In a game remembering the life of fallen teammate Keith Joseph Jr. and honoring the service of the military, Mississippi State University hosted The University of Alabama for an SEC Nation showdown and played host to 62,435 fans, the second largest crowd in MSU history.
Dak Prescott and the offense put up good passing numbers with Prescott passing for 300 yards against the number three defense in the nation, but the offensive line was beat all night long that included Prescott getting hit repeatedly. Prescott was sacked nine times and was hit on several other occasions.
“Give them credit, it wasn’t like there were fancy blitzes or any other of that stuff going on, they just rushed the quarterback and we didn’t do a great job of protecting him,” Head Coach Dan Mullen said when asked about the pass rush from Alabama.
Defensive wise, MSU was outstanding for almost the entire game. The Bulldogs did not give up many yards by holding Alabama quarterback Jake Coker to 144 passing yards and held Derrick Henry to 204 yards. Although Henry ran for 204 yards, 139 of those yards came on two rushes. Other than that, MSU held their offense to very little yards.
Alabama did not score on any plays that were under 60 yards and their offense was nearly nonexistent besides the big plays. “We just made mistakes,” Linebacker Beniquez Brown stated. We talked about all week about how we just needed to make tackles and unfortunately we didn’t do that.”
 In the first quarter, the Bulldogs dominated the field position game and held Alabama to only 34 total yards while totaling up 131 total yards themselves.
 To start off the second quarter, the offense was held short on a promising drive and was forced to attempt a field goal. Westin Graves lined up for the 50-yard field goal but was just short on the kick.
 Four minutes into the second quarter, Alabama put the first points of the game up. Cyrus Jones took a punt 69 yards all the way to the end-zone to give the Crimson Tide the touchdown lead. Adam Griffith kicked in the extra point attempt to give Alabama the 7-0 lead with 10:44 left in the second quarter.
Calvin Ridley followed up Jones play with one of his own. On third and five, Ridley turned a reception up field for a 60-yard touchdown reception. Griffith kicked in the PAT to make the score 14-0 with 8:36 remaining in the second quarter.
 Following Alabama’s touchdown drive, Prescott and the MSU offense drove down the field and fell short in the end-zone, resulting in a field goal kick by Graves. Graves kicked it in from 31 yards to cut the Alabama lead to 14-3.
 Three plays into Alabama’s next drive, Henry took the handoff and goes 74 yards for the touchdown. Griffith kicks in the PAT to go up 21-3 with 5:10 left in the half and that remained the score for the rest of the half.
 The third quarter was another defensive battle, with both teams just trading a field goal. Alabama’s Griffith kicked his in from 42 yards early and Mississippi State’s Graves nailed a 39 yarder to cut the lead to 24-6.
 About halfway through the fourth quarter, Henry took the handoff and traveled 65 yards to the end-zone to end Mississippi State’s streak of no fourth quarter touchdowns allowed in the season. MSU was the only team in the NCAA who had not allowed a fourth quarter touchdown. Alabama led 31-6 after Griffith’s PAT. This was the score for the remainder of the game.
For the Bulldogs, this loss knocked Mississippi State out of the SEC West race, but they are still looking forward to being successful for the remainder of their games. “It’s the SEC, we have another good game next week, we can’t be down on this too long,” Prescott said. “It’s been a tough week as a team but we just have to continue to be better and find a way to move on and be better next week.”
 Mississippi State will travel to Fayetteville, Arkansas next week to take on the Razorbacks who are coming off back to back wins against Ole Miss and LSU. The game will be at 6 p.m.