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Auburn Travels to Death Valley to Take on LSU
LSU Favored by 8
10/24/09
Auburn Travels to Death Valley to take on LSU where oddsmakers at SPORTSBETTING.com have installed LSU as 8 point favorites with a total of 52.
After opening the season 5-0 this year it looked like Coach Gene Chizik and
Offensive Coordinator Gus Malzahn were the answers to the Auburn fan’s prayers.
After a disappointing season last year that cost Coach Tommy Tubberville his job
no one really knew what to expect from this Tiger football team.
Their first 5 games were not very difficult, but they did beat Tennessee 26-22,
so Auburn looked to be for real. Then Auburn went into Fayetteville, AR and just
got dominated from start to finish and lost 44-23. Their defense had been
exposed, and their offense didn’t have the same fire power it showed against
lesser competition.
The next week they had the perfect game to get things going against Kentucky,
but once again the defense couldn’t come up with the stops necessary, and the
offense just couldn’t consistently move the ball down the field. After losing
their last two games this Auburn team is at a crossroads, and desperately need a
victory, but unfortunately for them they have to travel down to Death Valley to
play the LSU Tigers at night.
This LSU team also needs a win after dropping a close game to the Florida
Gators. The Tigers still have hopes of an SEC West title and with a date with
Alabama still left on the schedule they can’t afford to slip up this weekend.
PRIMETIME MATCHUP
This Auburn offense under Offensive Coordinator Gus Malzahn wants to
establish the run first and foremost to open the field up for their passing
attack. QB Chris Todd is not a QB who can do it by himself he needs help with
the running game to open the field for his Receivers to get open.
Arkansas was able to put Todd into a lot of situations where he had to throw the
ball, and he was unable to execute. This LSU defense is solid against the run,
so expect LSU and Defensive Coordinator John Chavis to do whatever it has to to
stop the Auburn rushing attack. This Tiger defense held Florida to just 196
yards rushing when they are averaging over 250 yards per game on the ground, and
on the year their defense is allowing 130 yards a game.
THE FINAL VERDICT
Much like Auburn, LSU also has been a difficult team to figure out. The
strength of their teams the past few years has been their defense, but their
defense struggled early on this year, but they are starting to find their
rhythm. We expect LSU to be able to at least slow down the Auburn rushing attack
enough to put Auburn QB Chris Todd into some bad situations, and he will make
mistakes, and when he does this LSU offense with RB Charles Scott will
capitalize early in the game.
This LSU offense has also had problems getting things going early on in the
season, but they have very talented RB’s in Charles Scott and Keiland Williams.
When their offense gets the ball expect them to pound the ball with these two
backs, and move down the field against this weak Auburn defense. If they can get
an early lead in the game this game will be over because we do not believe QB
Chris Todd is capable of bringing his team from behind to win the game, and LSU
will go into their game against Alabama with a chance to take control of the SEC
West race.
LSU ranks number 9 in the Nation in turnover margin. They have a yards per
point number of 22 defensively which is fantastic, compare that to 14 for
Auburn. As a matter of fact, if we use the yards per point numbers for both
squads to make a line on this game, the number would be LSU -12, perhaps higher
depending on how many points you want to allot LSU for home field. With that in
mind, we'll lay the -8 here with LSU
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