Blog: Latest Bama News 11/16/14

kyallie

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Report Card: Alabama controls game in win over Miss. St.-sds

Here are a couple of grades following No. 5 Alabama’s 25-20 win over No. 1 Mississippi State:

OFFENSE: B

It was the performance we’ve come to expect on some level from Alabama. The Crimson Tide gained 335 total yards of offense behind a pretty strong performance from Blake Sims. Sims finished 19 of 31 for 211 yards and a score. Sims, T.J. Yeldon and Derrick Henry combined for 124 rushing yards against an active Mississippi State front seven. Alabama struggled on third downs for most of the afternoon, converting on just five of 15 third down chances.

DEFENSE: A+

The Crimson Tide used a lock down effort to shut down Mississippi State’s vaunted offense led by Dak Prescott. Alabama was able to get home and create pressure on Prescott with just its front four, often forcing him into quick decisions. We knew the strength of the Tide’s defense was between the tackles, but Mississippi State had little to no success on the perimeter of the field. Alabama got off the field on third downs and forced three turnovers, all Prescott interceptions.

SPECIAL TEAMS: A

Christion Jones had a some good kick returns, and Adam Griffith made one of his two field goal attempts. However, the day belonged to punter J.K. Scott, who pinned Mississippi State with horrible field position all afternoon. Scott averaged nearly 46 yards per kick, and had five punts inside the Bulldogs’ 20-yard line.

COACHING: A

There were no major concerns from the Alabama coaching staff on Saturday afternoon. Both Kirby Smart and Lane Kiffin had good game plans for attacking the Bulldogs. Nick Saban continues to have his team prepared in big games, now 4-1 against AP No. 1 teams at Alabama.

OVERALL: A

Alabama took care of business on Saturday afternoon and looked like the better team in doing so. The Crimson Tide looked more confident and more experienced, and made Mississippi State very uncomfortable inside Bryant-Denny Stadium. Alabama now has a virtual bye week with Western Carolina coming to town next week.
 

kyallie

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Bulldogs earned respect, but Crimson Tide took home the W-sds
One team was looking for respect, while the other was focused on the win. The strange this is, both may have gotten exactly that.
When the University of Alabama football team hosted No. 1 Mississippi State on Saturday night, it was one of those games in which none of the numbers mattered except for the final 25-20 score.
Granted, the Bulldogs made a game of it, and actually outgained the Crimson Tide 428-335, but never had the lead while squandering opportunity after opportunity.
MSU quarterback Dak Prescott accounted for 370 total yards, 290 passing and 82 rushing, but probably lost any chance of wining the Heisman Trophy.
Why? Because he hardly had any big plays, averaged 3.7 yards per carry and his longest completion being just 30 yards. Heisman winners have signature performance and play well in big games. They don’t have three interceptions, including two in the red zone.
What’s more, you can’t have turnovers and expect to beat Alabama, ask both Tim Tebow and Johnny Manziel. The first time both faced the Crimson Tide, and won, they had no turnovers. The second time they did, and lost.
Those were against different Crimson Tide defenses, but there’s a reason why Alabama is 17-5 against top-10 opponents under Nick Saban.
“Our guys want to be the best,” senior quarterback Blake Sims said. “They fought hard and played great.”
Although No. 5 Alabama had to deal with the LSU hangover – which is a very real thing — and saw the streak of failing to score a first-quarter touchdown against the subsequent opponent reach 13 years, the Crimson Tide still treated the first quarter like it was a street fight.
Make that a street fight in which Alabama had a 2×4 and wasn’t afraid to swing.
Punter JK Scott pinned the Bulldogs down at the own 5 and BAM, Trey DePriest and Dalvin Tomlinson dropped Josh Robinson in the end zone for a safety.
Senior safety Nick Perry notched his first interception of the season and BAM, Lane Kiffin dialed up fullback Jalston Fowler with a pass over the middle for 35 yards to set up an Amari Cooper touchdown when State tried to over him one-on-one at the 4.
The Bulldogs went three-and-out for the fourth time and BAM, Sims threw deep to Cooper for a 50-yard reception with running back Derrick Henry getting into the end zone for a 1-yard touchdown before losing the ball.
The No. 1 team in the nation was down 19-0 at that point, with 5:32 until halftime, and Prescott had done nothing.

“We had to make him pay every time he ran the ball,” defensive end Jonathan Allen. “As a whole unit I thought we completed our goal.”
Then when push came to shove in the second half, and Mississippi State was moving the ball against a tired Alabama defense, Sims led the crucial touchdown drive that held up. Twice on third-and-long he ran for a first down, with running back T.J. Yeldon capping the 15-play drive with a 7-yard touchdown run.
“It was one of the greatest drives in Alabama history, probably,” said Saban, who had heard for weeks that the Crimson Tide didn’t have a big win this season.
But there’s a difference between rising to No. 1 and playing championship football. Alabama understood that and Mississippi State got a valuable lesson in it.
Championship football doesn’t include two turnovers in the red zone, taking a safety on a second-down carry at the 5, or settling for field goals when desperately trying to turn the momentum.
It’s making key third-down plays and knowing that at a certain point the clock may be more important than yards or points. It’s about finding a way to win.
Despite the loss and Prescott saying: “Yeah, we had them,” Mississippi State likely got the respect it craved. When the next rankings come out Tuesday it could very easily still be in the top four, and a win over Ole Miss in two weeks would go a long way in securing a playoff spot.
Meanwhile, Alabama is right where it wants to be, with its SEC West and national championship destiny in its own hands, while knowing that any sort of a slip up might mean a bowl game instead of the semifinals.
“It’s a big win,” Cooper said. “We have play each and every game like it’s a playoff.”
Should it win out, Alabama (9-1, 6-1 SEC) could be the host team at the Sugar Bowl for the semifinals – easy driving distance for fans. Don’t be surprised, though, if the opponent ends up being Mississippi State (9-1, 5-1).
 
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kyallie

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Red zone was where Crimson Tide won and Bulldogs lost the game-sds


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.
 

kyallie

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After facing LSU-MSU, Alabama to take extra rest — especially Yeldon-sds



University of Alabama coach Nick Saban usually gives the team an extra day off every six weeks, but after visiting LSU and hosting No. 1 Mississippi State on back-to-back Saturdays he’s making an exception. Following the 25-20 victory over the Bulldogs the coach announced that the players will not practice Monday. Alabama hosts Western Carolina (7-3) of the Football Championship Subdivision next Saturday, followed by rival Auburn.
Junior running back T.J. Yeldon might get more time than that off after having 16 carries for 72 yards and making two receptions.
“I thought he played well in the game,” Saban said. “He probably wasn’t as explosive as normal. The guy’s a true warrior in terms of there was no way you were going to keep him out of the game. He wanted to play and hopefully we’ll be able to get him healed up and he’ll be better here down the stretch here if we can get him a little time off.”
Yeldon had been considered a game-time decision after sustaining foot/ankle injuries against both Tennessee and LSU. He warmed up for Mississippi State and essentially started, although wide receiver Amari Cooper was in the backfield for the first offensive snap.
“Just great,” junior center Ryan Kelly. “Any time you see No. 4 in the backfield it’s awesome for an offensive lineman.”
Alabama had 32 carries for 124 rushing yards on Saturday, the third-lowest output of the season. The last two weeks the Crimson Tide has averaged 3.78 yards per attempt.
“I think it’s the key,” Saban said about getting the offense more consistent before the postseason. When we can run the ball it makes a high difference.”
Saban didn’t update the status of junior linebacker Dillon Lee, who had to be helped off the field late in the game. Senior wide receiver DeAndrew White missed part of the second half with a hamstring injury, but did return and came up with the ball on the onside kick.
 

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