The final showcase game of Week 3 in college football turned out to be its best, and after the smoke cleared at Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday night, it was No. 15 Ole Miss that claimed a 43-37 win over No. 2 Alabama — and, perhaps, shifted the balance of power in the SEC.
Ole Miss vs. Alabama final score, and 3 things we learned from the Rebels’ 43-37 win
The Rebels went into Tuscaloosa and came out with a rare win.
Ole Miss capitalized on Alabama turnovers to build a 17-3 lead in the first half, then got out to a 30-10 lead in the second half with the help of an absurd touchdown pass that went caroming off an Alabama defender’s helmet.
But Alabama never stopped fighting, cutting the Rebels’ lead to 30-23 with two six-play drives, and then responding to two more Ole Miss scoring drives with two more touchdowns of their own. When the Rebels punted with just under four minutes to play, they were giving the ball back to Alabama with a chance to complete a legendary comeback.
A duck of a pick thrown by Jacob Coker under heavy duress seemed to end the Tide’s threat, but the Rebels failed on a fourth down while trying to win the game on offense; it wasn’t until a final Coker pass fell incomplete that the victory was truly secured.
Ole Miss now owns back-to-back wins over the closest thing college football has to a king, and just the program’s second win over the Tide in Tuscaloosa.
Three things to know
1. Ole Miss won this one by preying on mistakes. Alabama fumbled on the opening kickoff; Ole Miss turned that into a field goal. Alabama QB Cooper Bateman threw a pick deep in his own end; that turned into a touchdown. The Crimson Tide fumbled again on the very next kickoff, and, in a blink, it was 17-3 in the Rebels’ favor. Ole Miss would add another touchdown two plays after a Jacob Coker pick in the second half, running their tally to 24 points off Alabama turnovers.
Alabama scored zero points off zero Ole Miss turnovers. And a massive deficit in turnover margin will ruin even a great team’s chances of winning.
2. The SEC West may have a new bully this year. Saban has been coaching at Alabama since 2007, when the Crimson Tide were legitimately rebuilding; his team lost to Louisiana-Monroe that year, in the sort of game long buried by the three national titles the Tide have rolled to since then. On Saturday night, Ole Miss became just the second team, following LSU in 2010 and 2011, to defeat the Tide in consecutive years under Saban’s watch.
That distinction didn't mean all that much to the 2011 Tigers, who also lost to Alabama in that season's national championship game. But the Rebels probably won't be seeing the Tide again — and they have cleared the highest hurdle to the SEC Championship Game. LSU and Texas A&M look like the two other excellent teams in the SEC West, and both have to visit Oxford; conversely, the Rebels' roughest remaining road trip is to ... Mississippi State? There's never been a better chance for Ole Miss to win the SEC in the modern era.
3. Alabama may not quite be Alabama, but so what? The Crimson Tide spotted Ole Miss a 20-point lead and gifted the Rebels five turnovers. Ole Miss got a magical-or-fluky touchdown pass that couldn’t be replicated with a thousand throws. Alabama fans filed out of their own stadium, convinced this one was over.
But Alabama ran up 500 yards despite rotating quarterbacks and struggling through the air, and gaining “just” 5.1 yards per carry over 42 attempts. Ole Miss went 4-for-12 on third down, and gained just 71 yards on the ground. Take away even one of those turnovers, and Alabama very well could have won this game despite the other four. Interpreting this loss as a harbinger of doom for the Tide or Saban — now a pitiful 86-12 since 2008 — would probably be doing a bit too much.
See More:
