Alabama football may have finally found its offensive identity in Missouri win

It took seven games, but Alabama football may have finally discovered its offensive identity in Saturday afternoon's 34-0 drubbing of No. 21 Missouri at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

The Alabama offense had struggled the last two weeks, sputtering for large parts of the South Carolina win and then looking totally inept in last week's loss in Knoxville. It was more of the same in the first half against Missouri.

After a strong opening drive that led to a field goal, Alabama went three-and-out on back-to-back possessions before mustering 14 yards across seven plays on the next possession. Alabama mustered another long field goal drive to take a 6-0 lead with just over four minutes to play in the half.

A Malachi Moore interception set up a Jalen Milroe touchdown to give Alabama a 13-0 lead at halftime and some breathing room.

In the second half, it was the Crimson Tide's running game that took over. A 32-yard run by Milroe on the opening drive of the second half ultimatley set up a touchdown, with Milroe running it in from nine yards out to make it 20-0.

Two drives later, Justice Haynes busted a 28 yard run that set up an 11 yard touchdown run by Jam Miller.

In the 4th quarter, Alabama finally showed that it could lean on the opposition and put the game away on the ground. Leading 27-0, Alabama took the ball and Haynes broke a 10-yard run right away to get the ball rolling. Back-to-back Miller runs set up Alabama with a third-and-four, and Milroe connected with Ryan Williams for a 26 yard gain to move the chains. Then, with the exclamation point, Haynes broke a 35-yard touchdown run that included him absolutely trucking a Missouri safety in the open field.

Even third stringer Richard Young got in on the action, busting a 62 yard run to get Alabama off of its own goal line, which ultimately allowed the Tide to finish the game with the ball in the offense's hands to ensure a shutout.

Alabama ran the ball for 271 yards on 37 attempts for four touchdowns on a 7.3 yards-per-carry average. It was the Tide's most prolific rushing outing since the season opener against Western Kentucky, and just the second time this season they went over 200 yards on the ground.

Alabama fans had been wanting to see the ground game get going for weeks. It was often perplexing to see the struggles with an offensive line that should be pretty dominant on paper. Neither back had done a lot to help themselves at times, but they had also been largely ignored in the offensive gameplan for far too often.

Last week against Tennessee, way too much was put on Milroe's shoulders, something that had become a theme. Milroe was expected to be superhuman week after week, and as soon as he started struggling, so too did the Crimson Tide's offense. Complimentary football isn't just your offense and defense playing well at the same time; it's your running game and passing game working in sync to move the football.

Last week, Milroe threw the ball 45 times versus just 34 running plays. This week, Milroe threw 26 passes to 37 running plays. A much better balance for what the strength of this offense should be.

DeBoer's comments after the game are encouraging. It looks like the staff spent the week evaluating what needed to be done to get the offense on track, and the team went out and executed it on Saturday.

As much as Milroe wants to be, and as much as Kalen DeBoer and Nick Sheridan want to make him into one, Milroe is not a pocket passing QB. His best weapon is what he can do with his legs, and with two talented running backs flanking him, the Crimson Tide has the ability to be a really devastating running team.

Too often the play calling has gone away from the running game if there wasn't immediate success. Being patient is key as a play-caller, and running the football in this league is a marathon, not a sprint. You have to be comfortable with moving the ball in small chunks, three or four yards at a time, and eventually the dam will break like it did in the 4th quarter with Haynes' long touchdown run.

This has to be the identity of this Alabama football team moving forward. Milroe is a special talent, and he'll have moments where he can put the team on his back and win football games. But he needs help, and it had been obvious for weeks that he was weakened by the burden he'd been forced to shoulder for the offense.

A more balanced attack on the ground will lead to opportunities to take those shot plays down the field. It'll force the safeties to creep up and open up one-on-one chances for guys like Williams and Germie Bernard.

Alabama now has a bye week where they can reinforce this learned identity. Because following the bye is the biggest game of the year, a road tilt in Baton Rouge against LSU where Alabama can earn another big win for its playoff resume by defeating the Bayou Bengals, or they could lose and kiss their College Football Playoff hopes goodbye.