The no. 4 LSU Tigers will look to stay perfect this weekend when they pay a visit to the Vanderbilt Commodores. The game will kick off at noon EST on Saturday, September 21 at Vanderbilt Stadium in Nashville. Fans can watch the game on the SEC Network.
Based on the Week 4 college football odds, the Tigers are 24-point road favorites in this game. The over/under for LSU and Vanderbilt is listed at 57 points.
The Bayou Bengals are no doubt still riding high from their road win over Texas two weeks ago. LSU followed up that win with a 65-14 thrashing of FCS opponent Northwestern State last week. At 3-0, the Tigers appear poised to be in the College Football Playoff conversation later in the season.
Of course, it’ll be a few weeks until LSU’s schedule picks up. They have a week off after this week’s trip to Nashville and then host Utah State before a stretch of three out of four games against teams currently ranked in the top-10. Obviously, that stretch will determine LSU’s seasons. But the Tigers will want to avoid any slip-ups or close calls between now and then.
Meanwhile, the Commodores are still searching for their first win of the season. In fairness, Derek Mason’s team has only played two games after taking last week off. Vandy lost their season opener to Georgia 30-6 and then struggled on the road against Purdue the following week, losing 42-24.
The good news is that things will get a little easier for the Commodores. The bad news is they don’t get easier until after they host the Tigers this week. Vanderbilt still has a chance to win six games and get to a bowl game. However, barring an upset as 24-point underdogs this week, they’ll be in a 0-3 hole heading into the final week of September.
Despite both teams playing in the SEC, LSU and Vanderbilt haven’t met on the football field since 2010 when Les Miles led the Bayou Bengals to a 27-3 win in Nashville. Vanderbilt hasn’t beaten LSU since 1990, giving the Tigers seven straight wins against the Commodores.
This game starts at 11 a.m. local time, and you can’t always rely on teams like LSU to get up for inferior opponents at that time of day. The Commodores have also known to be tricky in games like this since they have nothing to lose. However, I haven’t seen enough out of Vandy this season to think they can hang with LSU for four quarters. I’ll swallow the points and lean toward LSU to cover.
Offensively, it’s been a small disaster for Vanderbilt. Both Riley Neal and Deuce Wallace have played quarterback but neither has had much success outside of only throwing one interception over the first two games. The running game has been just as ineffective. Ke’Shawn Vaughn is a good running back, but he’s rarely had much room to run. That indicates problems with the Vandy offensive line getting beat up at the line of scrimmage, which is a problem that could be magnified against a team like LSU that has one of the most talented defenses in the country.
Even against Texas, the LSU defense was able to stifle the running game outside of quarterback Sam Ehlinger gaining 60 yards on 19 carries. The two Texas running backs combined for just 61 yards on 17 carries. The Tigers won’t have to worry too much about either Vandy quarterback doing a lot of running. More importantly, if the Commodores aren’t able to run the ball, I don’t see either quarterback being able to do much through the air. This could end up being another game like the season opener against Georgia in which Vanderbilt fails to reach double figures.
Meanwhile, the Vanderbilt defense has looked vulnerable against the pass early in the year, especially against Purdue. The Boilermakers got over 500 yards passing from Elijah Sindelar, with 220 yards going to Rondale Moore, the one player on Purdue’s offense that opposing teams need to focus on stopping. The fact that the Commodores looked so helpless against Sindelar and Moore doesn’t bode well against LSU.
Through three games, Joe Burrow looks like the best pure passer LSU has had in over a decade. Admittedly, two of his three games have come against inferior opponents. But he was brilliant against Texas, throwing for over 400 yards while completing 31 of his 39 passes. His accuracy has been off the charts while the Tigers appear to have a trio of wide receivers who can all do damage. I’m willing to bet that trio will be too much for the Vandy defense to handle.
Obviously, LSU needs to stay sharp and not take Vanderbilt lightly. But there wasn’t a letdown by the Tigers coming off the win over Texas, so I feel comfortable betting that LSU won’t have a letdown this week, even with a bye week coming up. Between a talented defense and Burrow’s play early in the year, I’m confident that LSU will cover the 24-point spread.