LEXINGTON, Ky. — Jalen Milroe racked up a career-high six touchdowns to help the No. 8 Alabama Crimson Tide roll past the Kentucky Wildcats 49-21 on Saturday afternoon and clinch the West Division of the Southeastern Conference.
Despite all the talks about the Tide's reign of dominance beginning to slide, they found themselves back in a position that Alabama has been accustomed to in the Nick Saban era.
“This team has come a long way,” said Saban, "A lot of guys have made significant improvement and have listened to the coaches.
Milroe finished the afternoon completing 15 of 22 passes for 234 yards and accounted for six scores, three rushing and three passing. Saturday's performance came on the heels of scoring four rushing touchdowns last weekend against LSU.
Crimson Tide (9-1, 7-0 SEC, No. 8 CFP) to an eighth consecutive victory and third conference championship appearance in four seasons.
By halftime, Milroe had four total touchdowns by halftime. Three of those came via the air, making touchdown throws of 26 and 40 yards to Amari Niblack and Kobe Prentice.
Alabama scored on four of its first five possessions to begin the game and never looked back.
Things couldn't have gone more wrong for Kentucky (6-4, 3-4) to begin the game, going three-and-out on their opening drive and then fumbling the ball on the first play of their second drive, allowing Caleb Downs to scoop up the ball and return it to the UK 1.
Milroe nosed his way into the end zone on a sneak for his first rushing score of the game and give the Tide a 21-0 lead with 5:12 remaining in the opening quarter.
The Wildcats finally caught a break, as Nasir Addison recovered a fumbled punt in front of the Kentucky sideline. The offense would cash in on the turnover as Devin Leary would throw a six-yard touchdown pass to Tayvion Robinson to cut the deficit to 21-7 after one quarter of play.
But Milroe and the Tide would get that score back early in the second quarter. The sophomore quarterback would extended a play by rolling right, pointing to Roydell Williams and hitting him in stride at the 12 on the way for another 26-yard touchdown, and his third passing score of the game, to make it 28-7. Williams tightroped his way down the sideline for the final yards before before making it into the end zone.
Leary completed 17 of 31 passes for 158 yards. Ramon Jefferson led the Wildcats in rushing with 73 yards on two carries. Ray Davis was limited to 26 yards on 12 rushes but had for two short rushing scores in the second half.
Kentucky will be on the road at South Carolina next Saturday in its SEC finale.
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