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The Alabama No.1 limited No.12 Ole Miss’s top-flight offense to just 291 yards in a 42-21 loss to the Rebels on Saturday, which showed just how hard Crimson’s push was Tide for a repeat of the national title will feature a lot of defense. When those teams met last season, Alabama beat Ole Miss 63-48 on their way to a 13-0 season, but Saturday demonstrated just how much the Tide has improved defensively since that high affair. score.
Tide’s defense limited the Rebels to just 78 rushing yards (2.3 per attempt) while dominating forward on both sides of the ball. Fifth-year senior running back Brian Robinson Jr. led his team with a career-high four touchdowns and 171 rushing yards as he passed the 100-yard mark for the first time in his career. Alabama took the lead in the first half, denying Ole Miss on a trio of fourth-place conversion attempts and forcing a fumble that led to a touchdown.
From there, Alabama never looked back as they opened up a 35-0 lead in the opening minutes of the third quarter. The win takes Alabama to 5-0 before a road showdown at No.15 Texas A&M next week. Ole Miss will return home to welcome Arkansas.
Saban improved to 24-0 against his former assistants as Ole coach Miss Kiffin fell to 0-2 against her former boss since taking over from the Rebels. Kiffin told CBS Sports reporter Jamie Erdahl ahead of the game, “Here we go, so get your popcorn ready.” But in the end, his offense, which went on to lead the country with an average of 635.5 yards per game, was limited to less than half that total on an afternoon of humility at Bryant Stadium. -Denny.
1. Alabama owns the trenches
Alabama hold an advantage on the offensive and defensive lines against almost any team they play due to their recruiting and development of top-notch players. But this advantage is not always as obvious as it seemed to be on Saturday. After moving football well in her first practice, Ole Miss struggled to find any semblance of a balance between passing and passing for the remainder of the first half. The problem was the push generated by the Alabama defensive line, which battered the Ole Miss front and kept their attack one-dimensional. Kiffin often struggles with the narrative that the Ole Miss offense is just a passing attack, suggesting that establishing the run is essential to their plan. Alabama stopped them from doing just that on Saturday because it was the strongest and most physical team.
2. “Be false benchmarks”
Despite its struggles on the ground, the Rebels were able to move the ball round. However, they made too many mistakes for a team living with a slim margin of error on the road against a top team. While it’s hard to fault Kiffin for risking him on fourth downs, he should never have been forced to attempt so many conversions in fourth place in the first place. In their first practice, a pair of penalties put the Rebels behind the sticks and nullified a Corral completion at Dontario Drummond that would have given Ole Miss a first down on the Alabama 11-yard line. The Rebels came in tied for 117th nationally on Saturday with 30 penalties, though they only played three games. Against the tide, they were penalized eight times. The other game-changing error came when Alabama defensive end Phidarian Mathis forced a fumble from Corral, which Justin Eboigbe recovered at Ole Miss’s 14-yard line with 2:39 to play in the first half. Alabama then quickly scored to take a 28-0 halftime lead.
3. Alabama is certified elite
Alabama’s narrow 31-29 victory over Florida two weeks ago suggested this Crimson Tide team may be vulnerable by the standards of a much-vaunted program. With college football enjoying an increase in parity early in the season, it seemed plausible that this group might just be great but not really elite. Saturday’s result suggested otherwise. In the wake of Georgia’s dominant 37-0 win over No.8 Arkansas, the Crimson Tide deployed an equally authoritarian effort against a quality foe and showed why they still belong to No.1 in the polls. With Oregon’s No.3 battling Stanford on Saturday, it seems clear that there are only two elite teams in college football, and Alabama is one of them.
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