LSU Tigers

The Biggest Thing LSU Needs To Work On Before Alabama

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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November 5th will be one of the most important dates of the 2016 college football season. The top-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide will head down to Baton Rouge, Louisiana to take on the number 19 LSU Tigers. The game has major implications on the conference title, the College Football Playoff, and the job status of a coach.

For many, many reasons, LSU desperately needs to come out on top next Saturday. The Tigers have been on fire in their last three outings, but taking down Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide will be another beast entirely.

The good news is, Ed Orgeron’s team has a bye this Saturday, so they will have had two weeks to prepare for Alabama. They will surely use this time to get guys healthy and get star running back Leonard Fournette back into game shape, but the biggest benefit of having this additional week is the ability to make adjustments.

Orgeron has done a great job of making changes and correcting errors on a week-to-week basis, and with Alabama looming, he’ll need to have his best game plan yet when the Tigers take the field.

I’m sure Coach O will do a lot of tweaking and the team will work on quite a few things, but I want to talk about the biggest thing that needs to happen for LSU during this two week stretch.

Since taking over as interim head coach, Orgeron has made it a point to spread the field and throw the ball much more than the team did under Les Miles. Doing so has given the offense balance, allowing the running backs to do even more damage to opposing defenses.

Just a month or so into his tenure, his plan has worked. He and the rest of the staff have put quarterback Danny Etling in some great spots to succeed, and he’s producing at a decent level. They are not forcing anything, but just taking what the defense is giving them in an attempt to keep them from fully committing to stopping the run.

Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports

LSU has scored no fewer than 38 points since Orgeron began making his changes. It has worked beautifully, but if they are to beat this Alabama team, it’s going to have to be taken to a whole different level. Just completing passes every now and then to keep the defense honest is not going to be enough. Danny Etling is going to have to have his best game as a Tiger.

As the team prepares for the Crimson Tide, finding chemistry between Etling and the talented bunch of receivers needs to be among the top priorities. He’s done a great job of getting them the ball in good spots throughout these last three games, but it’s time to take it to another level. This Alabama defense is the best in the country at stopping the run, so throwing the ball effectively is going to likely be the deciding factor for the LSU offense. Orgeron, Etling, and the receivers all need to be on the same page, and they need to play their A game next Saturday.

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