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.