While his defense tightened the screws on Fournette, Henry showed the nation what he’s made of.
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This thought is brought on by the nine sacks Mississippi State allowed in a 31-6 loss to No. 2 Alabama on Saturday, but it’s been there all season.
Prescott didn’t score a touchdown, which reflects the kind of day he endured. “Once he gets rolling, he’s fast”.
“He’s fast. He’s faster than people think. He outruns the angles, and that’s when you know somebody is really fast”.
He had 38 bruising carries for 210 yards and 3 touchdowns, signifying that he had arrived. Prescott was also the leading rusher for the Bulldogs, keeping the rock 14 times for 47 yards.
“It’s going to be something they have to fix”, Saban said. “I promise you we’ll be better”.
Mississippi State led in passing and third down conversions but failed to get in the end zone for the first time since a season-opening loss to Oklahoma State in 2013.
After a scoreless first quarter, Alabama broke the game open in the second. The punt return was the first of Jones’ career and Alabama’s first since Christion Jones versus Tennessee Chattanooga in November 2013 (75 yards). I’m making sure that they are ready to go play in the situation they are going to go play in. Tailback Kenyan Drake lef the game with an arm injury. He had touchdown runs of 75 and 65 yards, while showing speed that is completely unfair for a man who is the size of a defensive lineman. “I asked if he was OK and he said he was good”. That – and technically a game next weekend against Charleston Southern – is pretty much all that is standing between Nick Saban and a second consecutive playoff berth. I’m proud of our team.
The Tide defensive line got penetration all game long.
Saban also called the Mississippi State offense “very, very challenging”.
On Saturday, Henry finished with 204 rushing yards on 22 carries, 139 of which came on a pair of touchdown runs. The run accounted for 74 of his 88 first-half yards rushing.
The offensive line gave up nine sacks, but are they fully at fault for MSU only scoring six points? I know over the last four games we have seen significant improvement from one week to the next. “We did most of it with four guys rushing”. “For 55 plays we played unbelievable defense”. “And I want to go do it. There is no better time to do it than my past year here in front of my own crowd”. Junior linebacker Richie Brown had three quarterback hurries, while junior cornerback Tolando Cleveland blocked Adam Griffith’s 32-yard field goal attempt in the fourth quarter.
Graves added a 31-yard field goal to make it 14-3 with 6:10 left in the second quarter. But the only thing that matters is the final score: 31-6. Jonathan Allen had a team-high three sacks.
Mississippi State, which had an outside shot to win the division if it won this game, falls to 7-3 and has never beaten Alabama under head coach Dan Mullen. “They just rushed the quarterback and we didn’t do a great job protecting him”. A Clemson/Alabama matchup would be a dream matchup and solve a constant argument year after year of which conference is better, the SEC or ACC.
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Dak had 300 yards passing in the game.
