Alabama vs. Mississippi State: Inside The Stats

The Alabama Crimson Tide can not afford to let up. Neither did the visiting fans. The ones sitting by the south end zone at Davis Wade Stadium started chanting “Heis-man, Heis-man” as Henry casually walked off the field.

Henry came up big when the team needed him the most. He ended the day with over 200 yards rushing and two touchdowns. It averaged just 14.25 yards on four returns.

“I think in a close game, it’s always turnovers and explosive plays that usually have a huge impact”, Tide coach Nick Saban said Monday. We dropped about four and five balls on a few of those plays. “We get our team back on track and looking forward to hosting Arkansas this coming Saturday”.

Henry’s second scoring run – a 65-yarder – pushed the Tide’s lead to 31-6 midway through the fourth quarter. But after mustering only 13 yards on five carries in the first quarter, Alabama’s junior running back found daylight against Mississippi State, bursting through the hole and outracing the defense for a 74-yard touchdown. The Cougars, though, had a touchdown taken off the board at the 10:06 mark of the fourth when tight end Tyler McCloskey was ruled an ineligible receiver downfield after hauling in an apparent Postma touchdown pass. They would later turn the ball over on downs.

Alabama’s tough defense against the Bulldogs explosive offense.

Dak Prescott was 23-of-44 for 303 yards for the Bulldogs (7-3, 3-3).

“They didn’t want to sit and play safe defense”, senior center Ryan Kelly said. Prior to the contest, the quarterback had never been sacked more than three times in a single game for his career. Only moments before that run, the CBS team of Verne Lundquist and Gary Danielson, who seem to have become nails on a chalkboard and scraping Styrofoam, respectively, to Alabama listeners, had noted Henry had been fairly well bottled up.

LSU will be back in action next weekend, closing out the home schedule, first with the Florida Gators at 5 p.m. inside the Maravich Center. In that game, Coke had no touchdown passes.

It’s safe to say Prescott will not win it. LSU’s Leonard Fournette’s grip on it turned slippery last week.

Those are Heisman-type numbers. The squad overall had 184 yards receiving, 18 catches, no touchdowns. Prescott, who has 418 yards on the ground and 2,351 through the air on the season, was held to just 16 yards on 26 carries.

“That’s the kind of back that he is. I think people are just as disappointed as any other loss”.

“What you can always tell is he outruns the angles, and that’s when you know that someone’s pretty fast”.

The Tide plays FCS team Charleston Southern on Saturday followed by a visit to struggling Auburn. Ingram won the Heisman Trophy. Jonathan Allen had a team-high three sacks. While I don’t imagine that will be the case, it is an interesting thought. And we have eight, nine who can play.

One of the biggest remaining hurdles between Alabama and the College Football Playoff awaits Saturday, when the Crimson Tide travels to face Mississippi State in the 100th all-time meeting between the SEC West rivals.

Quote to note: “Not everything is going to go ideal”.

Christopher Walsh is a lead SEC college football writer.