Throughout the course of the 2019 college football season, No. 2 LSU has proven time and time again that it may in fact be the best team in the country. Saturday night, coach Ed Orgeron's Tigers will look to make one more emphatic statement prior to the SEC Championship Game next weekend as a spot in the College Football Playoff field is nearly locked up.
The Tigers are heavy favorites to cruise in style Saturday. They return home after a convincing win over Arkansas on the road as 17-point favorites, but this won't be an easy game to accumulate style points in. While the Aggies are 7-4 on the season, they've quietly gone 4-1 in their last five games and took No. 4 Georgia down to the wire a week ago in a six-point loss in Athens.
So who wins this showdown on the Bayou? Let's take a closer look at this matchup and make some picks both straight up and against the spread.
Viewing information
Date: Saturday, Nov. 30 | Time: 7 p.m. ET
Location: Tiger Stadium -- Baton Rouge, Louisiana
TV: ESPN | Live stream: WatchESPN.com
Storylines
LSU: The dream season for LSU remains alive and well. It is 11-0 on the season and fresh off a win on the road against Arkansas to clinch a spot in the SEC title game. With that in the rearview and No. 4 Georgia looming next week, this could be a trap game for the Tigers, especially given the way A&M has remained scrappy over the last month. Still yet, LSU has been bulletproof, with eight of its 11 wins this season coming by double digits and the other two coming on the road against top-10 teams. Even with a spot in the SEC title game clinched, LSU should be plenty motivated enough to keep its perfect season intact -- and Joe Burrow's as a frontrunner for the Heisman Trophy.
Texas A&M: A 7-4 overall record doesn't look all that impressive, but when you consider those losses came to Clemson, Auburn, Alabama and Georgia -- and by an average of only 11.75 points -- it provides context and proof that the Aggies have been competitive all season despite taking their lumps. As they've improved over the last month, those lumps have all but subsided thanks to a surging offense that has averaged 37 points per game. If that pace can continue against a rock-solid LSU defense, they'll have a chance to do what no program has accomplished this season: beat LSU.
Game prediction, picks
Trap game setup for LSU, but it's still impossible to not pick LSU in this spot. This team has been dominant all season against mediocre teams, and with it dropping from No. 1 to No. 2 in the College Football Playoff rankings, I think they'll have some extra motivation to prove they should not have slipped a spot. Give me LSU in a blowout. Pick: LSU (-17.5)
So which picks can you make with confidence in Week 14? And which line is way off? Visit SportsLine now to see which teams win and cover the spread, all from a proven computer model that has returned almost $4,000 in profit over the past four seasons.
