Derrick Henry still coming up big for No. Alabama

Alabama was ranked No. 4 in last week’s first batch of college football playoff rankings and strengthened its position – as well as taking control of the SEC West race – with a 30-16 win over No. 2 LSU. Jake Coker has had problems with interceptions at Bryant-Denny Stadium, and LSU’s star-studded secondary might have hoped for a few similar gifts Saturday. On the ground, Derrick Henry rushed for 143 yards and two touchdowns in 28 attempts. Fournette has gained 1,352 yards and run for 15 touchdowns.

Everything went right for Alabama – even a made 55-yard field goal at the end of the first half after LSU had tied the game at 10. Backup Kenyan Drake did have a strong game against LSU with 68 yards.

Harris completed just 6 of 19 passes for 128 yards.

The big game of the college football weekend features SEC rivals as No. 7 Alabama plays host to No. 4 LSU at 8PM ET on CBS. With a top-four showdown between the Tide and the Tigers looming on Saturday, the cries of SEC bias will be able to be put aside next week.

LSU tailback Leonard Fournette gained 2 yards on the Tigers’ first offensive play Saturday despite a stacked offensive line, and LSU punted two plays later.

“I can tell you that as an LSU fan, there is great interest in this game”, said LSU coach Les Miles. “We’ve just got to do a good job of executing all the way around when it comes to special teams and try to win that part of the game”, Alabama coach Nick Saban said.

The Crimson Tide are impossibly deep on the defensive line and at linebacker, with enormous, pro-ready players who were formerly blue-chip recruits.

At this point if you don’t know about Leonard Fournette you just haven’t been paying attention to college football this season. But Griffith – and Alabama kickers in general, ever since the miss-plagued defeat to LSU in 2011 – has become such a lightning bolt for fan unrest that his performance can seem to have an outsized effect on the demeanor of the crowd. A better bet in this one is to go with the undefeated LSU Tigers in what promises to a close and hard fought game.

Get all the latest information on the team by following @AlabamaFTBL on Twitter and Facebook and AlabamaFBL on Instagram. But as always, we look and evaluate those things and are focused on correcting the things that we could do better so we can continue to improve as a team.

The unbeaten No. 14 Cowboys have five one-loss teams ranked ahead of them in the Playoff rankings.

It was tight all game long, but Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson was the difference-maker yet again, keeping Florida State’s defense off-balance with his running (107 yards) and passing (297 yards, one touchdown).

The Crimson Tide lead the series 49-25-5 and have won four in a row dating back to a 21-0 shutout victory in the BCS Championship in 2012.