Alabama kept its perfect season intact and broke an annoying skid by narrowly defeating Ole Miss on Saturday, 48-43.

For Ole Miss, it was a painful case of déjà vu because Alabama overcame a significant first-half deficit to defeat the Rebels, who were defeated by Florida State earlier this season in a similar fashion.

Heading into the game, head coach Nick Saban said he wanted to avoid the big emotions of this being a so-called “revenge” game. Saban wanted to focus on execution and “want-to” because these traits last much longer than the emotions of a game. Yet there was Saban trying to explain in a television interview before halftime that mental errors were the main source of his team’s struggles.

Indeed, Saban was correct. In the first half alone, left tackle Cam Robinson had two false starts. Alphonse Taylor and Jonah Williams both had a false start penalty as well. On one particular drive, Williams and Robinson both had a false start. Those penalties hurt Alabama as the team ended up with a missed field goal and no points on a once-promising drive.

On the other side of the ball, the Alabama secondary seemed to struggle with communication problems. Ole Miss pushed its lead to 17-3 because Evan Engram was left wide open, resulting in a 63-yard touchdown reception. Alabama allowed several other big-play passes in the first half, too.

On the whole, the secondary communicated and played better in the second half. Some of the unit’s breakdowns in the latter half occurred late in the game because Eddie Jackson and Minkah Fitzpatrick were both forced to leave with undisclosed ailments. Fitzpatrick appeared to suffer a blow to the head.

Alabama won this game due to a number of reasons, but the three primary factors were the offensive line, defensive line and turnovers. Alabama gave up five turnovers, while this season the team ended up creating two turnovers and allowing one to end up plus one in that department.

In the third quarter, linebacker Ryan Anderson was able to rush Chad Kelly because Ole Miss had to double team members of the Alabama defensive line. After Anderson knocked the ball loose, defensive lineman Da’Ron Payne picked it up and reached for the end zone for a 3-yard touchdown that tied the game 24-24.

Later, Jonathan Allen moved as fast as his near-300-pound frame would allow him on a 75-yard interception return for a touchdown. These are two specific instances, but the bottom line is: the defensive line created much more pressure in the second half, which created turnovers.

The offensive line helped Alabama put together sustained, meaningful drives. Curiously, B.J. Emmons didn’t receive any carries, but he really didn’t need to do so. Damien Harris finished the game with 144 yards rushing, quarterback Jalen Hurts was actually the team’s leading rusher with 146 yards rushing, Joshua Jacobs had a promising 25-yard carry, and despite not looking great in the stat box, Bo Scarbrough had a few solid runs during the second half.

The offensive line deserves a fair amount of the credit, while also buying Hurts more time in the pocket to throw the ball during the second half.

On the one hand, the game may have exposed Alabama’s greatest weakness, the secondary, and on the other hand, the game showed great improvement in other areas. Up until this week, Alabama’s offensive line had the greatest struggles among the different units. However, it seems Saban found the right combination by shifting Ross Pierschbacher to left guard and inserting Alphonse Taylor into the right guard spot.

However, the secondary was gashed for 421 yards with 3 TDs against Ole Miss and admittedly, the Rebels have the best quarterback in the SEC in Kelly to go with a tight end and three receivers who are big, physical and talented. LSU poses a challenge, but an entirely different challenge (strong defense, physical running back, two great receivers) from that of Ole Miss.

For whatever shortcomings this game may have shown, Alabama emerged victorious, erasing the bitter taste of defeat from the past two seasons at the hands of the Rebels with one ugly, but hard-fought win.