Alabama Showed Some Heart With Narrow Win at Ole Miss
The season was all but over.
You could feel it. You could taste it. The freezing Ole Miss fans were both drinking it in and thinking it Saturday afternoon, wondering if they would get to rush the field.
Almost.
For a good part of the Alabama Crimson Tide's game at Vaught Hemingway Stadium at Hollingsworth Field, the feeling regarding the team in white was almost like "Why bother?" Coming off its second loss of the season, the visitors looked anything but inspired, making many of the same mistakes that had plagued them all season, seemingly unaware of that the team's soul and legacy were hanging in the balance.
How do you want to be remembered?
At last, they answered, albeit barely. Alabama's ability to play with heart may not have done the equivalent of growing three sizes on this day, but the Crimson Tide showed enough, what it can do in a challenging setting. Rallying in the second half, it pulled out the 30-24 victory.
"Our guys really competed in this game," Alabama head coach Nick Saban said. "They played really hard during the second half. We stubbed our toe a lot during the first half, but we kept playing for the next play.
"That's the kind of identity that we really want to re-establish."
It stemmed from things like the running backs and wide receivers churning out extra yards. Bryce Young running for a little more in the red zone and not sliding even though his collegiate career is beginning to wind down. The defense tightening up and shutting down the Rebels' running game.
No. 9 Alabama (8-2 overall, 5-2 SEC) will take it at this point. Anything to avoid the stigma of being just the second Saban team since 2008 to suffer a third loss.
However, it sure tempted fate. Lane Kiffin's team came within 12 yards of the end zone on its final possession, as for the fourth time this season an Alabama game came down to the end.
The first quarter especially featured a lot of things that we've seen before including Ole Miss being able to drive and have things stall out when Kiffin went for it on fourth down and didn't get it.
Alabama answered with its own failed fourth-down play, when the offense couldn't execute the snap properly. The result was Young stopped for no gain at the Alabama 36.
This was a team that was anything but together while falling behind 10-0 on the road. The running game was nowhere, with seven attempts for four yards. The passing attack wasn't much better, with Young 3-for-6 for 18 yards, and he wasn't getting much help.
A key moment appeared to be when Young started to challenge the offense on the sideline and Saban jumped in to raise the stakes.
"Sometimes you just have to do the simple thing better," Saban said was his message, the same one he gave to the team before the game.
"But I thought the offense really responded."
The frustration was beginning to show, though. This team was too good to be playing this poorly, especially against a good Ole Miss squad that coming in had a better record (8-2, 4-2).
Even when the No. 11 Rebels served up what should have been an easy interception off a pressure by linebacker Will Anderson Jr. in the second quarter, the Crimson Tide couldn't come through. The defense made the stop anyway, only to see the offense fumble the ball back at midfield. It took the Rebels just seven plays to score for the 17-7 lead.
It was that kind of day.
It's been that kind of season.
If one play adequately reflected both, it came early in the third quarter, just after Alabama had pulled even at 17-17. The Rebels had third-and-18 at the Crimson Tide 45. Jaxson Dart was trying to dodge Alabama defenders in order to try and get a pass off, and when linebacker Dallas Turner reached out and got him for the sack, he almost tore the quarterback's head off.
The grisly face-mask call resulted in an automatic first down and 15 yards. When he realized what he had done Turner, held up his arms over the back of his head as if to say "Oh no." It's more commonly known as the surrender cobra. Six plays later, Ole Miss scored a touchdown to complete an 11-play, 75-yard drive.
It's exactly the kind of mistake that has plagued this team over and over again.
Nevertheless, Alabama still found a way to ensure it'll stay ahead of the Rebels in the SEC West, and Lane Kiffin fell to 0-4 against for former boss. This was the second time the game went down to the final plays (the other being Rocky Block, the 12-10 game in 2009 when he was at Tennessee, five years before being named Alabama's offensive coordinator).
"I'm sure there would be people out there and say ‘Well you played Alabama down to one play,’ and all that stuff," Kiffin said. "But these usually get worse by the hour because it sinks in more and more, everything that was at stake there and how hard you work all offseason, during the week of preparation, all that stuff.
"One-play losses are always the hardest."
If you're wondering, Alabama's fleeting playoff hopes reached the equivalent of being two sizes too small Saturday as other teams in contention successfully did what the Crimson Tide had failed to do, take care of business.
None of the teams ahead of it in the College Football Playoff rankings had stumbled heading into the night games, and then only No. 6 took a loss. No. 5 Tennessee blew out Missouri at home 59-24 while throwing for 727 yards. It has South Carolina and Vanderbilt yet to play, and will be heavily favored in both even though both games will be on the road.
No. 7 LSU barely survived at Arkansas, 13-10, and has the tougher task ahead. It wraps up the regular season against UAB and at Texas A&M, and with a win against the Aggies is then looking at a win-or-else showdown with No. 1 Georgia in the SEC Championship Game.
No matter. Alabama will likely move up a lot in the next rankings, but not enough.
The Crimson Tide can't do anything about that now, just like it can't change what's happened in the past.
The team never seemed to settle into the season, never got any momentum. Never seemed to take the schedule by the throat.
It hasn't played smart, or with cohesion, which the rest of the Southeastern Conference has been more than happy to exploit.
However, it can dictate how it will finish. It showed some of that against the Rebels.
"We took a step in the right direction," Saban said.
"They took it personally and I thought it showed in the game tonight."
Christopher Walsh's column regularly appears on BamaCentral.
See Also:
No. 9 Alabama Football Escapes No. 11 Ole Miss, 30-24
Alabama Defense Steps Up in Second Half with Key Stops in Road Win
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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