Coming into the showdown against the Tide, Missouri was averaging close to 300 yards per game on the ground. The Missouri rushing attack is led by Ahmad Hardy, who was in the top five for Heisman betting this week, and former Penn State quarterback Beau Pribula. The Tide effectively shut down the rushing attack for Missouri to leave Columbia with a win.
Alabama held the nation's leading rusher, Ahmad Hardy, to 52 yards on 12 carries.
— Michael Casagrande (@ByCasagrande) October 11, 2025
That's his lowest total since Week 3 last year at Texas.
The Tide's defense stifled the rushing attack and held Ahmad Hardy to just 52 yards on 12 carries. The Tide held the Missouri offense to just 163 rushing yards on the day. Criticism of the Tide's rushing defense has been rampant online since the week one loss to FSU. The Tide gave up huge runs on their way to an upset win against Georgia a couple of weeks ago. It seems, though, that Alabama's run defense has settled down and played better over the last few games.
Ahmad Hardy had run for at least a hundred yards in every game this season before the Tide came to town and held him to half of that. He was also held scoreless in Saturday's showdown. Missouri had a game plan to run the ball effectively, win the time of possession, and impose its will on Alabama's defense. Alabama's front seven played well against the run, their offense controlled and won the time of possession, and forced Pribula to air it out to win the game. They created a recipe for disaster by putting the ball in Pribula's hands and out of Hardy's.
It would be foolish, though, to claim that Alabama dominated the trenches in this football game, with the offensive line and Ty Simpson struggling against Mizzou's pressure, but the defensive front seven did impose their will and ruined another Heisman hopeful's campaign, similar to Leonard Fournette's campaign in 2016. Ahmad Hardy came into the game averaging seven yards per rush and had that halved by the Tide.
Stats provided by ESPN and CFBstats.com