OXFORD, Miss. - No Alabama defense had ever surrendered so many yards. No unranked team had ever scored so many points against the Crimson Tide.
And still it was not enough for Ole Miss.
The Rebels did some unprecedented things in a surprising shootout between Southeastern Conference Western Division teams Saturday night, but they could not deliver first-year head coach Lane Kiffin a victory against his old boss.
Najee Harris ran for 206 yards and five touchdowns as No. 2 Alabama beat Ole Miss 63-48 in the highest-scoring regulation game in SEC history as Tide coach Nick Saban improved to 21-0 against former assistants.
Matt Corral passed for 365 yards for Ole Miss (1-2), which put up 647 yards on the Tide as the teams combined for an SEC-record 1,370.
"We knew we had to score pretty much every possession," Alabama quarterback Mac Jones said.
The teams traded touchdowns for much of the night, but with the Tide (3-0) leading 49-42, the Rebels misfired in Alabama territory and had to settle for a field goal. That was as good as a stop in this game.
With the ball back in the Tide's hands, receiver DeVonta Smith went 14 yards for a touchdown run to cap an eight-play drive and make it 56-45 with 3:16 left.
"To beat that team, we've got to play perfect," said Kiffin, who was Florida Atlantic's head coach the past three seasons after working as Alabama's offensive coordinator from 2014 to 2016. "We didn't do that. Obviously, we didn't play well on defense."
After another Ole Miss field goal, Alabama recovered an onside kick and Harris busted a 39-yard touchdown run moments later to seal it.
Alabama trailed 14-7 in the second quarter, then scored touchdowns on eight straight possessions on drives of 72, 75, 85, 52, 72, 44, 90 and 44 yards.
"We scored every time we had to score," Saban said. "We took the air out of it at the end of the game."
Saban suggested Kiffin and his staff might have been able to decipher the Tide's defensive signals.
"I definitely think so," Alabama linebacker Dylan Moses said.
Kiffin's offense made the Tide work hard. The Rebels got nearly 250 yards rushing and four touchdowns from Snoop Conner (128 yards) and Jerrion Ealy (120). The final result for Alabama wasn't unexpected, but the degree of difficulty was surprising, especially for the defense.
"We've never played this way on defense," said Saban, whose team hosts No. 3 Georgia next Saturday with the Bulldogs coming off a win against Tennessee. "It's certainly not what we try to aspire to be as a defensive team. I believe in our players. We have to get our players to play better. I think we're capable of it."
The Tide's trips to Oxford have been eventful in recent years. The Rebels upset them in 2014, and Alabama needed a big comeback to win 48-43 win in 2016.
"All in all, we've had some crazy games over here," Saban said. "This was another one."
Still, the Tide have won five straight against Ole Miss since losing two in a row in 2014 and 2015, scoring at least 48 points in each game and reaching 60 three times.