Mississippi State @ Alabama preview

Last Meeting ( Nov 14, 2009 ) Alabama 31, Mississippi State 3

A quick glance at the schedule before the season would have revealed a chance for Mississippi State to play spoiler when the Bulldogs hit the road to face defending national champion Alabama on Saturday.

With the No. 12 Crimson Tide effectively eliminated from the title picture, though, the roles have been somewhat reversed, and it's Alabama that will look to spoil No. 18 Mississippi State's six-game winning streak.

Alabama (7-2, 4-2 SEC) is out of the national championship running after last week's 24-21 loss at LSU, and the Crimson Tide needs significant help just to get to the SEC title game. Both Auburn and LSU would have to lose their two remaining conference games for Alabama to make it to Atlanta.

Mississippi State (7-2, 3-2 SEC) doesn't have any better prospects for making the title game, but the Bulldogs remain one of the biggest surprises in the SEC, if not the nation, in coach Dan Mullen's second season.

The Bulldogs have won six straight since a 29-7 loss at LSU on Sept. 18, their longest win streak since 1999. It's only the eighth time in school history the Bulldogs have won six straight in the same season and only the second time since 1955.

To extend their streak, the Bulldogs will have to snap another. Alabama has won 18 consecutive games at Bryant-Denny Stadium dating back to the home opener in 2008.

The Crimson Tide hopes to have one of its most dangerous playmakers in sophomore Trent Richardson, who left the LSU game with a leg injury, but is expected to play. Richardson ranks eighth in the nation and second in the SEC with 166.1 all-purpose yards per game and is second on the team with 634 rushing yards - seven fewer than reigning Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram - and five rushing touchdowns. He also has four touchdown receptions and a kickoff return for a score.

Ingram, who has averaged 91.6 rushing yards per game after missing the first two games of the season after arthroscopic knee surgery, ran for 149 yards and two touchdowns in last year's 31-3 victory in Starkville.

Perhaps more important to the Tide's chances Saturday will be the performance of its rushing defense.

Alabama has allowed only four players to rush for 100 yards or more in a game in four seasons under Nick Saban -- and the Crimson Tide went 41 consecutive games without doing so before Tennessee's Tauren Poole ran for 117 yards against them two weeks ago. But that run defense will be put to the test against the Bulldogs, who have had a player rush for at least 98 yards in each of the six games during their winning streak.

Mississippi State ranks 14th in the nation in rushing (218.7 yards per game), and the Bulldogs have topped 200 rushing yards in five consecutive games.

Junior Vick Ballard has led the way with 619 rushing yards (77.4 per game) and 12 touchdowns. Ballard missed the UAB game with an ankle injury, but he rebounded to rush for 103 yards and a score against Kentucky, his third 100-yard game of the season.

Quarterback Chris Relf ranks second on the team with 507 rushing yards (56.3 per game) and three scores.

The Crimson Tide gave up a season-high 433 yards against LSU, including a season-worst 225 on the ground.

Alabama leads the all-time series 72-18-3, and has won the past two meetings and seven of the past nine.