Alabama bests Mississippi State, but loses Tua Tagovailoa

The Alabama Crimson Tide are back to their winning ways.

After falling to the LSU Tigers a week ago, the Tide got back in the win column with a 38-7 romp over the Mississippi State Bulldogs. The Tide’s victory keeps them upright with one loss with two weeks to go in the season. But they did pay a heavy price on Saturday afternoon in Starkville.

Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa injured his hip towards the end of the first half. The injury was so severe that Tagovailoa was forced to leave the game on a cart to go to the back. Eventually, Tua had to leave the stadium, as he was airlifted to a medical facility out in Birmingham.

Prior to leaving the game, Tagovailoa had completed 14 of 18 passes for 256 yards. He threw two touchdowns, one to Jaylen Waddle and the other to running back Najee Harris. Mac Jones stepped in for relief with a mark of 7-for-11 for 94 yards, doing just enough to keep Bama out in front.

Harris also led the team in rushing yards with 88. He had a superb day, as he scored three rushing touchdowns and finished with four total scores.

Jerry Jeudy and Devonta Smith had big days in terms of receiving. Jeudy set the pace with 114 yards receiving while Smith had 92, getting that breakout game against State that I expected him to attain going into Saturday.

The lone score for Mississippi State came from Kylin Hill, who ran in from one yard out in the first quarter. That score tightened things up to make it 14-7 after two scores from Harris, but Bama was off to the races after that. State couldn’t corral them one bit, and couldn’t amount a single score the rest of the way.

Tommy Stevens went just 12-for-21 for 82 yards passing. He threw an interception into the hands of linebacker Shane Lee on the Bulldogs’ first drive of the game. Stevens, on a lighter note, led the team in rushing yards with 96 yards on just 10 carries. Nick Gibson chugged behind him with 56 yards on nine carries and Hill had 35 on 16. Hill also led the team in receptions with three.

Lots will be said and made of Tua’s injury coming out of this game, and as we said earlier, any update will be provided once it comes across the wire. For ‘Bama going forward, they play Western Carolina next week so Tua or no Tua, they shouldn’t have many problems before the Iron Bowl in two weeks.