Alabama came into the game last night more banged up than anyone realized, but managed a stress-free 30-6 defeat of Mississippi State. Defensively, Alabama was without its top two nose tackles in Jaheim Oatis and DJ Dale plus LB Deontae Lawson, and were still missing DE Justin Eboigbe. Perhaps this factored into Mike Leach’s decision to try and run the ball more, which Nick Saban acknowledged was something of a surprise. He also noted that Alabama played dime most of the night, more concerned with stopping the pass, and they did that exceptionally well.
A few impressions:
Eli Ricks and Demarcco Hellams played well and the secondary dominated
Saban said that the game plan this week was built around stopping the passing game, and they did that with aplomb.