There's a formula for beating Alabama, Greg McElroy says

Unbeaten and top-ranked Alabama has been untested through nine weeks of the season, but there's a formula to beat the Crimson Tide by SEC Network Analytics by Marcus Spears and Greg McElroy Thinking Out Loud.

"There's a formula, but I'm not sure it's done by way of their defense," McElroy said. "The formula for (beating) Alabama this year might be having an explosive offense. For instance, Oklahoma who can light up the scoreboard. They can make a play. Clemson might be able to do the same thing. A team with significant firepower might be able to challenge even though we have not seen that happen yet. "

On the outside looking in, it would not appear fourth-ranked the Crimson Tide with the SEC's 11th-sidelined total offense and No. 6 scoring offense. Getting off to a good start the Crimson Tide, who has been brought to the fore by multiplayer leads in every game.

Last time out vs. Tennessee, Tua Tagovailoa and the Alabama offense scored on the first day of the game. 545 yards of total offense. Alabama has the fewest turnovers in the SEC's season (6) and leads college in third-down conversation rate at a jaw-dropping 56 percent.

These are great numbers for tagging and tagging a nation-best 54.1 points per game. Spears says it can take a few uncharacteristic mistakes from Alabama to find a chill in the armor for the Tigers.

"Any team can be beat," Spears said. "It can be their own undoing. We've seen a really good Bama team lose to Ole Miss with five turnovers. Now they would not lose that game if it was not self-inflicted wounds, but yes, I would not say any team is unbeatable. "

Nick Saban said this week he has a strong effort from LSU defensively and knows.

"They're very athletic, very good (within the) front seven," Saban said. (They) do a good job of stopping the run. They've got a lot of leads in the nation in interceptions. Devin White is probably as good as a linebacker. I know he'll be out of the game. This team has very good teams and they really, really good specialists. This team is really good all around. So every one of our team is going to be challenged and they are going to meet you in this game. "

Alabama is a 14-point favorite against LSU and has won seven straight in the SEC West rivalry series.