Sunday Hangover: Mississippi State

Let's see, Ingram had a touchdown, Jones had a touchdown, and Maze had a touchdown, all of which were big plays.

It was like old times except for the Tide's inability to run the ball between the tackles.

This inconsistent part of the offense has held back the team in many games this season. So Alabama got the ball to playmakers at the perimeter of the defense's fronts, and doing so paid off. I hope this is a preview of what we'll see when the Tide host Auburn the day after Thanksgiving.

Alabama will host Georgia State this Thursday, a game that was originally on Saturday the 20th, but the AD moved it to Thursday, so they could have a more regular week before they take on Auburn, the sixth SEC team in a row to have a bye week before they play Alabama.

The Tide's D played fairly well against a respectable State offense, but they'll need to play much better and more fundamentally sound when they take on the Tigers and Cam "The 200 Thousand Dollar Man" Newton.

I hope the Alabama squad is up for the challenge of this Iron Bowl. Georgia and other teams have exposed the weaknesses of Auburn's defense, but the key is keeping the Auburn offense off the field as much as possible and limiting the damage of Newton and crew. No one has been able to do that effectively yet, so I'm not optimistic about the Tide's chances.

But I want to be pleasantly surprised.

A defeat of Auburn this year would help assuage my memory of sitting through the 2000 Iron Bowl when Mrs. Nasty and I got sleeted on and the Tide lost 9-0 in a game that was horrible in many ways.