How concerned should we be about Alabama football running game after Mississippi State?

Alabama football’s inability to run against Mississippi State just didn’t make sense.

On one side was one of the nation’s best rushing offenses. The Crimson Tide was averaging 236.7 yards per game, ranked No. 12 overall. Running back Jahmyr Gibbs was at the forefront of that success, entering Saturday’s matchup on a hot streak. He ran for 100 or more yards the prior three games. Against Tennessee, he rumbled for three touchdowns, too.

On the other side was a rushing defense that didn’t inspire confidence. The Bulldogs were giving up 152.9 yards per game, ranked No. 79 among FBS teams. That’s not the nation’s worst rushing defense, but it’s certainly nowhere near the best.

It looked like a prime opportunity for the Crimson Tide.

Yet by the end of the game in which No. 6 Alabama defeated No. 24 Mississippi State 30-6 on Saturday at Bryant-Denny Stadium, the Crimson Tide only had 29 rushing yards on 27 attempts and one touchdown.

That includes Bryce Young’s rushing total, and the box score factors in sacks. But take his "rushing" stat line out, and it doesn’t look much better for Alabama (7-1, 4-1 SEC): 23 carries for 42 yards, for an average of 1.83 yards per carry.

Just the week prior, Kentucky running back Chris Rodriguez used 31 carries to run for 197 yards and two touchdowns against Mississippi State (5-3, 2-3).

“We couldn’t run the ball very well tonight,” Nick Saban said. “That’s something we definitely need to improve on.”

How much is it cause for concern, though?

It’s probably not time to hit the panic button about the running game yet, but Alabama needs to steer the ship back in the other direction before it gets too far off course.

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Over the first six games of the season, the Crimson Tide stacked solid rushing performances consistently. The “worst” output in yards per carry through the first six weeks was against Texas A&M: 5.6 yards per carry. But that was in a game where Alabama ran for 286 yards on 51 carries.

Since then, Alabama has been losing ground.

Against Tennessee, the Crimson Tide rushed for 114 yards on 31 carries for an average of 3.7 yards per carry. Gibbs did have those three touchdowns, though. So it was a solid day. Just not as high on yards per carry.

Then Alabama couldn’t even get two yards a rush against the Bulldogs.

It was still a better performance than last year’s worst rushing performance, when Alabama finished with six yards on 26 attempts against LSU. But last year, the Crimson Tide offense didn’t need the running game quite as much as it does now.

Alabama is still trying to get Young back to 100% with his shoulder, and the idle week this week should help with that. Even when fully healthy, he doesn’t have the same weapons he had a year ago.

That makes an effective and efficient running game paramount.

“It affects play-action passes,” Saban said. “I thought we had some RPO throws that we should have taken that we didn’t take, and we missed a couple.”

The running game being effective not only could have opened up more in the passing game but also could have helped the Crimson Tide close out the game earlier than it did against the Bulldogs.

After scoring points on four of the first five drives, Alabama’s offense sputtered in the second half. The Crimson Tide punted on five of the final seven drives. The other two resulted in field goals.

The running game not working was a significant piece of that second-half sputtering.

It didn’t keep Alabama from winning, but it could if the Crimson Tide doesn’t return to the rushing success it had through the first six games of the season.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: How concerning was Alabama football's rushing performance against MSU?