Just past midnight, outside Davis Wade Stadium, Starkville buzzed. A group of Mississippi State students roamed the street. Tailgaters flicked on string lights and plopped in chairs. Alabama football staffers loaded equipment into trucks. Then, out of nowhere, the roars of two elephants filled the space, similar to the soundbite played in Bryant-Denny Stadium on gamedays.

History had repeated. Alabama stomped Mississippi State. It’s happened 16 games in a row. But Saturday was also an endpoint because, for the first time in 76 years, the Tide and Bulldogs won’t meet in 2024, at least in the regular season.

Week 5′s 40-17 drubbing not only acted as another building block for a once-reeling Alabama (4-1, 2-0 SEC) but as a firm ‘see you later’ to the Tide’s most-played opponent — one it frequently dominates. MSU managed more than 10 points against Alabama for just the fourth time in Saban’s tenure last night.

“This is a tough game for us. It always is,” Saban said. “We’ve been coming over here for lots of years, and we’ve had a lot of tough games. And it was a physical, tough game tonight, and I’m proud of our players for the way they finished and the way we competed in the game.”

While it wasn’t the cleanest performance, UA established an early tone it lacked in its first road game at South Florida. Its senior starting linebacker Deontae Lawson sidelined, Malachi Moore bobbed near the top of Alabama’s huddle before running out to the field. He waved his arms and came out “with fire,” as his teammate Jaylen Key described.

After Alabama scored its first points on a Jalen Milroe 53-yard quarterback rush, the defense forced a pick-six on MSU’s ensuing third down. Jah-Marien Latham tipped Will Rogers’ pass and Chris Braswell carried it into the endzone, a trio of white jerseys bowling over Rogers to cap off the highlight.

Throughout his career, the Crimson Tide has proven to be a foil for Rogers. Against a Saban defense, Rogers is 104-for-179 (58%, down 12% from his overall average). Eight of his 33 career interceptions have been thrown to Alabama defenders. His first passing touchdown against UA, a 1-yard play-action play, was MSU’s first aerial score against Alabama since 2014.

“I didn’t really realize (the run of success against Rogers),” Saban said. “But he’s a really good player. The last couple years when they were always in four wideouts, we did all kinds of junk where you knew they were going to pass. Well, we had some of that junk out for them tonight, and they ran the ball every time. … I thought our players did a good job of not allowing them to have explosive plays, especially throwing, because that was my concern going into the game.”

Braswell said they didn’t approach this matchup any differently knowing the prior success, but to disrupt Rogers early and often (four sacks and five quarterback hurries) quickly silenced most of the 60,111 announced in attendance. At multiple points, “roll tide” chants were louder than the cowbells.

The lead ballooned as Jihaad Campbell and Caleb Downs picked off Rogers on forced throws, both getting the first interceptions of their young careers. Alabama players said they began to notice the gray seat covers dotting the bleachers. They couldn’t see them before, but late in the second half, fans started to leave and UA fulfilled a goal Saban usually has for conference road games: an empty stadium.

“To kind of hear everything kind of quiet out, that’s what we want to do,” Key said. “We want to empty the stands by the third quarter, fourth quarter. … We don’t really like giving up points. It kind of makes us angry.”

Joyless murderball was back in a familiar setting.

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Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nick_a_alvarez or email him at [email protected].