Mississippi State entered Saturday’s game against Alabama as the Southeastern Conference’s stingiest defense when it came to allowing touchdowns in the red zone, but it was the Crimson Tide who stiffened the closer they were pushed to their goal line.
The Bulldogs lost the ball on downs at Alabama’s 1-yard line midway through the first quarter when quarterback Dak Prescott was stuffed by linebacker Denzel Devall for a 1-yard loss, and a trip to Alabama’s 14 in the second quarter resulted in a field goal. The inability for Mississippi State to cash in plus another monstrous performance by Alabama tailback Derrick Henry resulted in a tight game early turning into a 31-6 Tide runaway inside Davis Wade Stadium.
“They got a lot of yards today, but our defense did a great job of not allowing them a lot of points,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said. “Our team showed a lot of resiliency and kept competing when things weren’t going very well. They came out and moved the ball and we didn’t, but we kept them off the board.
“You have to have a lot of patience when you play these guys, and when the field shrunk in the red zone, they couldn’t run against us.”
Alabama improved to 9-1 overall and 6-1 in SEC play entering this week’s game against Charleston Southern, a Football Championship Subdivision program that is also 9-1. The Crimson Tide are ranked No. 3 in both major polls and could clinch a second straight SEC West title Saturday if LSU wins at Ole Miss.
Prescott threw for 300 yards as the Bulldogs ran 32 more plays (87 to 55) and had 14 more yards (393 to 379) than Alabama, but he was sacked nine times after never having been sacked more than three times in a game.
“We thought one thing that might be in our favor in this game was our defensive line against their offensive line,” Saban said. “We did most of it with four guys rushing.”
Said linebacker Reggie Ragland: “When you make someone anxious and mad, then he can’t do anything. We did a great job on him.”
Alabama’s 38 sacks in 10 games so far are the most compiled in any of Saban’s nine seasons with the Tide.
The Crimson Tide came up short twice in the red zone against the Bulldogs, having a field goal blocked and losing the ball on downs in the fourth quarter, but that hardly mattered. They were too busy dialing up touchdowns from long distance – Henry broke free for scores of 74 and 65 yards, and quarterback Jake Coker found Calvin Ridley from 60 yards out.
Alabama’s special teams also made a long-range impact. Cyrus Jones opened Saturday’s scoring early in the second quarter with a 69-yard punt return.
Henry followed his 210-yard rushing performance against LSU with 204 yards in Starkville, marking the first time an Alabama rusher has eclipsed 200 yards in consecutive games. His three 100-yard games this season match the school standard set by Bobby Humphrey in 1986.
“We wanted to control the line of scrimmage,” Henry said, “and our offensive line did a great job.”
Tide tidbits
Saban improved to 13-1 against Mississippi State, with his only loss coming in 2007, his first season with the Tide. In addition to compiling three sacks and accidentally giving Saban a cut on his face, junior defensive end Jonathan Allen had a career-high seven tackles. Henry’s 1,458 yards this season are the fourth-highest total in program history. Jones collected Alabama’s first punt return for a score since Christion Jones had a 75-yarder against UTC in 2013.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.