I've been saying it for several weeks: Alabama needs to be challenged in a football game. Now, however, I'm starting to wonder whether there is a team in the SEC that is up to the task.
In the run up to this week's homecoming game, I thought that Mississippi State was just such a team. The Bulldogs were 7-0 for only the second time in school history. Their quarterback was playing at a very high level. The State defense had proved itself to be tough and physical. They had a punishing running game. State had the motivation and appeared to have the talent to give Alabama its toughest test of the 2012 season.
Appearances can be deceiving. It turns out that Alabama was MSU's toughest test of the season and the Dogs failed it.
For the eighth game in a row, Alabama scored at least 30 points. Tide runners gained 179 yards rushing while the Bama defense held State to only 47. Alabama scored a touchdown on each of its first three possessions of the game. State opened with a blocked field goal, followed by six consecutive punts, an interception and back-to-back fumbles before finally cracking the scoreboard against Alabama's backup players.
What accounts for this? Recruiting certainly, but also relentless coaching. Nick Saban was asked about why he got upset with the reserve defensive players at the end of the game: "I got upset with our backup players because they can play better than that." It has become a cliche to say that Nick Saban never stops coaching. Cliches become cliches because they are true. In the case of the Alabama football program, the truth of that particular cliche extends to every member of the coaching staff.
Here's how I grade the game:
Offense: A No + for the offense this week because of two periods of lackluster play. The first came in the second quarter with the score 21-0. Having scored on each of its first three possessions, the Tide offense went three-and-out on its next three. The second lull came in the third period which has been a chronic feature this season.
Alabama earned 22 first downs [13 rushing] but converted only 4 of 11 possession downs. Nevertheless, the Tide gained 414 total offensive yards and held the ball for 34:14 of game time. TJ Yeldon gained 84 yards rushing and scored a rushing touchdown. Kenyan Drake scored a touchdown while accumulating 47 yards on 8 carries. Eddie Lacy added 20 yards on 10 carries, but he demonstrated once again what a tough determined runner he has become.
AJ completed 16 of 23 pass attempts without an interception and completed TD passes to Michael Williams and Kenny Bell. Phil Ely completed his lone pass attempt to Eddie Lacy who actually caught the pass twice before securing the ball, turning up field and racing into the end zone for a 27 yard touchdown making the score at that point 31-0.
AJ continues his streak of consecutive pass attempts without an interception [262] and he now has 37 career touchdown passes which is good for 4th place all time in Alabama history behind JP Wilson [47], Brodie Croyle [44] and GMac [39]. With four games remaining this season, including the finale against Auburn which surrendered 63 points to Texas A&M last night, he is poised to eclipse these records. Having thrown 18 TD passes through 8 games, AJ is also likely to surpass GMac's season record of 20 TD passes.
Michael Williams caught 5 passes for 38 yards and a TD. Lacy gained 51 yards on 4 receptions. Amari Cooper caught 4 passes for 47 yards. Kenny Bell caught only a single pass, but what a catch it was! AJ found Bell on a deep crossing route and threw a perfect pass. Bell made the catch in stride and outran the State corner to score Alabama's second TD. A total of 7 different receivers caught passes in the game.
The offense generated four drives in excess of 40 yards [59, 80, 73, 43] and each resulted in a touchdown. Bama was perfect in the MSU red zone, converting its four trips inside the State 20 into 3 TDs and a FG.
Defense: A+ The State offense was held to 256 yards of total offense [47 rushing] and 16 first downs [3 rushing]. Tyler Russell, the Dogs' very fine QB completed only 15 of 30 pass attempts and was intercepted in the end zone [Robert Lester]. That pick off ended State's best offensive drive of the night, a 16 play drive that gained 97 yards and consumed 8:23 of the clock. Russell was under pressure all night long. The stat sheet records 10 QB hurries, and most of them ended with a clean but hard knockdown. When he was able to actually throw the ball, 5 of his passes were broken up.
Vinnie Sunseri is making the case for being Alabama's most valuable member of the defensive secondary. Last night he recorded 8 tackles [7 solo]. CJ Mosley made 7 tackles [4 solo] and Nick Perry recorded 5 stops [4 solo].
Special Teams:
Place Kicking: A+ Jeremy Shelley was good from 34 and perfect on PATs, but the + was earned by the PK-Defense which blocked State's attempt [Dee Milliner] on its opening drive.
Punting: A+ Cody Mandell is going to have to finish his Econ homework today, because he didn't have a chance to do it last night in the second and third quarters. He punted 5 times for an average of 42.2 yards per punt. He nailed 3 inside the State 20 [2 inside the 10] and came within a whisker of knocking State dead at the one foot line. Two of his punts carried for more than 50 yards, and one was fair caught. The coverage unit made a heads up play to recover a punt that bounced off the back of a State blocker [Robert Lester is credited with the recovery].
Kickoffs: A Cade Foster continues to execute what I can only guess is an intentional strategy of kicking short enough to bait the opposition into returning the kick. I don't particularly like this strategy. It seems to me that it may yield high rewards [and certainly did last night with a recovery by Landon Collins of a fumble forced by Christion Jones] but it brings with it high risks of big returns, such as the returns of 33, 37 and 39 yards made by State last night.
Coaching: A Fifty five players are listed in the participation report. AJ and the entire starting offensive line came out of the game in the 4th quarter. Alabama gained 494 all purpose yards and was penalized 7 times for 63 yards.
Yesterday, Ole Miss came back to beat Arkansas in the fourth quarter; perhaps derailing John L. Smith's chances of being named the next head coach at Auburn. Speaking of Auburn, I've been wondering if the Tigers-War Eagles-Plainsmen-What Evers actually practiced during the off-season. After yesterday's shellacking by the Aggies [63-21; 674 total yards, 352 rushing yards] I'm starting to wonder if they practiced following last week's game at Vanderbilt. The only thing hanging from the Toomer's Corner trees these days are effigies of the coaching staff. Toilet paper is in abundant supply in all Lee County grocery stores and big-box retailers.
The NCAA ought to implement a lot of reforms, but one of the most urgently needed one is to restore the "Cocktail" to the "Party" for the name of the UGA-Florida game. Those two teams really needed to get together socially and have a beer or two. The level of hatred between the Dawgs and Lizards is really out of hand. True enough, the Dawgs upsetting the Lizards is a good story, but my goodness, did you watch that game? You don't see that many combined penalties in games played in prison leagues. The ref had to signal "unsportsmanlike conduct" so often that he's getting a cortisone shot in his rotator cuff to reduce the swelling.
Tennessee played its best game of the Derek Dooley era yesterday against USCe. Late in the game, trailing by only 3 points, the Vols were driving and made it into the Chickens' red zone when Jadeveon Clowney separated Tyler Bray from the football. The Birds recovered the fumble. Whether Tennessee can recover from the loss and win out against much easier competition in November remains to be seen.
The search for a significant challenge for Alabama is over. LSU and Texas A&M await the Tide over the next two Saturdays. This time next week, we will have a pretty good idea about the answer to the question I posed at the beginning of this week's edition of The Grades: Can anybody in the SEC really provide a significant challenge to the 2012 Crimson Tide?
Jeremy Shelley wears the number 5 jersey as a reminder of his break out performance last January in the BCS Championship Game. I don't believe that this year's team is going to need a repeat performance.
The Million Dollar Band will make the trip to Baton Rouge. For those of you who may be joining them, remember, as originally written, the first words of the "Rammer Jammer" are "Hey, Tigers ..."
The Commissioner
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