Alabama vs. Mississippi State

By tempadmin

Alabama plays Saturday night at 6 p.m. against Mississippi State. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN. For everyone who things Mississippi State will be a pushover, don't get to overconfident. This is the same team that took LSU to the brink of defeat, and played very close to Florida up until eventually losing the game in the 4th quarter. Not to mention, the other close games like Georgia Tech (42-31), Houston (31-24), and they defeated Kentucky (31-24) in similar fashion as the Tide. The chance for a letdown is huge as Nick Saban takes his team into Starkville for an old school SEC battle.

The emotional win over the LSU Tigers hopefully will not cause a letdown. Nick Saban knows there are pitfalls in staying too high emotionally after a big game like LSU.

“I think it gets more and more difficult to maintain that level of consistency, mentally, because each and every team that we play is capable of beating any team on any given day,” Saban said. “This team (Mississippi State) is right down to the wire with LSU, had it first-and-1 at the 1 or 2 and didn’t punch it in to win.... But yet, LSU is the game of the year and this game is like (no big deal). I don’t see it that way and I don’t want the players to see it that way.”

The players have taken the hint from coach that even though Atlanta is a few games down the road that it is viatlly important to take it one game at a time. Linebacker Rolando McClain said that its time to get ready for the next game.

“We were ready for that game, it was a big game,” McClain said. “It obviously was an emotional win, but at the same time we still have things to do. We still have to get ready for a good team.”

With last year's offensive coordinator for Florida, Dan Mullen, taking the helm of the Bulldogs, there are things that the State offense may try to pull out of the hat against the Bama D. The key will be preparation.

Their top weapon is running back Anthony Dixon. He has only 2 less yards per game than Mark Ingram. He will be a hoss to bring down, but I definitely believe the Bama defense will prevail.

Look for a fairly close, low scoring game. Mississippi State almost always plays Bama tough. Especially after a bye week for State. I predict 17-6 with the brutal running attack of Bama taking over. Give me your predictions on facebook!