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Mississippi State visits Bryant-Denny Stadium to take on Alabama this weekend in what will go down as the most important game on the SEC slate this year. The teams ranked Nos. 1 and 5, respectively, in the College Football Playoff committee’s eyes will square off for SEC West supremacy. Alabama is favored by the oddsmakers, but they’ll be hard-pressed to come out with a win unless they’ve done some housekeeping this week.
Alabama escaped Tiger Stadium with their playoff chances intact, but it was a messy game. Alabama had trouble mustering anything on offense for the majority of the game, while a series of LSU drops aided the defense. It wasn’t until the last 50 seconds of the game that Alabama looked like the offensive juggernaut they’ve been for much of the season.
The Bulldogs are quite different than LSU, and present a host of different challenges. They have a far more complete offense than the Tigers, and a defense that has opposite strengths and weaknesses compared to the Tigers.
What can Alabama improve to increase their chances of victory? Here are two crucial keys to the game.
OFFENSIVE BALANCE
Alabama’s game plan was out of whack against LSU. The Tigers have struggled to stop the run for long stretches this year, yet Alabama came out throwing the ball a ton. Blake Sims ended up with 45 pass attempts against one of the stingiest pass defenses in the nation, while the Tide ran it just 29 times.
Alabama has been most effective when they’ve been able to balance out the offense, but it’ll be tempting for Lane Kiffin to let it rip through the air against Mississippi State, which has struggling secondary and a strong run defense. Sims and Amari Cooper will get theirs, but Alabama is going to have to demonstrate they’re willing to hand the ball to T.J. Yeldon (if healthy) and Derrick Sims to keep State from dropping everyone into coverage.
CONTAIN PRESCOTT
This is more of a macro issue that goes back several years. Alabama has lost four games since the start of the 2012 season, and all four have been at the hands of quarterbacks who could at very least move the chains with their feet. No one is likely to forget Johnny Manziel’s 2012 performance in Tuscaloosa. Last year, Auburn’s Nick Marshall found Sammie Coates for a game-tying touchdown late after creating space with his legs, then Oklahoma’s Trevor Knight hit on two touchdowns out of zone-read passes in the bowl game.
Dak Prescott is having one of the best dual-threat quarterback seasons in recent history, and he’ll stretch Alabama’s defense to its breaking point. If the Crimson Tide can keep him in the pocket and hit him often enough to make him think twice about pulling the ball and running with it, the Bulldogs offense becomes much less potent.
A former freelance journalist from Philadelphia, Brett has made the trek down to SEC country to cover the greatest conference in college football.
