This was downright leisurely in context. After two weeks of games ending on the final snap, Alabama’s 30-6 win over Mississippi State must’ve done wonders for the statewide average blood pressure.

This was never terribly competitive after a few failed Bulldog fourth-down attempts. As we do every week, the Sunday DVR rewind reveals a few more things we missed in real time Saturday night in Bryant-Denny Stadium.

So before we enjoy a hopefully quiet open Saturday, let’s take a look back at Alabama’s eighth game and seventh win of the season.

— Let’s take a moment to consider the bigger picture here. Alabama’s defense was coming off a rivalry loss in which it allowed the most points since 1907. Mississippi State won the toss and said they wanted the ball. Whether they do that every game or not, that’s a challenge issued.

— All eyes were on Alabama CB Eli Ricks making his first start and he breaks up the pass on the opening play from scrimmage. It would be a big night for the LSU transfer who had four of the Tide’s 15 pass breakups.

— I made a note on Twitter that Alabama didn’t have any pass breakups last week at Tennessee but the context wasn’t entirely fair. The Vols tested Alabama vertically while Mississippi State played more in a phone booth with short passes — plenty of slants — more susceptible to prying hands.

— Alabama was flagged for an illegal formation on the punt following its opening three-and-out. The clock read 11:43 in the first quarter. The next penalty charged came in the final three minutes of the game. Alabama entered with the most penalties of any team in the nation but ended the game with just three for 20 yards. Mississippi State, on the other hand, had 10 for 100 yards.

— Tide LB Henry To’o To’o on the penalty turnaround: “Yeah, coach harped on it all week and he was ripping us apart and that’s one thing that we have to focus on as a team, to be a more disciplined team. Be more locked into the fundamentals that we play with.”

— With Alabama dropping extra defensive backs, Mississippi State ran it on five of the first six plays. MSI rank it 13 times in the first quarter (to 11 passes) which was exactly half of the 26 total carries. “We just did some things different after we got started and saw that they were running the ball,” Saban said. “We stopped the run pretty well after that.”

— The Tide defense rode the bend/don’t break train for a second straight year against Mississippi State. The Bulldogs put up yardage a year ago but never scored a touchdown in a 49-9 Alabama win. Last night, the visitors had 24 plays (to Alabama’s nine) in the first quarter with a 104-90 yardage edge but no points.

— The shot of Kool-Aid McKinstry telling Saban he didn’t catch the ball on the play originally called an INT was hilarious when you see his teammates laughing at the exchange.

— DeMarcco Hellams had the big hit on MSU’s failed fourth down in the red zone on what initially looked like a completion and a conversion. After the week he had at Tennessee, that was a confidence booster. Asked about putting last week behind him, Hellams: “It’s something I always do. Last week is in the past. I just try to focus on Mississippi State this week and preparing for the bye week and getting ready for a good LSU team.”

— Alabama opponents have attempted 16 fourth-down conversions this season. That’s the 84th most in the FBS. The 37.5% success rate is 18th worst so Alabama’s standing tall. Mississippi State was 3-for-6 with two conversions coming on the final drive.

— After a blah first drive, Bryce Young got things moving with a deep ball to Ja’Corey Brooks. With a bit of a running start, the QB threw it 43 yards in the air for a 40-yard gain. With a fully healthy shoulder, that ball probably leads him for a touchdown as his practice reps continued to be limited after the Arkansas injury.

— Young’s 31-yard touchdown pass to JoJo Earle looked like he was playing a video game. With a 3-man rush, my stopwatch said Young had 10.37 seconds of pocket/scramble time before directing Earle to the soft spot in the defense for the score.

— There might be a misconception about the Mike Leach air raid being a bombs-away attack. They do more nibbling with the passing game than the big bite. The longest play of the night for MSU? A 21-yard pass to Austin Williams in the second quarter. On a night they threw it 61 times, a long of 21 is more than acceptable considering Tennessee had touchdown passes of 36, 60 and 78 yards last week.

— The doink for the 43-yard Mississippi State FG was a rarity for Alabama opponents this year. Tide foes are 10-for-12 kicking field goals this year while Alabama is 12-for-16.

— Speaking of kickers, Will Reichard was sharp with three makes on three tries. The 50-yarder in the second quarter was followed by makes from 33 and 38 in the fourth. To me, concerns of Alabama kicking regressing to the norm were overblown considering most of Reichard’s misses were high-difficulty, long kicks.

— Saban broke down the play call of Alabama’s second touchdown on his weekly TV show. We’ll let his words speak for it.

— Mississippi State went for it 21 times this season, 11th most in the FBS, but the gamble busted when failing at its own 29-yard line down 14. Giving the Tide a short field made it 21-0 and it never again felt like MSU was in the game.

— State had drives of 13 and 15 plays that ate 11 minutes of clock that ended with the missed FG and a failed fourth down. Just a lot of work with nothing to show for it.

— Will Anderson had four sacks at Mississippi State last year. He had one of the four Alabama recorded Saturday with a QB hurry on a third-down play to boot. For the season, Anderson has six sacks and 10 QB hurries, both team highs.

— Alabama got all the scoring it needed and more in the span of four drives after an opening 3-and-out.

• 6 plays, 85 yards, 2:18, TD
• 3 plays, 74 yards, 1:43, TD
• 4 plays, 29 yards, 1:44, TD
• 10 plays, 56 yards, 4:25, FG

— The seven drives in the second half peaked with a 9-play, 52-yard possession ending with a field goal. The Tide had 90 total yards in the second half (2.5 per play) after netting 200 in the first (7.1 per play).

— Alabama QBs spread the ball with 22 catches going to 11 different receivers. Gibbs again had the most catches with four while Brooks (74 yards) and Earle (38 yards) had three each. Cameron Latu caught six balls for 90 yards last week but was well-covered by MSU. He had one catch on four targets for 11 yards.

— Felt like Alabama brought a few more DB blitzes with Brian Branch. The nickel came on consecutive third-quarter plays before MSU took one of its few down-field shots. It fell incomplete with three defenders in the neighborhood.

— Hellams recorded a sack later in the same drive from the safety spot.

— Worth mentioning again Alabama was only flagged three times Saturday and had no turnovers.

— MSU liked the shovel pass. Alabama didn’t give them much on any of them and that’s a real discipline play.

— Alabama had two running plays of 10-plus yards. Gibbs had both, a 19-yarder in the second quarter and a 12-yarder midway through the third quarter. That drive looked promising until reaching the 31-yard line when Young was sacked on consecutive plays. He was well-protected all night otherwise as they were the only two sacks of the night. State recorded six QB hurries.

— Big fan of Mississippi State punter George Georgopoulos. According to his MSU bio, he’s the son of Irene and Anastasios Georgopoulos. As someone with a last name like mine, I appreciate great ones like this — perhaps the most Greek name possible. He averaged 41.8 yards on his four punts. James Burnip averaged 37.0 on his six attempts for Alabama with a long of 50 and three downed inside the 20.

— Opposing punters have done a good job of avoiding McKinstry’s big returns in the last few games. He gashed ULM, Vanderbilt and Arkansas but has seen few returnable kicks since.

— Alabama wished it didn’t allow a touchdown on the final drive.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.