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Crimson Tide Dominated Mississippi State
Wins 31-6
Paul Finebaum, just minutes after the end of the game, tweeted, "Just another dominating performance by Alabama. This is a team on a national title mission.
The second-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide took the 17th-ranked Mississippi State Bulldogs to the woodshed this afternoon 31-6. The Tide blew the eight-point spread out of the water.
The Crimson Tide had a 21-3 lead on Mississippi State by the time the half ended. Those Bama points were due to six first-half sacks, a score by special teams on a punt return and a pair of third-and-long plays that turned into scores.
Alabama opened the game with a great defensive stand, and set the tone for most of the game. Mississippi State started on their own 25-yard line following downing the ball in the endzone. On the first play of the game A'Shawn Robinson broke through to sack quarterback Dak Prescott for a seven-yard loss. That was the first of nine sacks on the night for Bama. That was immediately followed by a Prescott 16-yard pickup, but then Jonathan Allen bulled through for another sack. Prescott again tried on 2nd and 18 for nothing, and the same for 3rd and 18...a big goose egg.
Running back Derrick Henry was once again the beast we knew him to be. Henry recorded his seventh 100-plus yard game of the season, and third 200-plus yard game. He also extended his consecutive games with a rushing touchdown to 15, giving him the sole lead, and the most in the past 10 years. He has 19 rushing touchdowns on the season.
With such a convincing win one would think Alabama led in stats as well as the scoreboard, but that was not to be. Alabama was out-gained 393 yards to 379. The Bulldogs led in first downs with 20 as compared to 13 for the Crimson Tide.
Alabama's senior quarterback Jake Coker finished the game with 144 passing yards, one touchdown, as well as one interception. He was 15 of 25 passing. Wide receiver Calvin Ridley led the team in receptions with five for 76 yards and a touchdown.
The Crimson Tide defense did its job. Prescott was sacked nine times, threw his second interception of the season and was sacked nine times. He had only 14 rushing yards, and was 22 of 43 passing with a 51.2 percent average in completions. The State offense was only able to muster a total of 89 rushing yards.
Leading the defense today was linebacker Reuben Foster with 10 tackles, including a pair of pass breakups and two quarterback hurries. He was followed by linebacker Reggie Ragland with eight tackles. Leading in the sack department was Jonathan Allen with three, followed by A'Shawn Robinson with 2.5, Ryan Anderson with two and Tim Williams with 1.5. Leading the Alabama secondary with tackles was safety Eddie Jackson.
The Alabama captains for today's game were senior Ryan Kelly and Denzel Devall, as well as junior A'Shawn Robinson.
Attendance for the game today was 62,435 which is the second-largest crowd for this stadium.
Alabama's head coach Nick Saban reached the century mark in wins at Alabama. His record is 100-17 as the Crimson Tide head coach.
Graphics Credit: RollTide.com
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Southeastern Conference Football Scores
Florida 24 South Carolina 14
Georgia 20 Auburn 13
Tennessee 24 North Texas 0
