LSU vs. Alabama: Crimson Tide Will Be Doomed If Trent Richardson Struggles

The hype surrounding Saturday's tilt between LSU and Alabama is immense. The formula for how the game can be won, on the other hand, is pretty simple.

As I, and a million other college football pundits and fans, have already opined, this is going to be a very old-school football game. Victory will depend on who can win the battle of the trenches and pick up tough yards on the ground.

These are two teams that are not built around star quarterbacks, and that much is likely going to be painfully obvious as the game progresses.

Concerning the running games, the general consensus is that the Crimson Tide has the edge because they have Trent Richardson, who is in good standing in the Heisman Trophy race with 989 yards rushing and 17 touchdowns.

The Tigers have a couple of good running backs, but Richardson is better than both of them (not both of them combined, mind you).

The problem for Richardson is that he will be facing the country's third-best rushing defense. The Tigers have allowed just 613 rushing yards, and are giving up an average of two and a half yards per rush. This is largely thanks to the big, mean bodies they have on their defense line, as they just don't suffer running backs to pass.

Now, I'm a huge Richardson fan. He's strong, he's fast, he never falls backwards and he can break runs like this one:

Amazing. Dude has NFL written all over him.

But let's face facts, Richardson is going to be in for some tough sledding on Saturday. If he struggles, the entire Tide offense is going to struggle.

I say this primarily because I just don't trust AJ McCarron. He's been better than people expected him to be this season, but the fact of the matter is that he is still highly inexperienced. This is going to be the biggest game of his life, and you have to think that he is going to be less efficient than he has been for the bulk of the season.

Not helping McCarron's cause is the fact that the Tigers have one of the country's best pass defenses, as they are allowing fewer than 175 passing yards per game. They certainly won't make it easy for McCarron, and his job is going to be that much harder if he can't rely on Richardson.

At that point, the obvious hope is that the game will stay low-scoring, and that the Tide will have just enough offense to walk away with a win. But, because the Tigers have two experienced senior quarterbacks, I think you have to give them the edge in a close game. The Tigers as a whole also have big-game experience thanks to their opening win over Oregon at Cowboys Stadium.

This one is going down to the wire no matter what happens. If and when LSU wins, though, it will be because they didn't let Richardson beat them.

The good news for the Tide is that this is going to be easier said than done.