Running through a brick wall usually comes as a challenge.
As the saying goes, you can’t go through it, so you must go around it. Or, if you are bold enough, under it.
I’m afraid the LSU football team will have no choice this weekend but to go through the brick wall that is Derrick Brown and the Auburn Tigers defensive line.
Brown will force the Bayou Bengals to use junior running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire to beat them.
LSU fans and coaches are not accustomed to hearing that other teams are trying to make them run, but it might be the pleasant surprise that LSU needs to show it possesses more than just Joe Burrow.
Take Edwards-Helaire’s game against a stout Florida defense that stuffed Auburn. He had 134 yards on the ground with two scores. And he made it look easy.
Even if Edwards-Helaire does not play, freshman Tyrion Davis-Price showed the speed and determination to be a complement back, producing 40 yards and a touchdown on only three carries against the Gators.
But Florida did not have the 6-foot-5-inch behemoth that is Derrick Brown.
He is leading an Auburn group that is allowing only 3.1 yards per carry. Auburn will have to lean on their defensive stud as its pass defense is allowing 6.03 yards per attempt in the air.
In his Heisman-contending season, Burrow is averaging 11.4 yards per attempt, and the opposing Tigers will look to keep that average to a minimum.
Auburn has proven to get pressure with four linemen and will use that to their advantage, but it will be forced to pressure when Burrow and the receiving core of Ja’Marr Chase, Justin Jefferson and the returning Terrace Marshall Jr. execute big plays downfield.
Burrow has to allow his top receivers to make plays by throwing into tight coverage to open up the rest of the game, or they could feel pressure to run the ball.
Not to mention Auburn’s true freshman Bo Nix has shown potential to throw the ball in clutch situations in every game besides Florida.
All of these factors and you have two top 10 teams coming into the hardest place to play in college football.
One team will walk away with hopes of hoisting a National Championship trophy in New Orleans as the other will go home to Auburn.
Expect the Auburn Tigers to try to keep the big plays to a minimum in hopes that Brown can contain LSU’s rushing attack.
The matchup will deliver as the past three matchups have been decided by one score with the last game being decided from the foot of LSU’s Cole Tracy.
Every eye should be on this game because how it could turn into a battle in the trenches.
If Auburn finds a way to stop the pass and pass the ball themselves, the difference could be a strong LSU offensive line against an exceptional Auburn defensive line.
While it is tough to go through an immovable object, LSU’s offensive prowess and the Death Valley crowd will move anything that stands in its way.