TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama has earned the mystique it puts on its opponents.
When the No. 1 Crimson Tide put the opening blitz on a team with quick scores, most opponents falter. Louisville folded in a 37-point loss. Ole Miss and Arkansas did the same in their 55- and 34-point losses.
In the same situation and in a hostile environment, Mississippi State did not wilt.
Alabama did what it almost always does — it scored early and with ease, moving 156 yards in 22 plays for two touchdowns. The No. 18 Bulldogs then played nearly even with the Tide for the second half and won the turnover battle.
The second half showed No. 18 MSU (6-4, 2-4 Southeastern Conference) can go step for step with Alabama; the first half of Saturday’s 24-0 loss showed it must be perfect to pull off the win.
“From a program standpoint, that’s what should motivate us every day,” Moorhead said. “If you want to see the best team in the SEC and a team that can compete for the national championship, that’s it. They’re the type of team we want to become.”
The Bulldog defense did not wait until halftime to make that point. The opening drives were a shock to the system, but there was no overhaul. Defensive end Gerri Green said it was as simple as cleaning up run fits; linebacker Willie Gay remembered outside runs in particular that needed addressing.
“We changed the game plan up a little bit, but the main thing was they were executing on the stretch run and we had to clean that up,” Gay said. “When you’re running the ball and picking up four or five a pop, you have to adjust to that.”
The simple adjustment was enough: Alabama (10-0, 7-0 SEC) mustered 149 yards over its final 11 possessions, 2.98 yards per play.
“We just buckled down and started playing our game,” Green said. “We knew we still had a lot of ball left, so we had to keep fighting.”
They fought to give their offense a chance to fulfill the other half of the requirements for beating Alabama: being perfect. On this night, MSU was not, for myriad reasons.
The first sign was the fleaflicker.
Moorhead is a coach that values the explosive play over all else, and the midway point of the second quarter was the perfect opportunity. An Alabama fumble gave MSU its best field position yet and Moorhead picked his spot well. Deddrick Thomas was open — “He was wide open, he was 10 yards behind him,” Moorhead said — but Fitzgerald was sacked.
“Didn’t see him. I didn’t see Deddrick at all,” Fitzgerald said. “That’s on me, I don’t know how to fix that. Look harder, I guess. I don’t know.”
Moorhead added, “That was one right there you wish he could’ve seen. He was screaming open.”
Misfortune struck later in the quarter. MSU’s biggest play of the game — Kylin Hill’s 38-yard run — got it to the red zone, just for two touchdowns to be called back.
The first was a pass to Hill, his acrobatic dive into the end zone all for naught thanks to a controversial block in the back call.
“I’ll look at it on film but I’m not going to talk about that,” Moorhead said. “There was an explanation, but I’m not going to delve deeper into that.”
The next play continued through a delay of game call, just long enough for Fitzgerald to throw to Justin Johnson in the end zone before the officials called the play dead.
The microcosm for the day came two plays later: a missed field goal.
MSU did not help itself on third downs, either — it had nine or more yards to gain on five of its seven first-half third downs. Now MSU knows those details are the difference.
Defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons said coaches repeated throughout the week, “we’re not competing against Alabama, we’re competing against our standard.”
Against Alabama, the standard is perfection.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter @Brett_Hudson
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