Alabama Football: Five Expectations for Tide vs. Miss State

As an Alabama football fan, it feels much better going into Saturday’s game against Miss State than the previous two weeks. It seems like these two teams are going in opposite directions, and with that being said these are the five things I’m looking for from the Crimson Tide to accomplish Saturday night in Starkville:

Alabama Football Five Expectations

5. Cutting down on mistakes. Lack of discipline has become a common theme for this Alabama football team, and this is a perfect week to continue working on cleaning things up. I don’t want to see another touchdown taken off the board due to a penalty, or another bad snap from Seth McLaughlin. Also, I’m looking for Jalen Milroe to have his first game without an interception against a Power 5 defense. This is especially mandatory on the road in a hostile environment.

4. A touchdown in the first half. I can’t think of an Alabama team that has gone three straight games without a first-half touchdown. Even in the dark days of Mike Shula or Mike Dubose, we didn’t see three straight first halves without a touchdown for perspective. It’s great to know we have such a clutch field goal kicker in Will Reichard, but this is starting to get ridiculous.

3. Put the game away early. This Alabama football team must put this game away before halftime, or at the latest midway through the 3rd quarter. No disrespect to the Bulldogs, but this appears to be a team on a quick decline and Bama needs to be able to jump on them early. The goal is to get these young guys some valuable playing time against SEC competition and build even more confidence before heading to College Station next week.

2. Continue to establish an offensive identity. I am looking for Tommy Rees to establish a solid running game early and when it’s successful, to not stray from it. This will open up things in the passing games for Jalen Milroe and a successful running game does wonders for the confidence of an offensive line still under a lot of scrutiny. There is no reason why both Jase and Roydell shouldn’t have big games against Mississippi State.

1. The defense needs to get after Will Rogers consistently. It seems the Bulldogs are getting back to the air raid offense and that should allow for the likes of Dallas Turner and Chris Braswell to tee off on Rogers. Will shouldn’t be able to get comfortable at all in the pocket. As we know strong consistent pressure makes life easier for this talented secondary.  The Mississippi State offensive line allowed four sacks to both LSU and South Carolina. If this Alabama defense gets after it like they did against Ole Miss, I expect similar results.

As long as Alabama meets these five expectations the Tide will roll to a convincing victory over the Bulldogs on Saturday night.