Better buckle up again, LSU.

It figures to get wild at Missouri. Maybe not as haywire as Ole Miss last week, but expect more of the same foolishness.

I’d say it’s a possible last-team-with-the-ball-wins alert, but that didn’t help LSU last week.

This could be another madcap race to see who can get to 50 points first.

Offhand, Missouri looks like Ole Miss Light. Not quite the offensive fireworks, but a better defense and another head coach, Eli Drinkwitz, a little on the pleasantly goofy side, like Lane Kiffin.

Mizzou has a quarterback in Brady Cook somewhat like Ole Miss’ Jaxon Dart and a receiver in Luther Burden a whole lot like LSU’s Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas.

It will be another hornets-nest atmosphere, even at 11 a.m., as Mizzou’s fan base isn’t used to being 5-0, is starting to think it’s really good and sees this game as a party to prove it against a brand name.

It’s the biggest game in years at Mizzou.

Guess what?

It’s the biggest game of this season for LSU.

It’s probably not the best spot for an LSU team that can’t tackle.

Make no mistake about it, this is the key game for LSU. The absolutely, positively must-win trip of the season.

Remember when you were scanning the LSU schedule in August and your finger kept screeching to a halt at the Missouri slot — yeah, there it is? That’s the secret, that’s the ticket.

OK, maybe not.

Some LSU fans have never gotten the memo that Missouri is in the SEC.

But here it is, the crossroads of the year for an LSU team that still doesn’t know what it wants to be when it grows up. Sometimes the wolf in sheep’s clothing. It can sneak up on you.

A loss won’t get Brian Kelly fired.

A win won’t automatically catapult LSU to Atlanta for the SEC Championship game.

But salvaging this season will be on the line at Faurot Field at the bewitching hour of 11 a.m. in Columbia.

Contrary to the prevailing doom and gloom in purple and gold, that didn’t disappear against Ole Miss. It killed any chance at the College Football Playoff, but I don’t think many were really falling for that preseason mirage anyway.

LSU does, in fact, still have something to play for.

It’s easy to fall into the trap — and I’m only going to remind you of this one more time — of watching one game (say, Ole Miss 55, LSU 49) and assuming that it’s the blueprint not only for the next week, but for the rest of the season.

Teams do evolve.

Remember when Alabama — Alabama! — was left for dead a few weeks ago? After a win, no less.

Now the Tide’s biggest test is Saturday at Texas A&M, another team kicked to the curb after losing early to Miami.

Kelly and his LSU team are basically in the same spot they were in this time last year after getting boat-raced 40-14 by Tennessee.

The Tigers ended up in Atlanta, jump-started by a road trip to beat Florida the next week.

So it can be done, even if not the way you’d draw it up, and I’m not sure you snap your fingers and invent a defense in one week.

But, just for grins, let me map out a scenario for you.

This LSU offense can beat everybody left on its schedule.

Yeah, I know, this defense … it could make every game a white-knuckler, but it’s possible to win those.

LSU historically has always depended on its defense to keep it in games. Maybe it works with the units tilted in the other direction too.

Like I said at the top, just strap yourself in a for a wild ride every Saturday.

You’d also work on the assumption that there was a come-to-Jesus meeting this week defensively. It has to be more than tweaked. It needs to come out doing something no one would expect (and don’t say “tackle,” you wiseacre).

LSU has something of a history of bouncing back from the darkest gloom.

So somehow take care of Missouri, and after this week, LSU has one road game remaining. True, it’s at Alabama, but the Tigers traditionally play the Tide better in Tuscaloosa anyway. And I never said it would be easy.

Maybe Missouri is where it all starts.

Sorry, but that’s about the best I’ve got for you, and it’s a tough sell.

Whoever made LSU a four-point favorite, no doubt does not live in Louisiana.

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Scooter Hobbs covers LSU athletics. Email him at scooter.hobbs@americanpress.com