Alabama picked up its best win of the season in Starkville, defeating No. 16 Mississippi State 56-23. The Tide dominated, held on to an early 14-0 lead, and never really looked back.
I want to start by giving this Alabama team credit; they played one of their most complete games of the year and did a great job containing Kamario Taylor. If anything, Keelon Russell looked like the better quarterback. Russell was 16/22 with 3 Touchdowns, but more importantly, he looked phenomenal on the deep ball. He added another touchdown on the ground and, most importantly, finished the game with zero turnovers.
That was the difference maker in this game. Mississippi State was incredibly sloppy on both sides of the ball and didn’t look like a ranked team at home. All week long, media members like Josh Pate lectured AP voters on why Mississippi State wasn’t a top-10 team, and that never made sense to me.
Mississippi State beat two average-to-below-average SEC opponents, and, as usual, the media overrates them just because of their conference. Kamario Taylor can make any play, but he is also one of the main reasons the Bulldogs lost today. When you’re facing a Bama offense that’s clicking on all cylinders, there’s just no way to recover from a three-turnover performance.
We’d already seen that this Mississippi State defense was flawed. Alabama wasn’t the first team to do whatever they pleased; this is just what they are. I’m not saying Mississippi State shouldn’t be in the top 25; even their current ranking seemed okay, if not slightly high. I just think we were way too quick to crown them as a potential playoff team.
On the other hand, Alabama might be the real deal. The defense struggled to slow down the Bulldogs, but timely turnovers made their efforts seem stronger than they may be. Next week will be their biggest test of the year against a Georgia team that has run right through their easy schedule thus far.
I’m a lot lower on Georgia than most, and with Bama coming in as three-point underdogs at home, I think this is a great spot to pick the Tide. Georgia hasn’t faced a passing attack with a pulse through their first five games, and Keelon Russell looks like a potential Heisman finalist. Whoever comes out of this one will be in the driver’s seat for a regular-season SEC crown.
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