That score against Memphis was deceiving in a couple of ways. On the one hand, it was 7-3 in the 4th quarter and the Tigers D just finally ran out of gas. Memphis' O never had a drive over 2 minutes, which kept the D on the field the entire game. The Rebel O tacked on 14 points in the final nine minutes of the game against a D that was obviously just worn completely out. Bama's D will NOT get worn completely out by the 4th quarter. Big difference in talent and depth between Memphis and Bama.
On the other hand, it looked like it could have been 24-3 in the first half if not for turnovers, mistakes and just poor decisions by Ole Miss. But it wasn't . . .
Taking out the 4th quarter stats -- since Memphis was obviously gassed in the 4th --- through 3 quarters Ole Miss ran the ball 31 times for 108 yards (3.5 ypc). They threw the ball 31 times, completing 18 for 204 yards, with an INT and a TD. An average of 11.3 ypc. I think it stands to reason that Bama's D is eons better than Memphis' D.
I'm quite sure that we'll get a much more focused Ole Miss team this week than Memphis got last week; but make no mistake . . . there are a lot of connections between Memphis and Ole Miss (proximity of schools, many Rebel alumni in Memphis, Freeze coached HS ball in Memphis and applied, but did not get an interview for the Tiger Football job previously). Ole Miss has always taken great pride in rubbing "Tiger High's" face in the dirt. They struggled to do that. Period.
I think our D line will be able to affect this game. Wallace is not exactly cool as a cucumber under pressure. And Memphis proved that the Rebels are struggling on offense.
