Neither did the visiting fans. He was able to walk over to the sidelines before being carted off of the field.
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– The Southeastern Conference’s two winningest programs over the last two years clash at 2:30 p.m. CT Saturday as No. 17 Mississippi State hosts No. 2 Alabama in a sold-out Davis Wade Stadium.
Now the question becomes how long the slide will continue now that the College Football Playoff is out of reach. We need to crank that status up a little more.
That likely will go to Alabama if the Crimson Tide wins its last two regular-season games and beats Florida in the league title game. Last week’s victory put the Crimson Tide in control in the SEC West – and gave them an inside track to the national semifinals – but they’ll have to knock off another red-hot team to stay there.
He had 38 bruising carries for 210 yards and 3 touchdowns, signifying that he had arrived.
“I think our team showed a lot of resiliency today to keep competing in the game even when things weren’t going very well”, head coach Nick Saban said. We dropped about four and five balls on a few of those plays. “Once we got there it just kind of stalled”. Alabama held Mississippi State without a touchdown for the first time since the 21-3, season-opening loss against Oklahoma State in 2013. However, when it had to happen, Alabama made plays, and Mississippi State did not.
After both squads failed to score in the first quarter, Cyrus Jones opened up the scoring with a 69-yard punt return.
Live stream: You can watch the game for free on the CBS Sports website.
Alabama finished with 379 yards of offense on 55 plays. The Tide also managed to prevent several of the Bulldogs’ red zone trips from ending with a touchdown.
That would be Alabama vs. Florida in the SEC championship game for the eighth time in the 24-year history of the game.
Mississippi State’s De’Runnya Wilson had a slow start to the season, but has had two of his best games over the past two weeks. Arkansas (6-4)W, at LSU, 31-14: Outside of Alabama, no one’s playing better right now in the SEC. “They just rushed the quarterback and we didn’t do a great job protecting him”.
But the true star from Saturday’s game was Derrick Henry.
Ridley also had a 60-yard touchdown against Mississippi State. Mississippi State won and covered as a road favorite last weekend versus Missouri and is now 7-2 overall and 6-3 against the spread.
Henry topped 125 against all six and notched 200 against three of them.
Ridley caught a short pass during the second quarter on a third-and-5. Mississippi State, ranked 67th in the FBS at stopping the run, is facing quite a challenge.
Those are Heisman-type numbers. It is worth noting that he had 22 rushes for 82 yards in this game a year ago. He’s faster than people think, and he’s faster than he looks.
Running back Kenyan Drake suffered a broken arm while covering a kickoff during the first half. Then this Saturday, Henry would go on to further solidify his candidacy for the Heisman Trophy. Nine sacks is a insane number for one game, and Jonathan Allen got three of them. “I asked if he was OK and he said he was good”. “The players were really concerned, but they know they don’t make them like they used to”.
“We knew eventually he was going to hit”, senior center Ryan Kelly said.
Quote to note: “Not everything is going to go ideal”.
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Christopher Walsh is a lead SEC college football writer.
