Alabama Defense Steps Up in Second Half with Key Stops in Road Win
OXFORD, Miss. — The Alabama defense wasn't going to let it happen another time.
Once again, an opponent had the ball with a chance to win in the final minute. The Crimson Tide had lost twice in that scenario on the road at Tennessee and LSU. But when the Crimson Tide needed stops time after time in the fourth quarter, the defense came up with them.
Trying to come back from a six-point deficit, Ole Miss had the ball at the Alabama 20 on fourth down with 46 seconds left. Rebel quarterback Jaxson Dart was looking for one of his favorite targets, Jonathan Mingo, over the middle in the end zone, but Alabama safety Brian Branch knocked the ball away.
"Being that two losses came losing on one play, we didn’t want to put ourselves in that situation again," Alabama senior safety Byron Young said after the game.
The final stop was the exclamation point on a strong fourth quarter and second half for the Crimson Tide defense. In the first half, Ole Miss had 237 total yards, converted on seven of 11 third downs and scored 17 points.
In the second half, Ole Miss only converted one third down and none in the fourth quarter. Alabama also got two fourth-down stops in the second half and only allowed one touchdown.
"Obviously they have really, really good players," Dart said about the Alabama defense. We made some costly errors, some things just didn't really go our way. They made some good plays."
Dart targeted Mingo 10 times in the game, and he had seven catches for 59 yards, including the Rebels' lone second-half touchdown. So the Alabama defenders knew they needed to lock in on Mingo for the crucial fourth-down play.
"We knew we had to key on the inside Jonathan Mingo," Battle said. "He’s their key player, their key target in their passing game. We knew where he was at, and Brian Branch stepped inside and made the play.”
Senior defensive lineman Byron Young said Alabama came out with a different mindset in the second half and knew they needed to start getting stops.
Four different times against LSU, the Alabama offense gave the defense the ball with the lead. And all four times, the defense immediately gave the lead back up, including the game-winner in overtime.
Saturday night against Ole Miss, once Alabama got the lead in the fourth quarter, the defense never gave it back. In fact, it didn't allow another score.
"When you look at the past games, it just came down to mental errors, poor execution," Young said. "So I think tonight we showed that when we execute, we can be a good defense.”
And Young was a big part of all those stops. He had a season-high 11 tackles, two sacks, batted down balls at the line of scrimmage and forced the fumble at the end of the first half. His sack on third down put Ole Miss in the long fourth-down situation on the Rebels' final possession.
Alabama got down by 10 points at two separate points in the first half. It tied the game in the third quarter and took the lead on a Will Reichard 23-yard field goal in the fourth quarter.
The offense had the opportunity to put the game away, but had to settle for another field goal. Reichard tacked on a 49-yard kick to make it 30-24, and the Crimson Tide put the ball back in the defense's with less than three minutes left and a six-point lead to hold on to.
Running back Jase McClellan said the defense helped swing the momentum back to the offense.
Alabama head coach Nick Saban challenged the players to have pride in the personal identity of dominating the guys they were playing against. He saw a lot of it in the second half and said it was a step in the right direction as Alabama plans for the final two games of the regular season.
"We didn’t get off to a great start," Saban said. "But the players just kept playing one play at a time and made the plays in the end of the game that we needed to make.”
See Also:
Alabama Showed Some Heart with Narrow Win at Ole Miss
No. 9 Alabama Football Escapes No. 11 Ole Miss, 30-24
Jase McClellan, Run Game Spark Alabama's Second Half Offense
Forced Fumble Turned the Tide for Alabama against Ole Miss
Instant Analysis: No. 9 Alabama 30, No. 11 Ole Miss 24
Everything Alabama Coach Nick Saban Said After 30-24 Ole Miss Win
What Lane Kiffin Said After Alabama Pulled Off 30-24 Victory at Ole Miss
Byron Young Leads Alabama Defense By Example in Win over Ole Miss
Notebook: Multiple Alabama Players Suffer Injuries in Win Over Ole Miss
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