When Alabama, donning its traditional all-white road jerseys, takes the field against the purple-and-gold-clad LSU Tigers on Saturday night, it will be the sixth straight time the SEC West rivals have clashed at Tiger Stadium with both teams ranked in the top 16.

Two of the previous five matchups ended in overtime. Another was scoreless entering the fourth quarter. The other two were within seven points in the final three minutes.

In the end, all five were won by Alabama.

The Tigers haven’t defeated the Crimson Tide since November 2011, when No. 1 LSU took down No. 2 Alabama in overtime at Bryant-Denny Stadium, fanning the flames of a rivalry that had been reignited four years prior when former LSU coach Nick Saban left the NFL to take the Alabama job.

“The Game of the Century” began a streak of eight consecutive primetime games between the two teams. That includes the January 2012 BCS National Championship Game in which Alabama avenged the 9-6 loss from two months earlier with a 21-0 beatdown.

On Saturday night, the streak will extend to nine as Alabama (8-0) and LSU (7-1) again battle in one of the Meccas of college football.

“I think it’s the loudest atmosphere that we’ll see this year probably,” center guard Ross Pierschbacher said. “People talk about, ‘What’s the craziest stadium?’ And I always say LSU right off the bat. Night game in Death Valley, you can’t beat.”

“Making calls, we’re going to have to kind of mouth things and kind of read lips,” Pierschbacher said. “I remember always having to do that here, just kind of getting the gist of what the center’s saying [since] you’re not really hearing everything.”

The last time Pierschbacher played in Tiger Stadium, the Crimson Tide, riding a 20-game win streak, finished three quarters deadlocked with LSU at 0-0.

Then-freshman quarterback Jalen Hurts put Alabama on the board with a 21-yard rushing touchdown early in the fourth quarter. The team escaped with a 10-0 victory, but it served as a reminder that anything can happen when emotions run this hot.

“Their fans were screaming,” safety Deionte Thompson said. “They weren’t quiet the whole game. That’s the kind of game you have to expect when you go to LSU. You can toss the records out the window. You know they are going to give you everything they’ve got and you’ve got to do the same. […] You can’t say [the things LSU fans were saying]. They weren’t good. They weren’t good at all.”

More than 102,000 people screaming obscenities for four hours would distract most from their tasks at hand.

When a team’s task is protecting an enormous target on its back while fending off a bitter rival hungry to end a near-decade of defeats that boasts a rejuvenated passing game and an always-stout defense, that task becomes more difficult.

Even before Joe Burrow arrived in Baton Rouge as a graduate transfer from Ohio State, he was hailed as the one to end the Tigers’ longstanding quarterback troubles.

Through eight games, Burrow’s stats don’t jump off the page, but he has managed the offense effectively and gotten the ball into his playmakers’ hands. He has also protected the ball; of the 75 FBS quarterbacks with at least 200 passes, only five have thrown fewer interceptions than Burrow’s three.

LSU with an effective quarterback has long been a nightmare for SEC opponents. The Tigers are by far the most formidable challenge Alabama will face in the regular season, and as is the custom around Tuscaloosa, “the process” takes precedence.

“The key is you don’t approach it differently,” left tackle Jonah Williams said. “I don’t think there’s any team in the country that’s good enough to get away with not being focused on the little things. So, if you’re looking at the stadium and worried about things like that, you’re not going to be successful.”  

According to the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic, exposure to sounds above 100 decibels for more than five minutes can result in hearing damage.

Tiger Stadium’s noise level was measured at 130 decibels in 2007, when the top-ranked Tigers hosted defending national champion Florida and eventual Heisman winner Tim Tebow.

With No. 3 LSU likely hosting defending national champion Alabama and Heisman front-runner Tua Tagovailoa for the SEC West title, the Cajun fever could reach unprecedented levels. Whatever the outcome, the atmosphere promises to be pandemonium, as it is any time the Tigers welcome the Crimson Tide into the friendly confines of Death Valley.