Alabama Football vs. MSU: Watching, injuries, betting and game prediction

Week five cannot be considered a breather for an Alabama football team that must keep improving. In addition, an SEC road game can never be taken for granted.

Alabama has lost twice in Starkville this century. That will not change Saturday night even though the Bulldogs will battle throughout. Cowbells are always mentioned as a big issue in Davis-Wade Stadium. I suspect they will annoy again, but have no impact on the game’s outcome.

Alabama Football Game Info, Injuries and Betting Info

How to watch: The game will be presented by ESPN, with kickoff shortly after 8:00 PM CST. The play-by-play announcer will be Mark Jones, with Rod Gilmore as the analyst. Quint Kessenich will be on the sideline for ESPN.

The game will be available for streaming through ESPN, Hulu Live, and fuboTV.

Injuries: The Tide’s Emmanuel Henderson and Devonta Smith will miss another game. The biggest injury loss for the Crimson Tide is inside linebacker Deontae Lawson, who may not be able to play next week against Texas A&M as well. Crimson Tide offensive lineman, Terrence Ferguson is also not expected to play against the Bulldogs.

For the Bulldogs, lead running back, Woody Marks was injured in the South Carolina game and is questionable for Saturday night.

Betting Odds: On Friday afternoon, FanDuel had the Alabama Crimson Tide as a 14.5-point favorite. The Moneyline was Alabama -710 and Mississippi State +490. The Over/Under was 46.5 points.

Game Prediction: Earlier in the week Nick Saban called the game against MSU a bigger challenge than the Ole Miss game. That could be true if Alabama regresses to a level well below how it played in the second half of the Ole Miss game.

Even if the Tide starts out flat (which I do not expect) the reality is a B- Alabama football team can beat Mississippi State. No doubt, Will Rogers is a formidable opposing quarterback. The Bulldogs may well have success through the air between the 20-yard lines. But the Alabama defense is too good for the Bulldogs to score many touchdowns. On defense the MSU secondary is porous and the pass rush is poor, so Jalen Milroe and Crimson Tide receivers should have big passing numbers.

My prediction is Alabama 34 – Mississippi State 13

Game info provided by rolltide.com

For the first time since 1947, the Crimson Tide and the Bulldogs will not play next season. From a Mississippi State expert, State fans are not unhappy about the schedule change.