Alabama Football vs. Mississippi State Postgame Quotes
11/14/2015 12:00:00 AM | Football
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Head Coach Nick Saban
Opening Statement: We're always pleased with a win, especially on the road. Mississippi State played a really good game. They have a really good team. Dak Prescott is a tough guy to defend. I know they gained a lot of yards today, but our defense did a really good job of not allowing a lot of points. We got them stopped inside the five (yard line) and a couple times in the red zone, which I think is important. We didn't play well on offense in the first half, but I think we played better in the second half. Kind of a weird game in that every touchdown was a big play. I'm proud of our team. We've got a lot of things we can learn from in this game."
On Derrick Henry: "We didn't run the ball much. We have these run-pass options. Obviously, their game plan was to stop us running the ball. They were going to force the quarterback and receivers to make plays. We dropped about four or five balls on those plays today. They had the box loaded most of the time. We had to get to where we could run the ball better, period. We did a good job of that in the second half. Derrick did a good job of making some big-play runs."
On using the pass rush: "We thought the one thing that might be in our favor in this game was our defensive line against their offensive line. We did most of it with four guys rushing. Every time we rushed more than four and played man-to-man, he got rid of the ball and he made a couple of big plays. They all did a good job of pushing the pocket. I think that was a real key to the game."
#5 Cyrus Jones, Defensive Back
On the victory: "It was a great victory. We knew this was a tough place to play against a great team. They have a great leader, Dak Prescott. We just knew it was going to take a 60 minute fight. We just tried to come out and execute it as best as we could. I think we did a well enough job to get the win."
On returning a punt for a touchdown: "I just tried to get out there and make a spark for the team. I wanted to make a play because that is what they have me back there for. I wanted to do my job."
#19 Reggie Ragland, Linebacker
On keeping Mississippi State out of the end zone: "Our guys prepared the right way and did their job. Our guys were rustling and making plays. The guys came in on third down and got to them. They kept them in the pocket. Our guys were collapsing on them while our guys in the back end were covering them."
On Dak Prescott: "Dak is probably the best mobile quarterback in the country with the way he moves. Anytime you keep him contained and he can't make plays with his feet or his arms, you did a great job of stopping him."
Head Coach Dan Mullen
Opening Statement: "Give (Alabama) credit. They're an excellent football team. We knew that coming in. How the game works is very simple - you follow a plan to win. They did, we didn't. We played great defense. I thought we played fantastic defense for a good portion of the night. You hold a great back like Derrick Henry to, basically, 140 yards on two of his carries. You're looking at 69, 60, 74 and 65-yard touchdowns. You're not going to win doing that. We had the ball in the red zone and weren't able to punch it in a couple of times and settled for field goals. On special teams, we gave up the punt return for the touchdown. Give them credit for following a plan to win. We have to move forward, find a way to get better as a team, continue to improve and get ready to go play again next week."
On Alabama's nine sacks: "I don't know if they were doing anything special but just beating guys up there. I don't think we did a great job of protecting the quarterback. One of the things you want to do is protect the quarterback to be able to throw the football. We still threw for over 300 yards."
On the defense's performance: "We played pretty good defense. I think we played pretty solid defense, except for the big plays. You can't play great defense 80 percent of the time. You have to do it 100 percent of the time. It was the big plays that killed us. They had 379 yards and 200 of them were on three plays. The rest of the game they had 179 yards. They ran 55 plays, so we played unbelievable defense for 52 of them."
Dak Prescott, Quarterback
On how the nine sacks affected the offense: "It made us have to change play calls and put us behind. It just means I need to do things better and communicate and get the ball out of my hands better."
On what the conversations were with the offensive line: "To just keep fighting and communicate. Figure out what the problem is and solve the issue."
Fred Ross, Wide Receiver
On not being able to score in the first half: "As far as moving the ball and getting to the red zone we did pretty good. It was once we got there we stalled, and against a great team like Alabama that can not happen."
On what did they do differently in the red zone to make it difficult to move the ball: "They are a great defense. They put pressure and make passes harder to catch and running holes smaller."
