TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Although one could make the case that University of Alabama freshman punter JK Scott may have been the most valuable player on the field, and Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen did, Saturday night’s 25-20 victory will largely be remembered as being led by the Crimson Tide defense.
Not only did it score the first points of the game with a safety, which also helped lead to a field goal on the subsequent offensive possession, but picked off three Dak Prescott passes.
“The defense really played a great game,” junior center Ryan Kelly said.
The most misleading statistic afterward was Mississippi State being credited for scoring on 4 of 6 possessions inside the red zone, but that’s also where the Bulldogs lost the game.
- Down 19-0, the MSU finally got the offense moving just before halftime and drove down to the Alabama 5, but had to settle for a 23-yard field goal. “Three instead of six is always the best option,” junior cornerback Cyrus Jones said.
- On its first possession of the second half, MSU drove down to the Alabama 14, this time kicking a 32-yard yard field goal. “We had a couple of those early in the game too, when we missed a field goal that would have put us at 22, which would have made it a three-score game at the time,” Saban said. “Playing in the red era is critical, getting turnovers is critical. I those two things were probably the difference in the game for us in terms of stopping them, stopping their offense.”
- Late in the third quarter, the Bulldogs had second-and-11 following a busted reverse when Prescott looked to the end zone and Jones made his second interception of the season. “We squandered a lot of points,” Prescott said. “We lost focus out in the game. You have to win in the red zone, but we squandered our chances.”
- After finally reaching the end zone on a 4-yard slant to Fred Ross, and Alabama answered with its own touchdown, Prescott had another pass picked off in the red zone. This time sophomore defensive lineman A’Shawn Robinson got his hand up for a deflection which safety Landon Collins was able to snare. “Confusing the quarterback, showing different coverages, showing different techniques as we’re playing, just to get him confused so we could get him making bad decisions and bad throws like we did today,” Collins said were the keys.
- MSU scored again, but with just 15 seconds remaining on the clock it would have needed to recover an onside kick and score from midfield to win the game. “It was very disappointing,” Prescott added.
Christopher Walsh has covered Alabama football since 2004 and is the author of 19 books. In his free time, he writes about college football.
