The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: Alabama 30, Ole Miss 24

The final word on the Crimson Tide's victory, which was the fourth time this season an Alabama game went down to the end.

Author:
Christopher Walsh
Publish date:
Nov 13, 2022 12:00 PM EST

In this story:

Alabama Crimson Tide

What does the Alabama Crimson Tide need to make the College Football Playoff?

The easy answer is for nearly everyone ahead of it to lose, while it posts a pair of blowout wins to close out the regular season.

Here's more of a realistic approach, including what Alabama fans should be rooting for:

• LSU to lose to Georgia in the SEC Championship Game.

• Tennessee to lose against South Carolina or Vanderbilt. If it doesn't, the committee would have to select three SEC teams to include Alabama, and the only way that happens is if chaos rules the other conferences.

• TCU to lose at least once, if not twice. It heads to Baylor and hosts Iowa State before playing the Big 12 championship.

• Michigan vs. Ohio State can't be close. The Big Ten is going to get at least one team at this point, so the best option of Alabama is hope the other does a crash and burn. The Wolverines host Illinois next week, the Buckeyes are at Maryland.

• Demolition Derby in the Pac-12. The Bruins host the Trojans next week, which will at minimum be like an elimination game. UCLA, which lost to Arizona late Saturday, will close the regular season at Cal, USC hosts Notre Dame. Also, Oregon and Utah can't be in a position to leapfrog into the playoff by winning the conference championship.

• Clemson to lose again. It hosts Miami and South Carolina before playing one-loss North Carolina for the ACC title.

That's a lot.

Should Alabama not make the playoff, the Orange Bowl and a matchup against Clemson is looking like a real possibility.

Play(s) of the Game: Twice Bryce Young made an impressive move, the first to avoid a sack, the second was a deke that he was going to run, and then hit sophomore wide receiver Ja'Corey Brooks for a key play. The former was for a 35-yard gain to set up the field goal at the start of the third quarter. The latter was on the 5-yard touchdown that tied the game at 24-24.

Player of the Game: Defensive lineman Byron Young had 11 tackles, two sacks, a forced fumble and was credited with two quarterback hurries.

Statistic of the Game: Although Alabama ended up being out-gained 403-317, the Rebels converted just one third-down opportunity when the game was on the line.

The Good

• With his 209 passing yards, Bryce Young has 7,471 career yards, which moved him past Tua Tagovailoa (7,442) into third place on the school’s all-time passing yardage list. He trails a pair of three-year starters under Saban with John Parker Wilson (7,924 from 2005-08) and AJ McCarron (9,019 from 2010-13).

• After cornerback Eli Ricks suffered a head injury on the first play, freshman Terrion Arnold came off the bench and had 10 tackles, including nine solo stops, and a pair of pass breakups as Lane Kiffin clearly went after him. Ole Miss finished with just three electric passing plays (17 yards or more), one of which was on the play Ricks suffered his injury.

• Ole Miss when 0-for-3 on fourth-down conversions. Linebackers Henry To'oTo'o and Dallas Turner had solo stops on the first two, while safety Brian Branch successfully defended the final pass attempt of the game in the end zone.

The Bad

• Bryce Young's longest passing play was the 35-yard connection to Brooks, but it was a sideline pass with the wide receiver pretty close to the line of scrimmage. The quarterback's longest completions downfield were the 19-yard touchdown pass to Jermaine Burton, and the 15-yard throw to tight end Cameron Latu. The guess here is that the shoulder is still an issue.

• Alabama has had a player top 100 receiving yards in a game just once this season, the six catches for 117 yards and two touchdowns by Brooks against Vanderbilt. In comparison, the Crimson Tide had a 100-yard receiver in nine of its last 10 games last season after it didn't have one against Ole Miss.

• Four of Alabama's top five tacklers were defensive backs despite Ole Miss running the ball 49 times and attempting just 32 passes. Some of that was due to the play-calling, but Crimson Tide still doesn't want that.

The Ugly

Let's just say the first quarter, when the offense was out-gained 154-22. That and Turner almost accidentally decapitating the Ole Miss quarterback.

5 Things We Also Noticed ...

• This was the first time since 1964 that Alabama and Ole Miss played with both teams ranked in the top 10 of one of major polls. It was also the first time since 2010 that the Crimson Tide wasn't ranked No. 1 or No. 2.

• With Ole Miss ranked No. 11 in the AP Top 25, Alabama could finish the season without a win over a top-10 team for only the second time since 2008, the other being 2019. Meanwhile, the Rebels had a 14-game winning streak at home snapped.

• The Rebels' 403 yards were the second-fewest total yards this season, barely topping the 399 against Kentucky.

• With his two sacks, Byron Young is tied for second on the team with four sacks this season, behind Will Anderson's eight. Meanwhile, the Rebels came into the game having yielded just seven sacks all season.

• The 317 total yards allowed by the Ole Miss defense were the fewest to an Alabama team since 2012 (305 yards).