns (that LSU secondary is great, but I don't think this is very likely either)

Obviously, everything I've said here hinges on Tua playing in the game and staying healthy. If he gets hurt, then disregard all of this, lol. I still think we could win without Tua, but without Tua it's a COMPLETELY different team.

Edit: I also want to say that my claim of Tua dropping 40+ on LSU's defense in four quarters is not a slight on them. They have an outstanding defense. But if Tua had stayed in games for 4 quarters this season, we'd probably be scoring 75-100 points against most of the teams we've played this year. Keeping Alabama in the 40s with Tua playing a full game is respectable, as laughable as I'm sure that would sound to them.