As we promised in our Pregame Post, here are some stats, analysis and more as Alabama leads Mississippi State 10-0 at halftime. Don’t forget, all of your in-game coverage can be found on Twitter by following @Brett_Hudson.
Quote from Nick Saban
“We didn’t play very well in that half, really on either side of the ball. We made some mistakes on defense. We got lucky on one drive and got out of it, down here where they missed a field goal. We’re not running the ball very effectively. We’re not controlling the line of scrimmage. We’re just not playing the way we need to play. We don’t have the timing in the passing game we need to be effective. We had a couple of drops on third down. We just need to play better.”
Team Stats
Rushing Yards: Alabama 99, Mississippi State 24
Passing Yards: Mississippi State 77, Alabama 71
Plays-Total Yards: Alabama 35-170, Mississippi State 25-101
Time of Possession: Alabama 16:17, Mississippi State 13:43
Penalties: Mississippi State 1-5, Alabama 2-13
3rd Downs: Mississippi State 2-7, Alabama 2-8
Red Zone: Alabama 2-2, Mississippi State 0-1
Individual Stats: Alabama
AJ McCarron: 9-19, 71 yards, 1 touchdown, 1 interception
T.J. Yeldon: 12 carries, 91 yards; 1 catch, 6 yards
Kenyan Drake: 2 carries, 5 yards; 2 catches, 9 yards
Amari Cooper: 2 catches, 28 yards
Christion Jones: 3 catches, 10 yards
Brian Vogler: 1 catch, 18 yards, 1 TD
Cyrus Jones: 4 tackles, 1 pass break-up, 0.5 tackles for a loss
Landon Collins: 3 tackles, all 3 solo.
Trey Depriest: 2 tackles, 1 pass break-up
Jarrick Williams, C.J. Mosley, Xzavier Dickson and A’Shawn Robinson: 2 tackles
Cade Foster: 1-1 on field goals (33)
Cody Mandell: 3 punts, 53 yards per punt, 1 inside-the-20.
Individual Stats: Mississippi State
QB Tyler Russell: 9-15, 77 yards
RB LaDarius Perkins: 5 carries, 21 yards; 3 catches, 12 yards
RB Ashton Shumpert: 1 carry, 3 yards
TE Malcolm Johnson: 3 catches, 51 yards
WR Jameon Lewis: 2 catches, 15 yards
Notes
– Mississippi State wide receiver Jameon Lewis is in the top 10 in the SEC averaging 117 all-purpose yards per game. In the first half, Lewis has only 19 all-purpose yards.
– Alabama is only converting 3rd downs at half the rate it has for the rest of the season. Coming into tonight, Alabama was converting on just over 50 percent of its third downs. Tonight, 25 percent, just 2-8.
Thoughts for Second Half
– Games are won in the trenches, and whichever team’s offensive line finds a way to dominate the other’s defensive line will end up winning this game. Alabama – at very brief times – did that in the run game, but never did that in pass protection. Mississippi State’s entire offensive futility is on its offensive line, really.
– Relentless, yes. Violent, definitely. Faster than I expected, no doubt. But the thing I see most out of Mississippi State’s defense thus far is preparation. Alabama’s variation of formation and ideas out of those formations overwhelms a lot of teams, but not State. Alabama offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier might want to consider bringing new looks he may have been saving for Auburn to move the ball.
– That being said, Alabama did find a running game on the final drive of the first half by some divine intervention. If that continues into the third quarter, everything above is mute and the game suddenly turns into what Alabama fans thought it would be: Alabama dominating Mississippi State physically.
