Who won Week 8 in college football?
Quarterbacks are taking over as the season progresses into the ultra competitive and often cold-weather atmospheres of late October and November.
My article in praise of Mississippi State’s downhill run game against Dime fronts was truly a horrible jinx of their season.
Alabama played some Dime fronts against Mississippi State, encouraging inside zone run calls from the Bulldogs, but then they stopped them. Jo’Quavious Marks got 13 carries for 53 yards at 4.1 ypc and one score with his longest run only seven yards. His back-up Simeon Price had eight for 36 at 4.5 ypc. I’m guessing their success rate (gaining yardage necessary to move the chains) was down in this contest.
Their bigger power back Dillon Johnson was out, which was a crucial missing piece. Another factor that seemed to hurt the Bulldogs was the return of left tackle Kwatrivious Johnson. The 6-foot-7, 315 pounder was played at left guard though and didn’t get under pads in the run game like Steven Losoya had done.
As for Alabama, their Dime held up better underneath than their nickel did against Tennessee’s downfield passing game. Box safety Demarcco Hellams was extremely useful playing downhill from the boundary to limit runs (12 tackles on the day). Mississippi State couldn’t make him go backwards or lateral in space, instead it was just 213 pounds coming downhill to limit their diminished inside runs.
So the empire struck back, the Tide won 30-6, and the Pirate will have to go resupply at Tortuga while Alabama’s playoff run is back on track.
Here were some other standout themes from the weekend.
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