re: Missouri is going to give us hell.

I think the big questions for this game is how much of an advantage does Mizzou have in the externalities: home field advantage, bye week rest and prep advantage, and frankly having a softer schedule than Alabama's thus far too.

Missouri's offense is built on the outside zone stretch run and counters and play action bootlegs to punish you for over pursuing to the play side edge. Their QB is a good athlete but wants to throw off the boot actions. However he can make you pay for not keeping him hemmed in. Very Ty Simpson type athlete for the QB position. Not a focus of their attack but it can be a factor.

On paper, that seems like a problem for our defense that has problems with setting the edge of the defense plus pursuit and run fits from the 2nd level defenders. It's not all bad news though. I do not think Mizzou is a great defense and they may be quite porous in the secondary.

Another weekend where we're going to learn a lot about how this staff maintains the mental edge with the players. They cannot sleep walk this one. Mizzou possesses the ability to beat Alabama. Converting long drives into touchdowns instead of field goal attempts is going to loom large over this game. Alabama has 7 long drives in the last two games that have resulted in 5/7 FGM. The staff is clearly trying to play complimentary football with ball control offense. Doing this and having consistent success is likely going to require much higher TD rate on possessions to avoid every single game coming down to a 4th down stop or 3rd/4th down conversion to ice the game.