Yahoo News Alabama WR DeVonta Smith outgains Mississippi State by himself in Tide's 41-0 win
DeVonta Smith was far more prolific than the Mississippi State offense.
The Alabama wide receiver had 11 catches for 203 yards and four scores in the No. 2 Crimson Tide’s 41-0 win over Mississippi State on Saturday night. While Smith had over 200 receiving yards in a game for the third time in his career, Mississippi State had just 200 total yards.
Yes, Smith outgained the entire Mississippi State offense.
Smith also became the first wide receiver in SEC history to have two games with four or more touchdowns. He had five TDs in Alabama’s blowout win over Ole Miss in 2019.
Smith is even more vital to Alabama’s offense now that Jaylen Waddle is out for the season. Smith and Waddle were easily the best wide receiving tandem in college football but Waddle suffered a broken right ankle while returning the opening kickoff against Tennessee a week ago.
Smith entered Saturday’s game with 45 catches for 556 yards and four scores. He now has 56 catches for 759 yards and eight touchdowns.
Mississippi State’s offensive implosion
It’s been a disaster for Mississippi State ever since a season-opening win at LSU. Mike Leach’s Air Raid offense has flat sputtered since that win. K.J. Costello started Saturday’s game but was replaced by Will Rogers after he was 4-of-11 passing for 16 yards.
Rogers wasn’t much better. He finished 23-of-36 passing for 140 yards and two interceptions.
MSU threw 70 passes in a 24-2 loss to Kentucky. It was hard to do much worse than that. And somehow the Bulldogs did just that against Alabama. That Kentucky game was the first time that Leach’s offense had ever been shut out. The Alabama loss is the first time that a Leach-coached team at the top level of college football has ever been shut out.
Mississippi State is now 1-4. The Bulldogs do get Vanderbilt next week and could improve to 2-4. But the rest of the schedule contains Auburn, Georgia, Ole Miss and Missouri. There aren’t many wins remaining on that schedule.
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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.
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