Alabama vs. Mississippi State: Score, Highlights and Twitter Reaction

Facing their third ranked SEC foe in the last month, the Alabama Crimson Tide rolled over the Mississippi State Bulldogs in Starkville, 31-6, and are now one win away from reaching the SEC Championship Game. 

As has been the case since the team's loss against the Mississippi Rebels, the combination of running back Derrick Henry and a smothering defense carried the Crimson Tide to victory Saturday.

Mississippi State quarterback Dak Prescott was under pressure all day, going 22-of-43 for 300 yards with 14 rushing yards on 26 carries in the defeat. Gil Brandt of NFL.com noted the senior star was sacked six times in the first half. Coming into the game, the Bulldogs had allowed only 13 sacks all year. 

Henry got off to a slow start, and it appeared as though he was going to be held in check after moving to the top of this year's Heisman Trophy race. It turned out the junior star just needed time to get the engines going, as he finished with 204 yards and two touchdowns on 22 carries. 

According to ESPN Stats & Info, Henry now ranks second in school history with three 200-yard rushing games.

Henry's rushing touchdown extended a streak that pushed him past Tim Tebow in the SEC record books, per ESPN Stats & Info:

This was a game of big plays for Alabama. Henry's two rushing touchdowns covered a total of 139 yards, for instance.

Peter Burns of the SEC Network joked on Twitter about the phone call Henry will be making to the Downtown Athletic Club in New York after the big back scored his second touchdown of the game:

The Crimson Tide's four touchdowns came on plays of at least 60 yards. Cyrus Jones opened the scoring with a 69-yard punt return early in the second quarter, continuing a trend that has gone on all year, per ESPN Stats & Info:

A beautifully executed play call followed Jones' score two minutes later, with Calvin Ridley catching a pass from quarterback Jake Coker and sprinting to the end zone for a 60-yard TD, as the highlight from CBS Sports showed:

That play was indicative of how well things are going for Alabama as well as head coach Nick Saban's ability to develop talent throughout the season.

Earlier this year, it appeared as though the Crimson Tide were going to be in for a bad season by their lofty standards. Mississippi went into Tuscaloosa on Sept. 19, put up 43 points in a win and left a lot of questions about where Alabama stood going forward. 

Two weeks after that, oddsmakers made Alabama an underdog heading into a showdown against Georgia for the first time since the 2009 SEC Championship Game, according to Michael Casagrande of AL.com.

Since losing to Ole Miss, Alabama has won seven straight games and outscored its opponents 220-83. In other words, Saban's Crimson Tide resemble last year's New England Patriots, who got off to a 2-2 start before turning on the jets to win the Super Bowl. 

This win was particularly impressive for Alabama, considering it was coming off last week's emotional triumph over LSU. Saban talked about the emotions leading up to Saturday's game, per Josh Planos of the Washington Post.

“Any time you have an emotional win, you have to get your team ready to respond the right way and make sure they’re focused on what they need to do,” Saban said. Whatever he said throughout the week paid off in grand fashion.

Saban's defense seemed to focus all of its attention on Prescott. Specifically, it limited his rushing lanes. 

Prescott and Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen were arguably too reliant on Prescott, as Cecil Hurt of the Tuscaloosa News illustrated with this stat:

Normally, keeping the ball in the hands of your best playmaker is a good strategy. But Prescott didn't have any openings to create plays with his legs and was often put on his back after dropping back to pass. The Bulldogs did him no favors abandoning the running game. 

It wasn't a spotless victory for Alabama, as backup running back Kenyan Drake suffered an arm injury in the first half. Saban said after the game that Drake's arm is fractured, and he will be out for three weeks, per Hurt.

The college football world had its chance to take down Alabama earlier this season, with one team succeeding. Now that Saban has found a formula that works on offense and a defensive line that hasn't given an inch to Prescott and Leonard Fournette in consecutive weeks, the Crimson Tide look like the best team in the nation.

Postgame Reaction

Per Alex Martin Smith of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Saban was his usual chipper, positive self after the victory:

While Saban may be right about that, especially considering Coker had just 144 passing yards, it would be hard to pick a more complete game the Crimson Tide have played this year. 

On the positive side, per Martin, Saban did say he only needed to use the front four to create pressure on Prescott because that unit is "the strength of our team." That's been made apparent in the last two games, if it wasn't obvious before. 

Expanding on that point, per Nick Cole of SaturdayDownSouth.com, Saban spoke about the depth of his defensive line. 

"There are eight or nine of them that are big and physical, so we can keep them going with something in the tank," Saban said. "… Whether we play a running team like LSU or a passing team, we have enough diversity up front so that we can adapt.”

As far as Henry goes, Saban made sure to point out that his star running back is more dynamic than he's given credit for, per Martin:

From the thrill of victory to the pain of defeat, Mullen summed up the difference in the game as well as possible, per Bob Carskadon of HailState.com:

The game really changed in the first quarter when Mississippi State was stopped on a fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line. Alabama got the momentum from that point and didn't take its foot off the gas pedal until the end. 

On a lighthearted note, Saban came out of the locker room at halftime with a cut on his face, the origin of which he explained after the game, per Cole. 

“Jonathan Allen came barrelling in all excited," Saban said. "… The athlete that I am, I was able to keep my feet. The players were a little concerned, they know they don’t make ’em like they used to.”