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There is wisdom to be found in the advice of how to manage difficult and stressful situations. In particular, when there is something to be celebrated, celebrate it.
It’s hard to do anything but celebrate a 34-0 Homecoming victory over a quality opponent in Missouri, and that’s probably what Alabama’s staff, and head coach Kalen DeBoer in particular, should do following a tough month that saw all the vultures emerge to pick the carrion from the program’s corpse. This victory, especially how Alabama went about securing it, should forestall the funeral party at least for a couple of weeks, and if Alabama can repeat this performance against LSU in Baton Rouge, there might not be any further handwringing for the balance of the regular season at least.
Alabama started slowly enough, building a 6-0 lead on a pair of field goals. But even that had a silver lining to it, because it put Graham Nicholson on the hook to deliver the kicks. Nicholson came into the game just 2-of-4 on the year, previously asked to either hit chip shots or long-range kicks with not much in between. Nicholson’s two makes in this game should quiet some of the concerns around the kicking game, at least on kicks of less than 50 yards.
Granted, this was not vintage Missouri that Alabama was facing. As long as Alabama’s injury list was coming into this game, Missouri’s was longer, and included starting quarterback Brady Cook and starting running back Nate Noel. Noel didn’t play in this game, and Cook probably wishes he hadn’t. Cook made it through a half of football before sustaining another injury, this one to his hand, giving way to Drew Pyne and, briefly, J.R. Blood in the second half.
In the meantime, Alabama finally got its running game back to the land of the living, netting 271 yards on the ground for the day, and most importantly, keeping the team’s turnover count at zero while grabbing three interceptions off Missouri quarterbacks.
Bama’s total domination of the turnover board, along with keeping Missouri’s offensive line busy with effective pressure, rendered some stats meaningless, like third-down conversions. Neither team did particularly well in that category, but Alabama was more effective in in extending drives, putting up longer gains and converting scoring opportunities.
It was a welcome respite for a team that got back into town from Knoxville licking its wounds and trying to answer some hard questions about discipline, toughness and both the short- and long-term future of the program itself. And while not all those questions were answered with a blowout win over Missouri – a team that has struggled against all the better opponents on its 2024 schedule thus far – the positives out of this game far outweigh the negatives.
The next step for Alabama is to put some continuity into the mix and see if it can save the souffle before it falls. The Crimson Tide is off next week before heading to Baton Rouge the following Saturday. If Alabama can put up a road performance more like the Wisconsin game and less like the Tennessee and Vanderbilt games, it has a real chance to do damage against an LSU team that has a defense far more inconsistent than what Alabama has fielded thus far.
In a year that has turned into an exercise of taking one game at a time, the Missouri win stands by itself as a significant achievement. Taken as a part of the greater whole, it’s a step in the right direction, but not the end of the road.
Here’s the Five-Point Breakdown for Alabama-Missouri:
- DL did a better job getting pressure and reading gaps. It’s not going to immediately show up on the stat sheet, because by the time Missouri was finished throwing the white flag late in the game and calling run play after run play on Alabama’s third team in an effort to shorten the game, the Tigers put up 177 yards on 39 carries. They were rarely effective carries, however. Alabama’s defensive line did a good job closing gaps up front and keeping early-down carries to minimal yardage. When Alabama finally subbed in inexperienced players late like Edric Hill and Hunter Osborne, the difference was notable. The starters, however, held their own and made good on our pregame pick that the Crimson Tide DL controlled its OL-DL matchup against the Missouri offensive line. Alabama also noticeably toughened as Missouri drives went along, keeping the Tigers mostly out of Bama territory and stopping the one real drive that ended in a scoring threat. Alabama also got good play out of its ends; L.T. Overton was again impactful, Jordan Renaud blew up a couple of plays and the Wolf backers made impacts, too, While Alabama recorded just one sack on the day, it flushed Cook and Pyne from the pocket on multiple occasions; two of Alabama’s interceptions occurred after the quarterback had been affected.
- ILB play looked more focused and gap-sound. Jihaad Campbell had a solid day at the top of the stat sheet, leading the team in tackles, getting a key sack and – probably most importantly – arriving to the spot more quickly than the past couple of weeks. Deontae Lawson had a solid day, as did Justin Jefferson, whose role as a third linebacker in Bama’s 4-3 package has made him an understated, yet highly effective playmaker. It makes one wonder whether Vanderbilt would have had some of the success it had inside had Jefferson been available that day. And we need to tip our hat to freshman Justin Okoronkwo, who recorded 5 tackles in less than a quarter of work, and was in on the fourth-down stop near the goal line.
- Running game worked because of better blocking, but more than that, a more aggressive profile from the RBs. Jam Miller had his usual solid effort and scored on a nice play that went to the front pylon, but if Justice Haynes can continue to put together performances like this one, the Missouri game will be hailed as the turning point in his season. Haynes had 85 yards on 8 carries, including a 35-yard touchdown. More importantly, he started to show some of the explosiveness and churning legwork that he displayed in brief auditions in 2023. Alabama also got nice effort from reserves Richard Young and Daniel Hill late in the game. Jalen Milroe would have probably added a second touchdown had Elijah Pritchett not missed a block on a designed QB run in the same drive as Miller’s second touchdown. Bama’s 271 yards on 37 attempts, an average of 7.3 yards per carry, plus 4 rushing touchdowns ought to make everyone in the backfield feel better.
- New additions to the secondary played well, and what Alabama did to Missouri quarterbacks was very impressive. All eyes were on Bray Hubbard, who replaced Keon Sabb, now likely out for the year with a foot injury. Hubbard got an interception in this game, but it was his productivity – he was Bama’s second-leading tackler with 7 on the day – along with his confidence and consistency that should calm some fears. Hubbard never seemed to be out of spot on the day and we don’t recall him having to run down someone he failed to cover. DaShawn Jones got his first work at nickel safety after being exclusively at cornerback up to now, and also did well. Zavier Mincey got his first work at nickel, too, and while he recorded 4 tackles, he probably needs some seasoning before being called upon when the chips are down. Overall, Alabama held Missouri quarterbacks to 72 total yards on 13-of-24 passing, intercepted the Tiger QBs 3 times and generally negated whatever advantage in experience or downfield throwing ability they brought to the table.
- Still a few penalty issues to clear up, and there were some execution errors in the passing game that could have proved costly. Never leave a game behind without finding something to work on. Alabama was flagged 7 times on the day, which is actually an improvement on its season average, but there were a couple of critical holding penalties that wiped out gains and WR Kendrick Law could have been flagged on another one that the officials missed. This was not a well-called game overall, but that’s not the point. The point is that Alabama still has to clean up the penalty number and cut it about in half going forward. Overall, QB Jalen Milroe had a nice bounceback from the Tennessee game; he ran the ball better, and neither sack he suffered was his fault. But he missed, or didn’t throw well, a handful of passes that in a tighter game, could have proven costly. He again missed Williams sitting wide open on a midrange throw, and missed on a potential third-down completion to Kobe Prentice on a ball that was badly placed, hurried, and probably should have gone to Williams on a different route anyway. Still, it’s a lot easier to work on these things coming off a 34-0 win rather than a 24-17 loss.
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