Ten Thoughts on Mizzou's 38-19 loss to Alabama
Each Sunday morning, we'll offer up ten next day thoughts on Missouri's performance from Saturday. Here are the thoughts on the 38-19 loss to Alabama.
1) I was surprised by how little surprised me. We talked all August and September about how it was going to be impossible to know anything about this team. But what we saw was largely what we thought we would see. Shawn Robinson was the starting quarterback, the Tigers have a couple of very good running backs, the offensive line is a major concern, so is the defensive line, Nick Bolton is a superstar and safety may be Missouri's best overall position. Those were all things we thought in August and they were all things that played out last night. We'll get more in depth on most of those things in the rest of the column, but overall, I saw nothing last night that changes my opinion of what this team and this season will be either positively or negatively. It largely was the game I would have expected to see the day the schedule came out.
2) Last night was more about Alabama than it was about Missouri. I said on the pregame show if Alabama plays an A game it blows Missouri out. If it plays a B game it wins without much trouble. If it plays a C game, it would probably be close, but Bama still might manage to win. That's what the talent difference is. I think last night showed the difference between Nick Saban and coaches like Lincoln Riley and Ed Orgeron and even Kirby Smart. Despite a crazy offseason, despite every distraction imaginable, despite knowing nothing about the other team and not knowing for sure who would be able to play until Friday morning, Saban wasn't going to let his team come out unfocused. He is the king of preparation and it showed. Bama had a three and out on its first drive then scored on the next three possessions to remove any doubt. Jaylen Waddle is an absolute superstar. Mac Jones was very good last night, but to be fair, almost any quarterback is going to be very good when he has so much time that he could eat a snack in the pocket and the equipment guy doesn't have to wash his uniform. That's not saying he's not going to be a good quarterback. He probably will be. But the one chance Missouri had was to throw him off his rhythm and put him under duress. They never did that (the pressure they did get didn't come until freshman Bryce Young was in the game behind a different offensive line).
3) I don't want those first two thoughts to give you the impression there was nothing to like about Missouri's performance.