Lane Kiffin knew Alabama football would respond after a week of people “questioning” Nick Saban and co.

The Rebels built an early lead in Bryant-Denny Stadium and controlled the first quarter, but a stagnant offense and inability to stop Jalen Milroe’s big arm led to a 24-10 Crimson Tide win on Saturday. Speaking with the media postgame, the Ole Miss head coach knew they needed a stronger effort across the board.

“I thought we did some good things on defense at times but the whole thing was to not let this quarterback throw it over our head and make (Milroe) work it down the field,” Kiffin said. “He ended up going over our head twice for two big plays so really disappointed in the result.

“Eventually, a lot of times, you end up breaking. That’s a really big offensive line, a powerful running back. The quarterback, he’s as good a runner as there is in the country at that position. So that’s really challenging when we put ourselves in that spot. We kind of had them one-dimensional in the first half. I think they were one yard per carry at halftime. And then we started to break down, wear down.”

The Tide (3-1, 1-0 Southeastern Conference) produced 356 yards compared to 301 for Ole Miss. The Rebels (3-1, 0-1) also committed more penalties (eight compared to six for UA) and let up the only points via turnover. Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart matched Milroe with an interception in the red zone.

Alabama’s run defense was stout against second-year running back Quinshon Judkins. A preseason All-American and Pike Road, Ala., alum, Judkins scored two touchdowns for 149 offensive yards when the teams met a year ago. But in 2023, Judkins was limited to 56 yards on 13 carries with a long of 14 yards.

“You ain’t just going to turn and hand the ball off over time and beat them in my opinion,” Kiffin said. “You’ve got to be able to hit some shots and move the ball around and make the plays while they’re there because they’re not going to give you a ton of them.”

Ole Miss converted just three of 14 times on third down. The average distance it needed to convert on those attempts was 8.6 yards. Alabama’s defensive line was able to push Dart out of the pocket and stick with receivers downfield. Terrion Arnold jumped a route for his first takeaway of the season in the third quarter.

“We’ve got to coach better, come up with better things. These guys always, for years and years, (have been) good on third down. You don’t come up with things and winning man-to-man and they’ve got good rushers, especially at home. That kind of fed into that and a lot of the third downs were longer situations, which certainly doesn’t help in (Bryant-Denny Stadium).”

Postgame, Kiffin joked if Saban had taken back control of UA’s playcalling but said the looks weren’t “exotic.” He commended the efforts of Arnold (eight total tackles, two pass breakups), Kool-Aid McKinstry (tackle for loss and a pass breakup) and Malachi Moore (six total tackles and a quarterback hurry).

Meanwhile, Kiffin said former UA defensive coordinator Pete Golding, now at Ole Miss, tried to set up freshman Suntarine Perkins for a big day. The linebacker was put into the starting lineup for a “spark” and produced 2.5 tackles for loss and two sacks.

Toward the end of Kiffin’s presser, he was asked about hosting Louisiana State next week at home. But Kiffin wasn’t done processing his fifth straight loss to Saban.

“I’m not there yet,” Kiffin said about moving forward. “I mean, this was really discouraging to come in here. I really thought this was our shot to beat these guys. Just thought there were some things there we could do and we didn’t get them done today. We’ll worry about next week I guess later today.”

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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].