The Alabama Crimson Tide rolled to an easy 38-19 victory over Mizzou on Saturday night in a game that wasn’t even as close as that score indicates.

The Tigers scored 13 points in the fourth quarter, by which time the Tide had taken out most of their starters.

Still, star LB Dylan Moses thought the Alabama defense could have been better, especially in the second half (via 247Sports):

“I feel like we have a really special defense,” Moses said. “I wasn’t impressed with the way we played tonight. We played very well our first half, but in the second half, I just feel like we need to finish. It’s our first game, so we just need to improve.”

This is a team that was disappointed with an 11-win season in 2019, so we shouldn’t be too surprised Moses wants to see more from himself and the defense.

However, in this strange year, where players didn’t have a full offseason program, coaches are going to have to balance going for strong performances with resting players. Letting Mizzou score a couple of late garbage time touchdowns is better than potentially risking a starting defender suffering a serious injury.

We’ll see how coach Nick Saban continues to balance that when the Tide are blowing out opponents moving forward.