#5 Alabama Outlasts #1 Mississippi State 25-20

Alabama beat Mississippi State on Saturday 25-20 to make a strong statement to the CFP Committee for a berth in the top 4 finalists in this years 4 team playoff for the National Championship.

Dak Prescott, quarterback of Mississippi State was 27 of 48 passing for 290 yards and 2 TDs but threw 3 interceptions. Mississippi State also suffered a safety during the game.

Nick Perry, Landon Collins and Cyrus Jones all intercepted the potential Heisman Trophy finalist Prescott.

With this win and TCU's close win over unranked Kansas, the Crimson Tide should be in the top four of the CFP rankings on Tuesday. If FSU beats Miami tonight they should jump ahead of idle #2 Oregon with Alabama #3 and Mississippi State #4.

Read the box score and ESPN recap here

Alabama/LSU Preview with my Prediction

The Crimson Tide of Alabama take on the LSU Tigers this weekend in a game with playoff implications for Alabama.

Alabama comes into the game at 7-1, their only loss to a very good Ole Miss team, 23-17, on October 4th. Since then the Tide narrowly beat Arkansas 14-13, pummeled Texas A&M 59-0 and beat a resurgent Tennessee team 34-20.

LSU on the other hand is 7-2 with losses to #1 Mississippi State 34-29 and two weeks later to then #5 Auburn 41-7. Last week LSU beat then #3 Ole Miss 10-7 that took a goal line interception to preserve the win.

Currently, Alabama sits at #5 with LSU at #16. Alabama is just outside the CFP (College Football Poll) ranking of the top 4 teams that will compete for the National Championship in the first ever college football playoffs.

Mississippi State and FSU are the only undefeated teams in the CFP rankings and are #1 and #2 respectfully. Auburn is #3 at 7-1 and Oregon is 8-1 and #4 in the rankings.

A solid win by Alabama in this game would go far toward cracking the top four in the CFP rankings just as a loss could seriously damage Alabama from consideration. Mississippi State plays UT-Martin this week but travels to Alabama on November 15th for a crucial game. FSU plays the University of Miami this week but could face a challange on the 29th of November when they face a tough test against Florida. Oregon plays #17 Utah on Saturday but shouldn't have a tough test until playing Arizona for the Pac-12 title.

In the Alabama/LSU game, Alabama enters the contest second in the nation allowing just 14 points per game while they are 19th in scoring at 36.5 points a game. They average 219 yards rushing and 291 yards passing every game.

LSU is 4th in the land allowing just 15.9 points per game but they are 101st against the pass, giving up an average of 189 yards through the air per game. LSU does score 33 points per game. These two teams are pretty evenly matched.

An intangible for the Tigers may be "Death Valley" where, Coach Les Miles says "...team's dreams come to die".

Nick Saban wants more than anything to be a part of the 1st College Football Playoff. His defense is strong and he has a resurgent offense under Offensive Coordinator, Lane Kiffen.

Against good teams, Les Miles is 2-2. He opened the season with a 28-24 win in Wisconsin, lost to Mississippi State by 5, Lost to Auburn 41-7 and beat Ole Miss by 3, 10-7.

My prediction is this, Alabama will win the game 20-10 and with some good luck over the next three weeks the Tide will roll into the playoffs with a very good chance of winning it all.

Tide "Rolls" over A&M 59-0

How does Nick Saban get the "no offense" monkey of the last two weeks off his back? How about shutting down Kenny "Trill" and the Texas A&M offense  while scoring 59 points on offense in the 59-0 rout of the Aggies.

Blake Sims was 16 of 27 passing for 268 yards and 3 touchdowns. Even alabama backup quarterback, Jake Coker was 5 for 8 for 36 yards and a TD.

The Tide rolled for 298 yards on the ground and 4 TDs. TJ Yeldon carried the ball 13 times for 114 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Amari Cooper caught 8 passes for 140 yards and two touchdowns.

The Alabama defense held the A&M offense to 172 yards on the day - total yards!

Read the ESPN article here.