REBELS-TIDE: Much ado about nothing as Bama rolls over Ole Miss
By TIM GAYLE
It turned out to be much ado about nothing.
There were plenty of college football analysts who put top-ranked Alabama on upset alert when 12th-ranked Ole Miss came to town on Saturday. The Rebels’ offensive guru, head coach and former Alabama assistant Lane Kiffin, would rely on quarterback Matt Corral to keep the scoreboard lights changing and dare the Crimson Tide to keep pace.
Kiffin, his own best publicist, told CBS sideline analyst Jamie Erdahl seconds before kickoff to “get your popcorn ready.”
The entertainment was all one-sided as Alabama tailback Brian Robinson had a career game and the Crimson Tide stormed out to a 35-0 lead on the way to a 42-21 victory at Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
The Rebels’ “improved” defense held Alabama to its lowest total in the series since 2014, but many of the 451 yards were supplied by Robinson as the senior from nearby Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa rushed for 171 yards and four touchdowns on 36 carries, all career highs.
“I didn’t expect to have 36 carries today but that was the way it played out and I was blessed by the opportunity to have the ball that much,” Robinson said. “Coach put his trust in me to carry the ball that many times. It’s a great feeling.”
Nick Saban kept his unblemished record against pupils intact with a surprisingly effective defense that had the Rebels corraled for much of the game. Snoop Conner and Jerrion Ealy became the first-ever tandem to rush for 100 yards against a Saban-coached Tide defense last year, with Conner gaining 128 yards and Ealy 120. On Saturday, Ealy had 16, while Conner managed 12.
“They moved the ball a lot better a year ago, a lot faster,” Kiffin said. “We actually made them work to get the rushing yards, even though it ended up being a lot. I don’t think you say all of a sudden, hey, we need to change what we’re doing on defense. That’s not really the storyline in the game. The storyline in the game is they did a great job on defense. Great players, great adjustment by the coaches and, you know, we didn’t.”
Saban credited a ball-control offense for keeping the Ole Miss offense on the sideline and a lack of substitution on defense for eliminating much of the confusion the Tide faced in Oxford a year ago.
“We played the whole game in the same personnel group so we didn’t get in all this substitution stuff that was a problem for us last year,” Saban said. “The players did a good job of executing and most of the pressures that we did do were push the pocket in the middle, kind of simulator-type things to play zone, because a lot of the stuff that they do is really tough to play man-to-man against.”
Bryce Young completed 21 of 27 passes for 241 yards and a pair of touchdowns, but the focus changed from a fast-hitting offensive style to a more methodical approach.
“The way their defensive structure is with a ‘32’ defense with six defensive backs, it’s hard to throw when they’re dropping eight guys (into coverage) all the time,” Saban said. “So it was a combination of this is how they line up as well as this is the type of game it needs to be. It’s not really how we want to play, it’s not how we’ve played all year and it’s not going to be the style that we want to continue to play. We have to do the things that we have to do to try to win the game. And playing the way we played today on offense was the way we needed to play to win the game.”
Kiffin was asked after the game about two times he went for it on fourth down in Ole Miss territory. Both times failed and led to Alabama touchdowns that put the game out of reach.
“You can punt and they’ll score,” he said. “They scored every possession but one in the first half. I know it looks bad when it doesn’t work, but again, you can punt it away, it just takes longer for them to score.”