OXFORD, Miss. -- Tua Tagovailoa threw for 191 yards and two touchdowns, Jerry Jeudy caught two scoring passes and No. 1 Alabama buried Mississippi 62-7 on Saturday night.
Alabama (3-0) gave up a touchdown on the first play of the Southeastern Conference opener, but responded by scoring the next 62 points. The Tide's offense had 516 total yards and was so effective that Tagovailoa's evening was over by midway through the second quarter.
The left-handed sophomore completed 11 of 15 passes during his short time on the field. The Tide then turned to Jalen Hurts, who completed 7 of 10 passes for 85 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.
It was so lopsided that third-string quarterback Mac Jones was in the game before the end of the third quarter. Alabama Coach Nick Saban -- not known as one who gives out compliments easily -- had no complaints about how his team handled its first road game in a hostile environment.
"I'm going to have to give us a good grade in all those areas," Saban said. "I was pleased."
Ole Miss (2-1, 0-1) suffered through a second straight blowout loss to the Crimson Tide. The Rebels fell 66-3 last year in Tuscaloosa.
Jordan Ta'amu completed just 7 of 22 passes for 133 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions.
The game was in doubt for about 11 seconds. That's the time it took for Ta'amu to find D.K. Metcalf for a 75-yard touchdown on the first play of the game. Ole Miss had a 7-0 lead and a packed Vaught-Hemingway Stadium was rocking.
Alabama wouldn't be fooled again.
"We don't dwell on plays like that," Alabama defensive back Xavier McKinney said. "When that happened, we weren't down about it. We just kept going, kept playing and I feel like we did a great job."
The Tide scored 49 points by halftime, doing whatever it wanted against the Ole Miss defense. There were plenty of clues the Rebels would struggle to slow down the Tide -- including giving up 629 total yards to Southern Illinois last week -- but the onslaught was still stunning.
"We knew we'd have to capitalize off turnovers and execute to make it a four quarter game," Ole Miss Coach Matt Luke said. "We didn't do that. We had chances early."
In other SEC games Saturday, Jalen Elliott knocked the ball loose from Vanderbilt receiver Kalija Lipscomb with 1:07 remaining to give No. 8 Notre Dame a fourth-down stop and the Fighting Irish held on for a 22-17 victory over the Commodores. .... Jake Fromm threw three touchdown passes and Elijah Holyfield ran for 100 yards, each playing only the first half, as No. 3 Georgia overwhelmed Middle Tennessee 49-7 in Athens, Ga. Georgia led 42-7 at halftime. Jeremiah Holloman caught three passes for 90 yards, including an 11-yard scoring pass from Fromm in the first quarter. ... Nick Fitzgerald accounted for 350 yards of offense and six touchdowns to lead No. 16 Mississippi State to a 56-10 victory over Louisiana-Lafayette in Starkville, Miss. Fitzgerald ran for 107 yards and 4 touchdowns, the second time he’s had 4 rushing touchdowns in a game. Fitzgerald also completed 14 of 21 passes 243 yards and two touchdowns. Aeris Williams added 101 yards and a touchdown on the ground for Mississippi State (3-0). … Ty Chandler rushed for 158 yards and had an 81-yard touchdown early in the third quarter as Tennessee coasted to a 24-0 victory over UTEP. UTEP (0-3) hasn’t led all season and has lost 15 consecutive games, the longest active skid of any Football Bowl Subdivision team. … Terry Wilson threw for 163 yards and rushed for 80 more to lead Kentucky to a 48-10 victory over Murray State. Coming off a 27-16 victory over Florida that ended a 31-game losing streak to the Gators, the Wildcats (3-0) showed no signs of a letdown and overwhelmed the Racers from start to finish. Paced by Wilson, the Wildcats used a balanced offense to defeat the Racers, amassing 528 yards of offense, including 285 on the ground. … Freddie Swain scored twice, including on an 85-yard punt return, and Florida beat Colorado State 48-10 in a game dubbed the “Buyout Bowl.” Feleipe Franks also threw two touchdown passes, giving him nine in three games and matching his total from last season. The Gators (2-1) were far from perfect offensively, though, finishing with 341 yards or more than 200 fewer than the Rams (1-3) had been giving up this season.
Sports on 09/16/2018