Casey's Corner: Alabama Comes Out Ahead, Barely

It's obvious Alabama has a taste for drama—and their 27-24 victory over Ole Miss provided plenty of it.

After yet another close win, the Crimson Nation is still looking for their breakout game.

When it comes to Alabama, there seem to be two teams and, to paraphrase Forrest Gump, "... you never know what you're gonna get."

One week, the offense sputters, but defense keeps 'Bama in the game.

The next week, the offense clicks and the defense lapses.

This week, the latter team showed up.

The offense moved the ball well against the Rebels' defense, and quite frankly it was nice to see.

Quarterback John Parker Wilson continues to improve, and Saturday was no exception.

Wilson, who endured his share of negativity during the first half of the season, finished 26-40 for 265 yards and one interception. He made several good reads and put the ball where it needed to be for the most part.

Overall, I was impressed with his performance, and I hope he can keep it going next week when the Vols come to call.

Alabama's receiving corps also turned in a solid performance.

D.J. Hall led the way with an 11-catch performance, which matched a career high and fell one reception shy of the school record for catches in a game. As a group, the receivers made several big plays that got key first downs and kept some drives alive.

The ground game gave the Tide another dimension on offense Saturday. The three-running-back system worked well, yielding three touchdowns.

Terry Grant led the Tide ground game with 69 yards on 16 carries, while Glen Coffee ran well, despite a critical fumble inside the five.

Sophomore Roy Upchurch was the most impressive back to watch, running for 39 yards on just five touches.

The offensive line (minus senior guard Justin Britt) blocked well for the ground game, but left something to be desired when it came to pass protection, allowing four sacks.

Then again, it couldn't have been an easy task to block Greg Hardy for four quarters.

Memo to teams who have Ole Miss coming up on your schedule: Watch out for No. 86, and good luck stopping him.

Hardy was in the Alabama backfield the entire day. He recorded 13 total tackles, three of them sacks.

The Alabama defense, which has been a bright spot for The Tide, arrived in Oxford just in time for the fourth quarter.

Despite three INTs, the defense looked off for most of the day, but stepped up at the end when it mattered most.

Then again, who knows what would have happened if not for that illegal touching penalty...

Special teams gave the Tide an unexpected gift Saturday.

Leigh Tiffin kicked two field goals and P.J. Fitzgerald had a good day punting—mostly because he only had to do it twice.

My Hero of the Day was Javier Arenas, who ran like something was chasing him on both of his punt returns, shredding the Ole Miss coverage team for 71 of his 164 all-purpose yards.

Arenas set the Tide up with great field position on both returns, which proved to be critical in a close, hard-fought game. 

This wasn't a pretty win for Alabama by any stretch of the imagination, and it's just going to get tougher for them starting next week against Phil Fulmer and the Volunteers.

Besides the Iron Bowl, the Tennessee game is probably the most anticipated matchup on Alabama's schedule.

The annual rivalry between the Tide and the Vols, known as the Third Saturday in October, is always a knock-down, drag-out fight full of big hits and bad blood. 

As we say down South, "It don't get much better than that."