TIDE-DOGS: Saban coaches 200th at Bama in rout of Mississippi State
Alabama topped Mississippi State in Starkville in SEC play on Saturday. (UA Media Relations)
By TIM GAYLE
A refocused Alabama rebounded from last week’s loss at Texas A&M with a dominating performance on both sides of the ball on Saturday, defeating Mississippi State 49-9 at Davis Wade Stadium in head coach Nick Saban’s 200th game at Alabama.
A week after suffering numerous breakdowns in every facet of the game, Saban struggled to find any negatives with his team’s performance, which limited Mike Leach’s “Air Raid” offense to three Brandon Ruiz field goals.
“We certainly needed to respond,” Saban said, “and I think the players responded the right way. We played a 60-minute game, sort of dominated the game the way we like to play. I think it’s the way you want to play on the road, it’s the way you control the crowd, and I thought our guys did a really good job of that.”
On offense, the Crimson Tide converted 12 of 16 third-down opportunities, while on defense the Tide consistently harassed Mississippi State quarterback Will Rogers, who completed 35 of 55 passes for 300 yards, but threw three interceptions and was sacked seven times.
“The preparation was good this week,” said Alabama linebacker Will Anderson, who had four of the sacks. “We were all on the same page and good things come out of that.”
The fifth-ranked Crimson Tide (6-1) got a 40-yard interception return for a touchdown from Jordan Battle in the first half, then scored 14 seconds into the second half on a 75-yard pass from Bryce Young to Jameson Williams.
Young completed 20 of 28 passes for 348 yards and four touchdowns, throwing touchdown passes to four different receivers.
Since 2008, Alabama has followed up losses with regular-season games eight times and improved to 8-0 in the process, including four times against Mississippi State. Only once -- a 14-13 win over Arkansas after losing to Ole Miss the previous week in 2014 -- did Alabama not come out with a decisive win over their opponent.
Leach said his team had a good week of preparation leading up to the game, but didn’t play with the proper mindset on Saturday.
“We didn’t communicate well on either side of the ball,” Leach said. “The fact of the matter is that we put these guys up on a pedestal and they got ratcheted up higher than we could execute. We tried to do special things because we thought they were too good. The trouble is your best is always enough because that’s all you’ve got. Manufacturing new methods and techniques because you’re scared is not a good approach.”
When asked how Rogers played, Leach said he forced too many passes but was quick to put the blame on his receivers as well.
“I did not think our receivers were consistently where they were supposed to be,” Leach said. “They figured, ‘Oh, Alabama’s really good and they’re so superior, we’ll just go ahead and invent a route’ and invent some route known only to them. Not a chance in hell we’ll find them, but they go ahead and invent it anyway. It’s ridiculous. And I thought that Will played into that, too.”
Alabama returns home to play Tennessee next Saturday night for homecoming, while Mississippi State travels to Vanderbilt.