Alabama Football brought back some murderball and it was in no way joyless

Alabama Football dominated Missouri on Saturday afternoon in Tuscaloosa. The 34-0 Homecoming win was in some ways a throwback to some old Nick Saban teams that won with a 'joyless murderball' approach.

Alabama had some more physically dominating defenses than Kane Wommack has this season. Missouri, first without a healthy Brady Cook, then without Cook at all, did much to stop itself. That was especially true of backup Missouri QB, Drew Pyne, who threw three interceptions in only 12 passing attempts. Malachi Moore and Bray Hubbard knew exactly where to be to swoop in for two passes Pyne threw up for grabs.

The Alabama Football defense didn't give much when the Tigers had some offensive success. The Tigers went into Saturday's game averaging 4.92 yards per play against SEC opponents. Missouri averaged just 3.8 yards against the Alabama Crimson Tide. Talking about the Crimson Tide defense after the game, Kalen DeBoer said, "I wanted them to really get that shutout there. That's why I called the timeout. I wanted that for them because I know they've been working extremely hard and staying the course." DeBoer was talking about the 4th down stop Alabama made to preserve the shutout. After the timeout, with starters re-inserted, Missouri was stuffed for a two-yard loss.

For the first time since the win over Georgia the Alabama Crimson Tide offense and defense complemented each other. It did not happen easily or quickly, with the Alabama defense solid throughout but the offense needing almost two full quarters to score a touchdown. In the second half, the Crimson Tide offense came to life and carried its load.

Alabama Football Rushing Attack

The major improvement for the Alabama offense came from its rushing attack. In SEC play, Missouri was allowing an average of 4.6 yards. Alabama ran the ball for a sack-adjusted, 282 yards, an average of 8.1 yards per carry.

After the game, Kalen DeBoer talked about both sides of the ball, saying, "I thought there was a different level of physicality today, on both sides." DeBoer added, "There's always areas we can correct and be better. ... I feel like we're just right on the edge." Beating a ranked SEC team, 34-0, with Alabama still having room for improvement is impressive. So no matter how much Alabama Football on Saturday resembled the Tide's old murderball teams; there was nothing joyless about it.

Note: Player and team stats provided by ESPN and cfbstats.com