re: Playing Ole Miss early in the season vs. late in the season

I posted this in another thread this week:

My theory is that Alabama is the key to how LSU finishes each season, not a big surprise. This all started after the stories about Sam Montgomery not giving full effort after last year's loss to Alabama. This will be the first year in a long time that we play Ole Miss before Alabama. I've compiled some stats of the 3 games before and 3 games after we play Alabama since 2007 to help prove my theory. Over those 6 years, we are 3-3 vs. Bama.

Years we lose to Bama:

Offense/Defense/Margin/Difference
PPG Before/25.11/17.33/(+8)
PPG After/29.00/25.44/(+4)/+4, +8
YDS Before/353.00/362.11/(-9)
YDS After/316.22/398.44/(-82)/-37, +36

Years we beat to Bama:

Offense/Defense/Margin/Difference
PPG Before/33.44/20.22/(+13)
PPG After/44.33/20.00/(+24)/+11, 0
YDS Before/413.67/303.78/(+110)
YDS After/446.11/312.67/(+132)/+33, +9

I think that we have more to play for after we beat Alabama, obviously. What's even more amazing is how the winning percentage of the teams we play after Alabama hovers around .500. In years we beat them, we dominate those inferior teams; in years after we lose, the score is much closer.

Hopefully since have not played them this year, our results will be reflective of how we play in years where we win because I would expect that we're giving full effort.