Lane Kiffin believed the stars had finally aligned for him to walk into Bryant-Denny Stadium to take down Nick Saban and Alabama.
From the uncertainty at quarterback, struggling offensive line and mounting pressure on its defense, Ole Miss had high hopes that it’d be catching the Crimson Tide on a down year. But things didn’t go as planned on Saturday, at least for the second half of action.
After leading 7-6 at the half the Rebels mustered only three points the rest of the way and Alabama found its footing and grinded to a 24-10 victory.
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Kiffin’s disappointment was obvious after the matchup and shared it during his postgame press conference.
“I’m not there yet,” Kiffin said when asked about processing the loss. “I mean, this was really discouraging to come in here. I really thought this was our shot to beat these guys. Just thought there were some things there we could do and we didn’t get them done today. We’ll worry about next week I guess later today.”
The Rebels were only able to successfully convert on 3-of-14 third downs throughout the game while allowing four sacks, eight quarterback hits and one interception on the day.
After struggling in the first half, Crimson Tide quarterback Jalen Milroe settled in, connecting on a 54-yard pass and a 31-yard touchdown pass to spark the offense.
“I thought we did some good things on defense at times but the whole thing was to not let this quarterback throw it over our head and make him work it down the filed,” Kiffin said. “He ended up going over our head twice for two big plays so really disappointed in the result.”
The offensive line also got the ground game going as it rushed for 131 yards as a team with running back Jase McClellan finding the endzone for a score.
For Alabama, it was a much-needed win to steady the ship as it now turns its attention to Mississippi State next week.
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Patrick Dowd is a Reporter for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter, via Pat_Dowd77
