Alabama Defense Quiets Kiffin's Ole Miss Offense

The Crimson Tide held the Rebels to their lowest yardage and points totals of the season.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Lane Kiffin is an offensive genius. Nick Saban often credits him for revolutionizing the Alabama offense during his tenure with the Crimson Tide, but Saturday afternoon in Tuscaloosa, the Alabama defense tamed Kiffin's Ole Miss offense. 

A ferocious Crimson Tide defense held the Rebels to a season low in yards and scoring on the way to a 24-10 victory inside Bryant-Denny Stadium to open up Southeastern Conference play. 

Not only was it Ole Miss' lowest points total on the season, it was the lowest amount scored by a Rebel team in any game since Kiffin took over the program in 2020. 

Coming into the matchup, Ole Miss (3-1, 0-1 SEC) was fourth in the country averaging over 52 points per game. Alabama (3-1, 1-0 SEC) only allowed the Rebels to find the end zone once, and it came early in the first quarter. 

Outside linebacker Dallas Turner was flying all over the field, especially in the second half. He finished with 5 tackles, 3.5 of which for loss with 2 sacks. 

"I heard they were averaging like 50-something points a game," Turner said after the game. "It was very good holding them down just to 10.”

In Alabama's previous matchups against Kiffin at Ole Miss, the defense gave up 48 points in 2020, 21 points in 2021 and 24 points last season in Oxford. Defensive back Terrion Arnold, who had a key interception the third quarter, said the difference this season was the focus the team played with. Outside linebacker Chris Braswell said the Alabama defenders were getting hints on which plays were coming based on the alignment of the Ole Miss tackles and guards. 

"Everybody was on the same page," Turner said. "There were really no mistakes. We came ready to play. We had our heads on tight, and we were just ready to go out there and ball out.”

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The defense was the first thing Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe wanted to credit in the postgame after his individual 255-yard performance. 

"They played their butts off," Milroe said about the defense. "They played hard for us all four quarters. We pick up on their energy. They play hard. They play tough. They have great energy and then their confidence. I’ll honestly say that the defense is doing a great job right now, and it’s leading towards the offense."

At times this season, Alabama's offense and defense have struggled to play in sync. But both sides of the ball were able to build off each other's energy to pick up the first SEC win of the season. When Milroe threw two interceptions against Texas, the defense wasn't able to force a turnover. Saturday, Arnold's interception of Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart was able to even the turnover margin for the Tide while providing a huge momentum shift. 

The Rebels had 305 total yards, 55 of which came on their last drive of the game with time winding down in the fourth quarter. If not for two long fourth-down conversions allowed on that final drive, Alabama would have held Ole Miss under 300 yards. 

Kiffin has been known to bring out a lot of the tricks in his playbook against the Crimson Tide, but he had trouble finding any success Saturday in Bryant-Denny. 

"These guys are hard to play against," Saban said. "They do a lot of formations, a lot of motions. I thought our guys did a pretty good job of adjusting to it in the game, especially did a good job in the second half.”

One of the keys for the defense was third down. Alabama held the Rebels to just a 21 percent conversion rate on third downs. Kiffin highlighted the play or Arnold, Malachi Moore and Kool-Aid McKinstry. 

"They did a really good job on third down," Kiffin said. "I mean, it wasn't exotic. They played man-to-man and did a good job against us."

The intensity really seemed to ratchet up for Alabama, particularly on defense in the second half. At halftime, Ole Miss was the team with much more success getting pressure on the quarterback. The Rebels had 4 sacks and 9 tackles for loss. On the other side, Alabama had just 2 sacks and 5 TFLs. 

The Crimson Tide finished the game with 5 sacks and 10 TFLs, tying season highs. Turner alone has 6 TFLs over Alabama's last two games. This comes after the team had no sacks in the Texas loss. Turner wouldn't say he's necessarily been playing with a chip on his shoulder, but the Texas loss was a "sickening" feeling for him, and he's been trying to play hard every game. 

Former players have been vocal on social media the last few weeks about their frustration with the way Alabama has been performing and slipping from its standard. And on Saturday, legends like Dont'a Hightower and Jonathan Allen were sure to voice their pleasure with the defense's performance. 

Pursuit of this defense today 😎

— Dont'a Hightower (@zeus30hightower) September 23, 2023

The way Alabama played in the second half is what I’ve been waiting for! Great defense and physical play all over!!!

— Jonathan Allen (@jonallen93_) September 23, 2023

After the game, multiple current players talked about the defense is starting to feel like it's getting closer and closer to the standard it wants to play at and talked about all offseason. 

"We played with a very big edge," Braswell said. "A lot of people were doubting us, so we just went out there and played Bama football and played to the standard.”

This marks the second week in a row the Crimson Tide defense has held the opponents to a low score after allowing 34 points to Texas in the Week 2 loss. Defensive lineman Tim Smith said the performance in the loss has helped the defense turn things around.

"We definitely would’ve liked for it to have started sooner, but after that game, I’d say we kind of came together and started believing and playing for each other a little bit more," Smith said Saturday.

Turner feels like this is just the start of what this defense can do.

"Having low-point games, being more disciplined as a defense, as a unit, and just holding the standard down," Turner said. "I feel like that’s starting to come together a lot more, and it’s gonna be a lot of good things to see later on in the season. It’s just Week 4.”

See also:

Everything Nick Saban Said After Alabama's 24-10 Win Over Ole Miss