Alabama Rescues Its Ranking, Record, Reputation : Southeastern: Crimson Tide survives third-quarter problems and beats Mississippi State, 30-21.

The only thing shaken more Saturday night than those gawd-awful, ear-numbing, supposedly banned Mississippi State cowbells was Alabama, which saw its No. 2 ranking and national championship hopes pass before its Crimson eyes.

Alabama escaped from Scott Field with a 30-21 victory, but only because the 16th-ranked Bulldogs didn’t know a good thing when they had it--mainly a fourth-quarter lead. Instead, Mississippi State committed two turnovers that cost it 10 points, the game and any chance of delaying or derailing Alabama’s march to the Southeastern Conference championship game and a possible Sugar Bowl matchup against No. 1 Miami.

“I’ve already started the what-if process,” said Bulldog cornerback Charlie Davidson, who will have plenty of company.

Where to start?

Well . . . what if Mississippi State’s first-half performance hadn’t included a blocked punt for a touchdown, a missed field-goal attempt, a fumble, a failed fourth-down try and a 20-3 deficit?

What if Mississippi State could have maintained its third-quarter pace, when it scored 18 consecutive points and took a 21-20 lead?

What if Mississippi State hadn’t fumbled twice on the same fourth-quarter punt return? Tony James fumbled to teammate Johnny Curtis, who fumbled it to Alabama’s Willis Bevelle. Nine plays and an Alabama field goal later, the Crimson Tide had regained the lead.

And what if Mississippi State quarterback Greg Plump hadn’t thrown two fourth-quarter interceptions, the first of which resulted in an eventual Alabama touchdown?

“Not to take anything away from the Alabama team, but we gave them a lot of things,” Davidson said.

That they did. The Bulldogs (7-3) also gave Alabama (10-0) a scare, one which no doubt stayed with the Crimson Tide during the 90-mile bus ride back to Tuscaloosa.

“Being the No. 1-ranked defense, we were saying, ‘Oh, man, what’s going on here?’ ” said Alabama linebacker Antonio London. “We lost our poise for a while.”

Added cornerback Antonio Langham, who blocked the Mississippi State punt and returned it 24 yards for a score: “Fortunate? To tell you the truth, yeah. We weren’t doing much on offense, and we weren’t doing much on defense, either.”

Not in the third quarter, they weren’t. For 15 agonizing minutes, Alabama almost watched its season snuffed out by an energized Bulldog team and drowned out by those cowbells, a noisy tradition here.

“The third quarter was the best quarter of football I’ve been around,” said Bulldog wide receiver Olanda Truitt, whose touchdown reception and a two-point conversion catch by Curt Clanton cut Alabama’s lead to 20-11.

But even as Mississippi State crept ahead, there was a suspicion that it wasn’t enough. This was, after all, Alabama. And this was also Mississippi State, which hadn’t beaten the Crimson Tide in its last 11 tries and in 33 of its last 34.

So respectful were the Bulldogs that Truitt told his teammates after his score that they needed 35 points to win. He was off by four.

Alabama staggered out of sold-out Scott Field (41,320) with its hardest-fought victory of the season. The Crimson Tide has won 20 consecutive games, second best in the nation and second best in the history of Alabama. A national championship remains possible.

“I feel we needed a big, tough game like this,” said flanker Prince Wimbley, who couldn’t have been serious. “We needed that type of game to prove that we could come from behind.”

All things considered, Alabama Coach Gene Stallings could have done without the dramatics. After the events of this past week--when former Crimson Tide player Gene Jelks accused the school of illegal payoffs--Stallings would have happily settled for a rout.

“It wasn’t good for me for the team to get behind and have to come back,” he said, effectively putting an end to Wimbley’s “this-builds-character” theory.

Mississippi State Coach Jackie Sherrill, something of a defensive connoisseur himself, had said the Crimson Tide would have the toughest defense he had coached against. What he forgot to mention was the Alabama offense, which entered the game with a 28.6-point average and enough weapons to cause problems.

If the Bulldogs needed proof, they got it on Alabama’s first possession. The Crimson Tide moved quickly from its 33-yard line and scored on a shovel pass from quarterback Jay Barker to Derrick Lassic. The play covered 23 yards and gave Alabama a 7-0 lead with 9:40 to play in the quarter.

And in case Sherrill needed evidence of how good the Alabama special teams can be, Langham charged up the middle and blocked Todd Jordan’s punt at the Bulldog 24. Langham then scooped up the ball and ran untouched into the end zone with 8:02 to play in the quarter.

The Alabama lead grew to 17-0 when Michael Proctor kicked a 41-yard field goal with 13:30 to play in the half.

But all that was before the bells of Starkville began ringing louder with each Mississippi State score. There was a field goal in the second quarter and those 18 points in the third.

The comeback caused the Alabama players to hold lecture sessions in the huddle. At one point, quarterback Jay Barker told his teammates, “We’ve come too far for this. We’ve worked too hard to lose this game.”

They listened. Just in time, too.

“I would say ESPN got their money’s worth,” said Sherrill of the national cable audience.

And Alabama got its trip to the SEC championship the hard way.