As up and down as the 2024 football season has been for this team, I am confident that Alabama will make the playoff if they win in Baton Rouge Saturday night. Not wanting to put the cart in front of the horse as beating LSU in Death Valley at night is no small task, but if there is a team that can do it is this Crimson Tide team.
Winning on the road hasn't been easy for Kalen Deboer's team this season, but there seems to be a different feel coming off the bye week. From the way this team responded against Missouri to the upsets that came last weekend, it just seems like an Alabama late run for the playoff is in the works.
The Aggies gave the blueprint on how to beat LSU two weeks ago, and Coach Deboer and his staff have had two weeks to build a similar game plan. We all saw how this team came out against Georgia after the bye week, and I would be surprised if we didn't see similar success to start the game Saturday night.
Of course, the most important thing will be to keep the crowd at bay as best as possible. The easiest way to do this is to not have bad turnovers that put the Tigers in good field position. Also, in a hostile environment, there can't be the pre-snap penalties that continued all day in Knoxville.
Before the Tennessee game I thought a win there would do wonders for Kalen Deboer's tenure in Tuscaloosa and now that first big road win looms again. For as bad as things went in the state of Tennessee, winning in the state of Louisiana with the loser being eliminated from the playoff contention would fix some things.
Winning games in November and then benefitting from the chaos has been part of the Alabama DNA for a while, and I'm confident we are going to see this similar story play out the rest of November for the Crimson Tide.