Alabama rolled into Starkville as a narrow favorite, but jumped all over Mississippi State before coasting to a 56-23 victory.
Nobody could accuse the Tide of starting slow in this one. They were gifted a fumble on Mississippi State’s first possession as Kamario Taylor dropped the football while trying to pull it down. The offense promptly ran the ball down the Bulldogs’ throats before Keelon Russell found Ryan Coleman-Williams for a 15 yard score. On the next possession, much maligned Dijon Lee Jr. jumped a route for a pick six, and Alabama was off to a 14-0 lead.
Kamario Taylor is too good to keep down. He engineered a long drive to get Mississippi State into the end zone to pull within seven at the end of the first quarter, and both teams got quite sloppy with the football in the second. It felt as though the Bulldogs had no answers for the Alabama offense, but the Tide made things hard on themselves with penalties and turnovers. On one sequence, Lee muffed a punt, then Zabien Brown executed a “Peanut punch” to get the ball back, only for Daniel Hill to “fumble” it right back to Mississippi State on a play where the side of his leg looked to be down while the ball was still tucked.
Headed into the half it was 28-17 Alabama. The Tide got the ball first in the third quarter and marched down the field, culminating in a 13-yard strike from Russell to Rico Scott. It was over at that point for all intents and purposes. Taylor was able to exploit one matchup for an explosive TD pass to Anthony Evans, but it was rather meaningless in context. Taylor left the game with about ten minutes to play as both coaches put in the backups.
Russell put up Tua/Mac numbers again at 12.95 per passing attempt, ending with 285 yards on 73% completions and three TDs. He added a rushing TD for good measure. Trae’shawn Brown seems to have earned the coaches’ trust, as his 14 carries were nine more than Hill got. EJ Crowell got into the game late and did this.
Defensively, Xavier Griffin continues to turn heads any time he gets on the field. That dude looks like the next great Alabama linebacker. Caleb Woodson continues to be all over the field as well. Lee had an up and down game, but despite the muff looks quite explosive as a return man. The defense was able to sack Taylor five times and force multiple turnovers while completely shutting down the Bulldogs’ run game.
Best of all they seem to have emerged healthy.
Being the early game there is plenty of ball on the rest of the day for you. Schedule courtesy of CFBGrid.com.
Roll Tide.
