The Alabama Crimson Tide won its third SEC title of the Nick Saban era with its 42-13 win over Missouri in Saturday’s SEC championship game. Mizzou coach Gary Pinkel, on the other hand, lost in the conference title game for the second year in a row.

With that in mind, here’s what we liked and disliked from both coaches and their staffs on Saturday:

WHAT WE LIKED

Alabama: Lane Kiffin and Alabama’s other offensive assistants showed their savvy on the game’s opening series, as the Tide engineered a 10-play, 68-yard touchdown drive to take a lead less than four minutes into the action. The Crimson Tide continued to call short pass plays and bubble screens to take advantage of the cushion Missouri’s defensive backs were giving Alabama’s wideouts, and the strategy worked to perfection. The Tide completed five passes for 39 yards on the drive, and most of that yardage was amassed after the catch. The quick throws neutralized Missouri’s dominant rushing yards and kept the Tide ahead of the chains as it marched to its first score of the game.

Alabama: Not to be outdone by Kiffin and the offense, Kirby Smart had his Alabama defense ready to play in Saturday’s title game. The Tide held Mizzou to just 41 yards rushing on 23 attempts, and average of 1.8 yards per carry. Smart leaned on the depth of his front seven and allowed his defense to play aggressive up front, even as Missouri quarterback Maty Mauk began to beat the Tide over the top. Smart dared Mauk to beat Alabama through the air, and even when he did on a handful of plays Smart never wavered. The Tigers inability to stay in front of the chains on early downs allowed Alabama’s defense to dominate for most of the night.

Alabama: The Crimson Tide wasn’t hesitant to look Amari Cooper’s way early in the game, throwing him seven passes in the first quarter alone. However, it’s the way Kiffin used Cooper on a play that wasn’t designed for the dynamic wideout that proved to be one of his best coaching moves of the day. Alabama ran a play-action fake late in the first quarter and had two receivers available down the field. Cooper ran a crossing route across the middle, sucking in the defense while DeAndrew White streaked down the field toward the end zone. Blake Sims found White wide open for a touchdown, and Kiffin’s use of Cooper as a decoy to open up White was simply brilliant. Check out the play below:

Missouri: Pinkel’s best coaching move on Saturday came at the start of the second half, as Missouri trailed 21-3 and appeared in danger of being blown out by the Tide. The Tigers responded with the same resiliency Pinkel has instilled in the team all year, scoring on back to back drives to open the half to cut the lead to just eight points. Alabama proved too much for Missouri to handle, but this game could have been even more one-sided than the final score leads on had Pinkel not settled his team (playing without Shane Ray, for what it’s worth). No coach in the SEC did more with less this season, and the way Missouri responded coming out of halftime showed how Pinkel was able to make it all possible.

WHAT WE DISLIKED

Alabama: It may be nit-picky, but Alabama’s defensive assistants did not make enough adjustments to contain Missouri on its broken plays throughout the first three quarters of the game. The Tigers’ four best plays of the game came on scramble drills in which Alabama’s defensive backs did not do enough to finish out the play. Ultimately, the Tide held Missouri to only 13 points, but had the coaching staff made the adjustments to help the secondary keep up on those extended plays, it might have won by even more. Alabama’s secondary appeared leaps and bounds ahead of where it was against Auburn, but it was still the weakest unit in the Tide’s monumental victory.

Missouri: Gary Pinkel and his offensive assistants did not set up Mauk with easy throws early in the game, and as a result he was never able to get into rhythm from the pocket. Most of Mauk’s production came on broken plays and heaves down the field, but when settled in the pocket he was unable to make plays through the air against a ferocious Alabama secondary. Had Pinkel taken a page out of Saban and Kiffin’s game plan and worked a handful of short, simple throws into the opening-game play script, Mauk may have grown comfortable from the pocket and had a chance to make something happen in the pass game. Instead, he spent most of the day running for his life and making difficult throws from sideline to sideline. As the 29-point margin indicates, that strategy did not work well for Pinkel and Mizzou.