3 takeaways from Alabama's dominant win against Mizzou
If that was a Playoff elimination game, there was little doubt who was on the outside looking in.
Mizzou, who lost Brady Cook to that lingering ankle injury after he entered the day as a questionable starter, didn’t have much of a chance of stringing scoring drives together before or after he exited.
Alabama cruised to a 34-0 victory to preserve its Playoff chances. The much-maligned Tide defense got a shutout, albeit against a Mizzou offense that lost Cook and was without starting running back Nate Noel.
Here were 3 takeaways from the Tide’s blowout win:
1. The Alabama offense didn’t set the world on fire, but it did what it had to do
That is, don’t turn the ball over and take advantage of short fields. Against that version of Mizzou, that combination was all that was needed to shake off a slow start. Jalen Milroe still took some sacks that could’ve easily turned into turnovers, but he held onto the football and avoided the disastrous mistakes that would’ve kept Mizzou hanging around. It didn’t even matter on Saturday that Alabama didn’t convert a 3rd down in the first half.
It was a Malachi Moore interception of Pyne that set up the Tide’s first touchdown drive of the day late in the first half. Milroe was more decisive with his legs, which made up for the quiet day he had trying to stretch the field with Ryan Williams.
Whatever the case, it was a much more encouraging second-half showing from the Alabama offense than a week ago at Tennessee. Alabama’s rushing attack accounted for all 4 touchdowns and it finished the day with 282 sack-adjusted rushing yards.
2. What a bummer of a year this turned into for Brady Cook
A week after Cook returned from the hospital to lead Mizzou back from a double-digit deficit to beat Auburn, he wasn’t quite as fortunate against the other SEC team from the state of Alabama. He exited a 6-0 game in the second quarter after he got banged up going down near the sideline. Unlike last week, Cook spent the entire second half on the sideline in sweats while Pyne threw 3 interceptions and failed to lead a scoring drive.
It was a frustrating end to his day, but really, this has been a frustrating year for Cook. Mizzou’s offense never really took off. A group that could’ve threatened to be Mizzou’s best scoring offense since the Chase Daniel days never materialized in part because of Cook’s struggles in the downfield passing game.
While a second loss isn’t technically an eliminator in this era of the 12-team Playoff, it felt like a dagger for a Mizzou team who lacks quality wins … but doesn’t lack blowout losses.
3. Playoff chances are alive, but … those discipline issues linger for Alabama
That was Alabama’s first game that was decided by more than 1 score since Week 3 at Wisconsin. It had been a minute since the Tide got a Saturday to put it on cruise control in the second half. Dating back to last year’s Iron Bowl, Alabama entered the day with 6 consecutive 1-score games against SEC competition.
That’s worth mentioning because Alabama might’ve cruised, but it played to its competition so much in part because of the penalties. The Tide entered the day ranked No. 128 in FBS in penalty yards per game (78.3). That continued on Saturday with 7 penalties for 85 yards.
Alabama will look to take care of that during a bye week before that massive showdown at LSU.
Congrats to Bama on the win. Took case of business.
Jalen ‘joy’ Milroe continues to miss wide open receivers and not identify open receivers. How many long drives did Bama have. This team may still lose two more games. (Auburn will consider the season a success if they beat Bama.
If we had any semblance of an offense we could’ve won that game. Poor play calling when Cook was in, and then our backup might as well have been Peewee Herman. How did that guy win games at ND? Our defense actually played well, considering they spent 90% of the game on the field.
Maybe not win, but could’ve made it competitive at least and given ourselves a chance. Alabama left the door open for us multiple times in the first half.
This might be one of the dumbest comments ever. First, your defense was on the field 90% is just dumb seeing Missouri win the TOP. Missouri never stood a chance today. Go back to your sister and feed big Bertha.
Tough talk from a bammer saying “go back to your sister.” I don’t even have one, but tell yours I said hi. Look at my second comment Doogie, first comment was a classic overreaction.
I can’t even believe what a dumb comment this is. Dude, Missouri had absolutely NO chance in that game. The better comment would be, if Alabama was sputtering a bit in the first half, they would have won this game by 60 points. Missouri is aweful.
It’s not that Mizzou had no chance, only that they gave away any chance they had. We absolutely could’ve made it a game if we had capitalized on opportunities Alabama handed to us on a silver platter in the first half. Just like the A&M game, a few things don’t go our way and we tuck our tails and give up. Not that it’s surprising, our offense has been ugly all year.
Is that a joke ? You lost 34-0 man, get real, with or without Brady y’all are losing that game.
I’m just mad. Went into this year thinking we could be real contenders, only to find out we’re frauds. I guess now I know what it feels like to be a Tennessee fan.
So if you had a better offense you might have won? Wouldn’t that be true about any team that fails to outscore the other team? Our in Missouri’s case, score at all? But the good news is Missouri drew one of the easiest schedules. Your team will be favored in all the last four games.
That is true. Had we scored more than Bama today we would have won. I’m just angry. We had an opportunity today, albeit small, and we blew it. Alabama handed us chances to
capitalize early and we totally failed. Then when Cook left the game the team gave up completely. Piss poor. Congrats on the whippin though.
Actually, The TOP was the same. Missouri had the ball 1 second more than Bama.
I don’t let facts ruin my anger
If I was a bama fan I wouldn’t take much from this. If Cooks healthy the game is probably pretty close and Mizzou is awful on offense. Defense quit the second half after pine threw the 3 picks. A Saban Bama team wins this game 63-0
Cook averaged approximately 2.5 yards per pass attempt. He would not have made much difference. He may have thrown fewer picks, but he may have thrown more.
CFB is kind of hard to watch, celebrating, penalties, taunting, etc… just bad.
I agree.
Cook did not leave the game because of his ankle, but because he hit his throwing hand on a helmet twice. This was discussed on the telecast, and on numerous articles that you guys regularly lift content from. You should know it.
FB team performance =a match up result.
It’s also a roster availability result.
It’s a OC result.
It’s what the refs allow/disallow., which means if the conference assigns the refs they can favor the strengths/ or illegalities like holding of one side or the other. In this game the Camera crew showed the excessive and prolific holding being allowed. Even the most simple minded fan knows this was not a 34-0 match up for Alabama even with the injuries. The commissioner of the league needs to be honest about what they are going to promote. At the same time it’s Fair to recognize the honest set of football performances either roster displayed, if you recorded the game watch it again, both programs will be doing that!!!
Not going to get much sympathy from Bama fans when Bama is ranked 130th in penalties acessed.