Review: No. 2 Alabama 31, Mississippi State 3

Mississippi State used every possible morale builder in their arsenal - including black jerseys, a record-crowd boosted by extra seating and standing room only tickets, even a smoke machine-aided entrance - but it wasn't enough to lift the Bulldogs past the second-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide Saturday.

'Bama turned in a strong offensive performance, knocking the Bulldogs out with big plays, especially in the fourth quarter. State was able to move the ball on the Tide at times. The Bulldogs had 113 yards rushing as a team, just the second time this year that Alabama has given up more than 100, but missed opportunities and stingy defense kept MSU out of the end zone, and the Tide rolled to 10-0 (7-0 SEC) on the season.

My seven points:

1. The Tide took care of business in a difficult test tonight. Mississippi State has played one of the toughest schedules in the country this year, and their record (4-6, 2-4 SEC) shows it. But this team was down by three to Florida with ten minutes left in the game, led Houston going in the the fourth quarter of that game, and came within a yard of defeating LSU. After a physical, emotional game against LSU, Alabama figured to be vulnerable to an upset. Mississippi State did everything that they could to fire up the fans, and the team played hard, but Alabama's superior speed, talent and strength wore the Bulldogs down. The Tide did what they had to do and looked pretty good doing it. (By the way, can we all agree now that putting on black jerseys, or helmets, etc., doesn't make you a better team? I have never been more proud of Alabama's ultra-traditional uniforms.)

2. The offensive game plan showed much improvement over LSU. I was not a fan of the pass-first plan last week, and I think the win had more to do with committing to the run in the second half than it did with "loosening up" the corners by passing the ball. The offensive plan for Mississippi State on the other hand, was largely successful, mixing the run and pass within drives and getting the ball to the playmakers. Julio Jones, Marquis Maze and Darius Hanks all saw multiple receptions, and Mark Ingram and Trent Richardson continued to pound the rock. The only person I missed in the gameplan was tight end Colin Peek, who I assume is still feeling the effects of his knee sprain, although he did see more game action today.

3. The one player I expected us to miss this year in the defense was Rashad Johnson. The fact that we have not missed the All-American significantly is due in large part to Mark Barron, who should be SEC Defensive player of the week after tonight's game. Barron intercepted two passes, one of which was a spectacular diving catch, and would have caught another if Marquis Johnson has not taken it from his hands. Barron also broke up what appeared to be a sure touchdown with what looked like a 40-inch leap. The sophomore safety is getting better every week. I expect that we'll see him playing on Sunday in a year or two.

4. Speaking of Marquis Johnson, have you ever seen a player who improved on the field as much as he has over his four years at the University? Saban has helped turn this young man into an NFL-caliber cornerback. Proving that his performance against South Carolina (where he broke up one fade route after another to the corner of the end zone) was no fluke, Johnson again made several acrobatic plays to stop sure touchdown passes from the Bulldogs late in the game, without resorting to interfering with the receiver. Although Johnson did get burned on an interference call early on the first MSU drive, he recovered nicely, keeping the Bulldogs off the board on at least three different occasions, and picking off the last gasp throw just for good measure.

5. ESPN's primetime college team is good. Like most 'Bama fans, I don't care much for CBS's main play-by-play team of Verne Lundquist and Gary Danielson (CBS's second team is much worse, by the way). It is always a breath of fresh air when we have a game that is called by Brad Nessler and Todd Blackledge of ESPN. Not only do they do a better job with the human interest stuff (Taste of the Town is a always interesting and often good for a laugh), but they just don't get in the way of the game. They also made two really prescient calls tonight. First, Blackledge was talking about how Alabama HAD to get the ball to Julio Jones to win a national championship mere seconds before Greg McElroy dropped back and hit a wide-open Jones on a 48-yard touchdown. On the next possession, it was Nessler's turn, commenting that this was the time in the game that Alabama would just hand the ball to Mark Ingram a split second before McElroy handed him the ball for a 70-yard touchdown. It was like they knew what was coming before it happened, and it takes a lot of research to make things look that effortless.

6. Alabama and Florida really are two sides of the same coin. The similarities between the Tide and the Gators this year really are striking. From the defensive stats, to the points per game, to the red zone woes, to the fairly lackluster quarterback stats, there is not a whole lot of difference on paper between the two teams. Both will finish the season up with a tuneup game, and then a big rival, and meet in three weeks at the SEC Championship. Given the way that the two teams are playing right now, I'd give the edge to Alabama. The Tide is showing more consistency on offense the last couple of weeks, while Florida has continued to struggle. However, I don't expect anything but a hard-fought, closely-contested game between two of the best teams in the country. It doesn't get much better than that.

7. One more record in the books. Alabama reached the 10-0 mark for the 17th time in the program's 115-year history, an NCAA record. Alabama has had 30 ten-win seasons, which is second in the NCAA behind Oklahoma (31). It is the first time that Alabama has had consecutive 10-0 starts since the 1973-74 seasons, and the first time in Coach Nick Saban's career that he has had consecutive ten-win seasons.