Alabama heads to the College Football Playoff with its defense looking championship-caliber again.
A week after allowing Auburn to roll up 456 yards and 44 points, the Crimson Tide shut down Missouri in their 42-13 victory in the SEC championship on Saturday at the Georgia Dome.
Missouri’s offense isn’t in Auburn’s class but it’s usually better than this. Alabama held the Tigers to 313 yards and their fewest points since Georgia shut them out on Oct. 11.
“We came out and played a great game,” Alabama safety Landon Collins said. “We played all four quarters, finally.”
Missouri never came close to running the ball effectively (41 yards on 23 carries). Their biggest plays in the passing game came when quarterback Maty Mauk twice escaped rushers on third-and-long and threw down field.
Mauk was 16-for-34 for 272 yards and a touchdown.
“We couldn’t get him off the field on third down,” Alabama defensive end D.J. Pettway said. “But other than that, we were getting pressure. He was throwing a lot of quick, hot routes when we were trying to get pressure. All in all, I think we did pretty good.”
The Crimson Tide never dropped Mauk for a sack but he rarely had much time to throw while taking 11 hits. Missouri’s two longest plays were passes from Mauk to wide receiver Jimmie Hunt after the right-handed quarterback bought time by sprinting to his left away from pressure.
The Tigers faced a third-and-10 when Mauk lofted a pass over safety Geno Smith down the left sideline to Hunt for 63 yards to Alabama’s one-yard line. Up until that point the Tigers had gained just 119 yards on 32 plays (3.7 average).
The Tide stopped Missouri for no gain on three plays before Mauk passed to Bud Sasser for the Tigers’ only touchdown. After Alabama punted, the Tigers threatened to score another touchdown when Mauk again extended a third-and-10 play and passed to Hunt for 47 yards to Alabama’s 17-yard line.
But the Tigers had to settle for Andrew Baggett’s 33-yard field goal and they wouldn’t get close to the end zone again. Alabama snuffed out Missouri’s last gasp in the fourth quarter when Collins forced Missouri wide receiver Darius White to fumble and recovered at Alabama’s 38-yard line.
“Credit to our d-line,” Collins said. “They did a fantastic job containing the quarterback. He got out a few times but as soon as soon as he got out we were running to the ball and making him throw up some crazy passes.”
