Alabama logged its first shutout since the season opener in a 34-0 win over Missouri after the Tigers were faced with a quarterback catastrophe.
“As cliche as it is, it’s 1-0,” quarterback Jalen Milroe said about focusing on one game at a time. “Every opportunity we have, we’re going to do our best. The requirement of the play is to be our best in everything that we do, but we acknowledge that playing in the SEC is a hard test.”
Following a week of questions about the possibility of Missouri quarterback Brady Cook playing against Alabama, Cook was confirmed to play after being listed as a game-time decision on Missouri’s injury report. However, he didn’t last long, as he left with an upper-body injury early in the game.
Backup quarterback Drew Pyne entered the game and struggled to keep the ball out of the hands of Alabama defenders.
Pyne threw three interceptions, the first one coming from defensive back Malachi Moore, who ran for 31 yards to the Missouri 35-yard line. This ultimately led to a touchdown from running back Jam Miller three plays later to bring in Alabama’s third score of the game, coming after 47-yard and 39-yard field goals by kicker Graham Nicholson. The score at halftime was 13-0.
“Graham did a nice job of getting a couple there in the first half, and that was good just to get some points,” head coach Kalen DeBoer said. “Then the defense just continued to keep fighting, get the takeaways. … We got put in a couple spots just because we couldn’t get the field flipped, and they flipped the field.”
In the third quarter, Milroe ran for a 9-yard touchdown that brought the score to 20-0. Pyne threw another interception on the drive following Milroe’s score, this time to free safety Bray Hubbard.
Missouri’s final interception came from a pass intended for tight end Brett Norfleet that was snagged by Alabama linebacker Que Robinson. Once again, this led to an Alabama touchdown, as Miller dove into the end zone for an 11-yard score that brought the game to 27-0.
Alabama’s final score of the game came with just over 11 minutes in the fourth quarter. After a 26-yard pass from Milroe to wide receiver Ryan Williams to the Missouri 35-yard line, running back Justice Haynes finished the job with a 35-yard run in which he blew through a Missouri defender to find the endzone and bring the score to 34-0.
“There’s always gonna be one guy, and it’s gonna be you one-on-one,” Haynes said about honing in on individual matchups. “We do a great job in practice of [repping] that stuff, putting us in situations where you have to make something special happen.”
Alabama will have a week of rest before facing a different set of Tigers, heading to LSU for a high-stakes conference matchup on Nov. 9.
