Some keys to victory...

I know most of these are obvious, but I think they will be extra important in this contest:

1) Turnovers. We must not make any and it would be helpful if Bama gave up one or two. Saban's teams don't make a lot of mistakes and yards/scoring will be hard to come by. We can't lose the turnover battle and win the game.

2) Punting/field position in general. Like so many LSU-AL games, I expect this to be a field position/defensive contest. Their punter is very good and consistent. Growden must help us in the field position battle. We also cannot afford out of bounds kickoffs or big returns by them.

3) Containing Hurts running. Bama will get its yard rushing with RBs and I think that Ridley and company will get some passing yards, but the real X-factor is Hurts running, both on scrambles and designed runs. Setting the edge and not giving him space to make long runs will be key.

4) 60 minutes. We must play until the final whistle. Bama is deep and big and strong and they wear a lot of teams out. They win a lot of games in the 2nd half because the just have more dudes with more juice. We are big/strong/deep enough to hang with them, but we cannot lose focus. This game will almost certainly be close and the team that wins the 4th quarter will win it. I love the thing with Coach O and the players holding up 4 fingers as the 4th quarter starts. I know that's old stuff - heck I did it in high school, but it's important to stay focused and "own" the 4th quarter and it will be doubly important this Saturday.

Those are my keys.

Your thoughts/additions/inputs?