STARKVILLE — South Carolina quarterback Spencer Rattler completed his first 17 passes against Mississippi State on Saturday night, and his first miss did not occur until the fourth quarter. Even on that play, Rattler, receiver O’Mega Blake and tens of thousands of garnet-clad fans were screaming for a flag on Bulldogs cornerback DeCarlos Nicholson.

Rattler’s performance came a week after LSU’s Jayden Daniels started 13-for-13 against MSU and finished the game 30-for-34. Through two Southeastern Conference games, starting quarterbacks have completed 48 out of 54 passes against the Bulldogs’ defense for 649 yards and five touchdowns.

Those staggering numbers are a primary reason MSU (2-2, 0-2 SEC) has struggled to get its defense off the field, and it’s a major area of emphasis and concern with No. 12 Alabama set to visit Davis Wade Stadium this Saturday night.

“If you want to play the tightest coverage you can, usually man is the one you go to,” head coach Zach Arnett said Monday. “Obviously when the quarterback pulls it down and scrambles, that becomes a little bit of an issue, so you usually have to take someone out of the rush and spy him. Or you can play zone coverage and have a whole bunch of eyeballs on the quarterback, but then he can pick you apart a lot of times.”

Both Daniels and Rattler did pick the Bulldogs apart, and both created explosive plays against man coverage. Daniels threw two long touchdown passes to his top receiver, Malik Nabers, who beat safety Hunter Washington to the corner of the end zone both times. Rattler’s best pass-catcher, Xavier Legette, also found the end zone twice, and he was matched up against Nicholson rather than Decamerion Richardson, MSU’s best and most experienced cover corner.

The secondary has had its well-documented struggles, but the defensive line and linebackers also share some of the blame for not generating enough pressure and allowing quarterbacks all the time they need to throw.

Defensive end De’Monte Russell left the game in the first quarter with an apparent leg injury, but Arnett said he “just got dinged up a little bit.” The Bulldogs did make a change to the starting linebackers, with senior J.P. Purvis making his second collegiate start on the outside in place of senior DeShawn Page. Arnett nonetheless praised Page as a player who can also play inside linebacker and give the star duo of Jett Johnson and Nathaniel “Bookie” Watson some rest.

The Gamecocks ran the ball 47 times to just 20 pass attempts and averaged barely three yards per rush, but those numbers don’t tell the full story. Mario Anderson, a transfer from Division II Newberry College, had just eight carries in three games for South Carolina entering Saturday’s matchup, but against MSU, he rushed 26 times for 88 yards and a touchdown — a nine-yard run in the fourth quarter in which he bowled over both safety Marcus Banks and Richardson.

“It’s a week-to-week evaluation of who’s executing, doing their job at the highest level, and who deserves to go out there and play the majority of the snaps,” Arnett said. “I imagine most teams across the country, they get the game film, grade it, evaluate it, and make a determination on who deserves more or less playing time the following week.”

Scouting Alabama

This version of the Crimson Tide (3-1, 1-0) may not be as scary as many of head coach Nick Saban’s teams over the last decade and a half, but Alabama is still plenty formidable. The Crimson Tide fell to a Texas team that has since risen to No. 3 in the AP Top 25 on Sept. 9, then turned in another uninspiring performance in a sloppy road win over South Florida.

Last week, though, Alabama opened SEC play by controlling the second half to knock off a ranked Ole Miss team, and after some uncertainty at the quarterback position, redshirt sophomore Jalen Milroe has retaken the starting role and turned in an efficient performance against the Rebels.

The Tide have a two-headed monster at running back with Jase McClellan and Roydell Williams, who are each averaging more than five yards per carry — a stiff test for a defense that struggled to stop the run against a much-less-potent Gamecocks’ unit. The Bulldogs’ secondary will be tasked with slowing down the receiving duo of Jermaine Burton and Isaiah Bond.

“(They have) a stable of running backs with tremendous lateral quickness and strength at the point of attack, and receivers who can blow by you,” Arnett said. “Jalen Milroe is throwing the ball over a bunch of teams’ heads for big plays over the top. They’re getting better every week.”

Alabama also has the heaviest starting offensive line in the SEC with an average weight of nearly 340 pounds. Right tackle JC Latham and center Seth McLaughlin anchor one of the nation’s best fronts.

The Tide’s defense, as usual, is one of the best in the country, though the Tide did look vulnerable for much of the Texas game. The secondary is led by Kool-Aid McKinstry, Malachi Moore and Terrion Arnold, who are all NFL prospects. Dallas Turner and Chris Braswell are among the nation’s best edge rushers, with a combined eight sacks to their credit already.

“We find ourselves coming off back-to-back losses, and we’re facing a program that most teams probably don’t want to be facing in that scenario,” Arnett said. “They are fun to watch except for the week that you have to play them. It seems to me like every week they are further identifying exactly what their identity is and what they do really well.”