The Alabama Win: The Number “3″ Remains a Factor

By Terry Pellman (TerryP)

When looking at the Ole Miss contest last Sunday, I was struck by the number of times the number “3″ had a bearing on the contest between the Tide and the Rebels.  When I wrote the Ole Miss Preview, it seemed with every point that there was a link that kept falling back to a single digit.

Alabama entered this game against the Houston Nutt coached Rebels as it had three times in the past only to leave those contest with its first loss of that season.  While this fourth contest didn’t continue that trend with Alabama winning by four, 24-20, it was a lot closer than most Bama fans would have believe at the beginning of the third quarter with the Tide up 24-3.

Yet, once again, even with the number "4" entering the picture, the number "3" still had it’s place in Alabama’s fourth SEC win. With this victory, Alabama reaches its 300th all-time victory at Bryant-Denny Stadium. (Alabama has played 362 of its 650 home games in Tuscaloosa: 300-59-3.)

As Alabama set this record, another was recorded today when Ole Miss scored the first points allowed by Alabama in the first quarter this year as OM took an early three-point lead. 

This lead would have likely been 7-0 if it weren’t for Alabama’s Kareem Jackson (#3) catching Enrique Davis following his 62 yard rush over their left tackle.  Jackson followed that tackle with an open field tackle on Dexter McCluster when Ole Miss went to their “Wild Rebel” formation inside Alabama’s 10-yard line.

A game of “highs and lows.”

When Alabama used three offensive tackles to score it’s second of three touchdowns of the game, the package featured John Michael Boswell, Andre Smith and Terrance Cody.

Fans have been questioning at what point would they see the unveiling of the “UNO” package.  We did, but a bit of a different variation when those three lineman, combining for 1000 lbs of driving force, put Alabama on top of the Rebels 14-3 midway through the first half.

Unfortunately, a third of that combination may be lost for the year when NT Terrance Cody went down with a knee injury in the third quarter.  In the post-game conference Coach Saban mentioned he’ll likely be out for a few weeks but the staff will not know the extent of his injury until after his MRI is completed.

The third quarter, once again, brought out concern with the Alabama fanbase this weekend as the Tide seemed to down-shift into third gear and try to coast through the quarter.  After holding Ole Miss to only three points in the first half, Alabama allowed three unanswered scoring drives to make this game a lot closer than it ever should have been.

Again, a case of highs versus lows.

The first half was soundly controlled by the Tide.  The much hyped “Wild Rebel” formation was used three times in the first half.  The first two rushing attempts were held to negative rushing yards and the third time resulted in an interception on a 3rd and 7 from the UM 33-yard line.

The night featured defensive stops like the aforementioned one but perhaps the two biggest were in the second half during fourth down situations.  Both of these stops were without the Tide’s best known run stopper in T. Cody.

Ole Miss’ three turn-overs did a lot to propel the Tide to victory just as Alabama’s lack of third down production (3 out of 10) did a lot to keep Alabama from winning this game in the fashion they are very much capable of doing.

When will (perhaps a better word is can) Alabama win in that fashion is the question that will weigh heavily on fans' minds as the Tide prepares for the Tennessee Volunteers next weekend in Knoxville.   As for today, we’ll have to sit back and enjoy our fourth SEC win of the 2008 season, despite its lack of glamour.