After the game Saturday, then again Monday and Wednesday, Nick Saban had a consistent message for his defense.

The third downs must be better.

When looking at why Mississippi State had such a profound possession-time advantage in the 31-24 Alabama win, Saban pointed to the efficiency in those cross-road moments.

It's been somewhat of a recent trend after LSU went 9-for-19 and Mississippi State was 8-for-15. The previous five SEC opponents were 10-for-67 (14.9 percent) while the Tigers and Bulldogs were 17-for-34 (50 percent).

That contributed from Alabama dominating time of possession to an average deficit of 12 minutes in the last two games.

Saban on Wednesday pointed out Alabama still leads the SEC in defensive third-down situations, allowing opponents success 30.9 percent of the time.

"I think in some games, because of the style of offense we're playing against and what we have to do to stop that," Saban said, "we have not executed as well as we need to, whether it's containing the passer, which was an issue last week on 3rdand 10, a guy takes off running for a first down, whether it's covering man-to-man, especially in bunch passes in tough situations."

Mississippi State was especially efficient with the pass on third downs. It completed 5 of 7 throws for 80 of its 158 passing yards on third down. Five of the eight successful third-down plays came on MSU touchdown drives. The Bulldogs also converted 5 of 6 third downs needing four or fewer yards.

That's where some of the run stop issues come into play.

LSU and Mississippi State also ran for the most rushing yardage allowed by the Tide in consecutive weeks. The Tigers did it with mostly jet sweeps and got 54 of their 151 yards on one long play from the Wildcat formation.

Mississippi State nickel and dimed its way to 172 rushing yards. None of its carries went for more than 13 yards. It comes with a caveat, Saban noted. It took the Bulldogs 49 carries to hit that 172 number. That averages 3.5 yards a carry -- the same average LSU had a week earlier.

"Which is not really that bad," Saban said. "So, they just did it a lot."

He didn't stop there, however.

"What creates those situations," Saban continued, "and I'll go back to it again, which nobody seems to have the same concern about, is when you have them 3rd and 10, you have them 3rd and 7, you have them 3rd and 8, you have them 3rd and 9, when you play teams that run the ball like that, you have to get off the field."

Mississippi State's average third down required six yards to convert. It also got two conversions via penalties -- one that extended the first-half possession that ended in MSU's second touchdown.

"All these things contribute to giving the team more opportunities," Saban said. "Not getting off the field on third down, giving them extra possessions, whether it's penalties or whatever, so all these things sort of go hand in hand in how do you stop the run? Stopping the run to me is more about how many yards per play do you get than how many yards they gained."

Cornerback Anthony Averett said Alabama made good halftime corrections that limited some of the third-down mistakes. MSU was 3-for-6 in those situations in the second half.

It was still taxing for a defense that was playing without two key middle linebackers for the first time. Third-down allowances tend to compound on themselves.

"Yeah, it can be frustrating," linebacker Rashaan Evans said, "but I feel like now is really just the time to emphasize it, emphasize being able to do better as far as pass rushing, also the plays that we called. And also for us individually to get better, understand you don't have to make every play. Just do your job, and if you do that it'll help the whole team."

The trends reversed by the fourth quarter. Alabama outgained the hosts 192-34 and possessed the ball for 9:35 of the 15 minutes. The two touchdowns won the game after trailing 24-17.

That, of course, made Saban happy. The comeback and resiliency was his main talking point. Those third downs, though, didn't sit well even in those otherwise happy moments.

Michael Casagrande is an Alabama beat writer for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande.