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The Bryant-Denny Stadium scorecard on Saturday night said Alabama was playing Southern Miss, but the job Tide put into a 63-14 win was basically getting ready for Ole Miss.
Commanded by Lane Kiffin and the current Heisman Trophy favorite at Matt Corral, the Rebels lay inactive this weekend with the nation’s highest-ranked offense in yards per game (635.3) and tied for points by match (52.7).
The offense that slashed Alabama for a school-record 647 yards last October could pose the biggest threat of the season for the tide once again sweeping the SEC West, which made for a non-conference reprieve against the Golden Eagles a major workout for a defense faltered a week earlier by Florida.
“Look, I don’t think the defense played very well the last 40 minutes of the game last week. I think the guys are frustrated. I think they let the momentum of the game get to them a bit, ”said Saban.
“I think the thing we did today was we kept our cool, we just kept playing the next piece. … We played better.
Statistically, one of FBS’s worst offenses in the Southern Miss was averaging 213 yards, averaging 3.7 per play and just 2.5 per carry. A week earlier, the Gators had 440 total yards, including 5.7 per carry – the highest against the Tide since Ohio State in the 2015 Sugar Bowl.
Alabama’s defense got the job done against a lesser opponent, but they haven’t ignored what lies beyond the 24 hours of their victory over Southern Miss.
“I think there are opportunities that we left on the field, some things we could have done better,” said linebacker Christian Harris. “But we’re just going to go back to the movie, I guess, and fix whatever we messed up this game.”
“I think we’ve improved a bit from last week, but I think we’ve left a few opportunities on the pitch again, so we just need to get ready for next week.”
One area that angered Saban when he gave his halftime interview was third downs, particularly a third and 13 which the Golden Eagles converted on a 19-yard gain in the second quarter. The next play, Chandler Pittman of Southern Miss missed safety DeMarcco Hellams for a 14-yard touchdown.
The visitors finished 5 of 15 in the third downs, something Saban spoke about again after the game. Ole Miss converted 9 of 17 third downs in last season’s meeting at Oxford and was 4 of 4 in fourth downs.
When second-year outside linebacker Will Anderson called the narrow win over Florida an “eye opener” for defense and said they had to play by “Alabama standard,” the goal didn’t clearly was not to accomplish this against Southern Miss but Ole Miss and the SEC opponents beyond.
“I feel like we’ve taken some steps in the right direction to get closer to the Alabama standard,” said Hellams, who captured his first career interception in the first quarter on Saturday. “But there is room to improve.
“As far as Ole Miss is concerned, we’ll be enjoying this one for 24 hours. They have a great attack, great coaches. Monday we will get back to work to prepare them.
Mike Rodak is an Alabama beat reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on twitter @mikerodak.
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