OXFORD, Miss — With his offense faltering against Ole Miss on Saturday, Nick Saban delivered one of those “ass-chewings” people talk about.

After punting on its first two possessions, Alabama had just failed to pick up a fourth-and-1 from its own 36-yard line on the final play of the first quarter. Even worse, the failed attempt featured a mental mistake as the ball was snapped too early to Bryce Young, leaving the quarterback helpless on a draw up the middle.

At that point, Saban had seen enough.

Gathering his offense on the sideline, the head coach tore into the unit, reaming them for their lack of focus and execution. As for what was said, let’s just say it wasn’t rated G.

“It wasn’t a really good message,” Saban quipped after the game. “Obviously, a miscommunication on the snap count, the play, the shift, the motion. … Sometimes, you just got to do simple things better. You know, simple things like focusing on doing your job, focusing on snap count, focusing on who you’re blocking, focusing on what your eye control is in terms of what you’re looking at.

“You’ve got to do simple things better. That was the message I gave to the team before the game, and obviously they got it right then when we were not doing simple things very well.”

A the time of the fourth-down stop, Alabama’s offense had mustered up 22 yards on 13 plays, including just 4 yards on the ground. Meanwhile, Ole Miss had piled up 154 yards and appeared poised to burry the Crimson Tide early.

“We didn’t come out of the locker room the right way, so we had to regroup on the sideline,” Young said. “I think after that, it was a good kind of wake-up call to start getting momentum.”

Saban’s message sunk in as Alabama responded on its following possession, marching down 80 yards on seven plays capped off by a 19-yard touchdown from Young to Jermaine Burton.

The Crimson Tide stalled on its following two possessions, fumbling on its next play with the ball before going three-and-out. However, Alabama received another shot in the arm late in the second quarter as linebacker Henry To’oTo’o and defensive lineman Byron Young combined to force a fumble from Ole Miss running back Zach Evans that cornerback Terrion Arnold recovered deep in Rebels territory.

Taking over at the Ole Miss 23-yard line, the Crimson Tide’s offense found the end zone six plays later as Young hit tight end Cameron Latu for an 8-yard score on third-and-goal to cut the Rebels’ lead to three points at the half. From there, Alabama’s offense came to life, scoring on four of its next five possessions to pull out a 30-24 victory in front of a hostile crowd inside Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.

“There’s a lot of pride we take in playing for Coach Saban," Bryce Young said. "The players that we play with, the players of the past, we take all that heart. Day in and day out, it’s something that’s always on our mind when we’re working every day to play to that standard."

While Alabama was eliminated from SEC contention with LSU's victory over Arkansas earlier in the day, the Crimson Tide's win over Ole Miss allowed it to snap a two-game road losing streak and also prevented the team from dropping back-to-back games for the first time since 2007.

Alabama finished the game with just 317 yards of total offense but gained 198 of those after the second half. While the box score won't be hung in the Crimson Tide's locker room, Saban believes his team's response could say a lot about how it is poised to finish the season.

“I think they have a lot of pride in what the standard of playing at Alabama is,” Saban said. “And they were challenged to play to that standard, to take it personal, to understand that they’re responsible for the identity that they create by how they play on the field. It shouldn’t be anybody else that makes that determination for them, and I think they took it personally and I think they showed it in the game tonight.”