Alabama tops Mississippi State 31

“That’s the kind of back that he is”. “Once he gets rolling, he’s fast”. “I think they did that pretty well tonight”. This performance came one week after the season’s signature defensive performance when Alabama put a speedbump in Leonard Fournette ” s Heisman Trophy joyride by holding him to 31 yards on 19 carries. The Bulldogs quarterback has 418 rushing yards this season and has scored seven touchdowns on the ground. “You’ve got to play to a high level all the time”. “We’ve got to continue to improve”.

You can check Crimson Conclusions later on today for more stats from each individual player. But Cyrus Jones’ 69-yard touchdown on a punt return – when he reversed field and broke a few Mississippi State arm tackles – broke a scoreless tie and jolted the Tide awake for two more big plays before halftime.

Henry couldn’t find daylight and was bottled up for 13 yards in the first quarter, reduced to being a decoy, whether that meant faking receiving a handoff on a play-action pass or serving as a lead blocker.

“Everybody just got on their man and I just tried to make a play”, Jones said. “I wanted to do my job”. With 300 yards through the air, the Bulldogs’ signal caller finished with a rather impressive stat line. Sophomore quarterback Treon Harris passed for 256 yards and one touchdown while being intercepted twice and junior running back Kelvin Taylor rushed for 105 yards and one touchdown.

Mullen said his team played “fantastic” defense for most of the night, but was undone by Alabama’s ability to make big plays. We’re going to see Alabama in that big spot against Ohio State or whoever else again on New Year’s Eve, and Henry will be leading from the front. I’m proud of our team. By the time he got temporarily untracked in the final four minutes of the first half, Arkansas led 21-0.

Arkansas (5-4, 3-2) at LSU (7-1, 4-1), 7:15 p.m. (ESPN): The two teams play in the “Battle for The Boot”, a 24K gold trophy awarded to the victor since 1996.

Alabama sacked Prescott six times in the first half.

“We thought the one thing that might be in our favor in this game was our defensive line against their offensive line”, Saban said. Sometimes when you rush, you distort the coverage more than when you try to hold them up (for a return), because when you try to hold them up they read you and they all just take off running. They key to dismantling Prescott will be to stifle the run game in order to pressure Prescott into making poor decisions.

Adam Griffith added three points with a 42-yard field goal in the third quarter. Graves drilled a 39-yard field goal to cut it to 24-6 in the third.

Henry started slow, but then he had runs of 74 and 65 yards both for touchdowns.

Alabama does not have time to celebrate the win over LSU or ready their own press regarding the dominance of the defense because Mississippi State awaits sitting at No.17. They can not afford the same thing against Mississippi State who have the right amount of talent to upset the Tide and break a losing streak against their conference opponent.