In the parlance of Little Leaguers everywhere, Mac Jones’ momma probably thought he didn’t even play last Saturday at Arkansas.

The Alabama quarterback, he of the burgeoning dad bod and unlimited supply of moxie, left Donald W. Reynolds Razorbacks Stadium looking pretty much exactly the way he did 4 hours earlier: all-white Alabama jersey and pants still sparkling like they were fresh out of the washing machine.

Not only did Arkansas not sack Jones in Alabama’s 52-3 destruction of the Razorbacks, Jones was barely breathed on all afternoon. It was if new Dodge Chargers were offered to all the Crimson Tide offensive linemen if Jones didn’t escape Fayetteville with a single grass stain or grain of dirt under his Heisman fingernails.

Not that we condone such transactions, but that would certainly have been a wise strategy. You don’t want to totally bubble-wrap your best players on the eve of the SEC Championship Game, or even (we see you, Dan Mullen …) bench them as a healthy scratch. Players gotta play. Just as you wouldn’t grant Jones the entire week off of classes in Tuscaloosa in fear that he might get hit by a sorority girl’s 4Runner, the best way to win a football game is to let your stars get after it until the game is safely out of reach.

Which is what Alabama did Saturday, with Alabama’s offensive line constructing a significant imitation of Fort Knox around Jones — so secure that Jones almost ran out of Mississippis to count to before finally letting some throws go. It partially was a by-product of Arkansas dropping what felt like double digits into coverage for most of the game — a strategy that resulted in a death by 1,000 paper cuts instead of a single swift swipe of Jones’ sword.

“They tried to keep everything in front,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said. “We thought they’d try to play us that way and they played that way most of the year and they were pretty effective doing it and they still stopped the run pretty well.”

Before he retreated permanently to the Alabama sideline with his untouched togs, Jones was 24-of-29 with 208 yards and was held without a touchdown for just the 2nd time this season.

“I thought Mac did a really good job of taking what the defense gives and hit the check downs,” Saban said. “You have to catch it and run sometimes when you play against a team like that.”

Employing a strategy like what Arkansas attempted is perhaps a wise one, provided you have the offensive juice to keep with the Tide. So far in 2020, though, only The Lane Train at Ole Miss had that kind of juice before finally falling short in a wild 63-48 shootout in Oxford.

Since that eye-crossing night on Oct. 10, Alabama’s defense has been just as airtight as Jones and Co. have been potent. The Tide defense has allowed only 11 points on average since Ole Miss, while the Tide offense has piled up 49 points per outing.

Yes, you read that correctly: 49-11 per game in the final 7 games of the regular season. Against SEC opponents, all. It just means more in Tuscaloosa even more than it does anywhere else in the conference.

Jones and his Oxi-clean britches get Florida on Saturday night with a chance to win the program’s 28th SEC championship, and its 7th in Nick Saban’s 14-year tenure at the intersection of Paul W. Bryant Drive and Wallace Wade Avenue. And while Jones’ kit will most certainly be laundered prior to him filling the No. 10 in Atlanta, the Gators don’t exactly send the same chills up the spine after watching the effort put forth against LSU.

Coming into the SEC title game, Tide opponents have only gotten to Jones and backup Bryce Young a total of 14 times this season. Florida has gotten to quarterbacks 31 times this season, slightly better than Alabama’s 27 sacks, but the way the Tide offensive line has been playing you gotta figure Jones won’t taste the Mercedes-Benz Stadium artificial turf too many times en route to the College Football Playoff semifinals.

As is the case in Michelin star-level cooking, it certainly helps to work with the proper ingredients. When Alabama opponents figure their best bet is to stack the box to stop Najee Harris, Jones and the wide receiver corps can torch you deep. Want to do like Arkansas and drop back into a perma-dime? That’s fine, as tight end Miller Forristall can do like he did last weekend via a team-high six catches for 52 yards.

“We can’t be one dimensional in the passing game,” Saban said. “We’ve never really been that way here. (Superstar wide receiver DeVonta Smith) has just had a phenomenal year, but I think we have a lot of confidence in a lot of other players that are very capable. But we have to read it out and take what the defense gives.”

If that sounds dangerously like what a “game manager” quarterback does, well, that’s OK. Jones doesn’t need to get dirty to get the job done, as evidenced by the businesslike effort against Arkansas.

And while Florida should pose more defensive questions than did the Hogs, Jones will put on his No. 10 togs without so much as a hangnail holding him back.