The Alabama football offense can surprise opposing defenses. Surprise plays could be a problem for Missouri on Saturday. They will not be the biggest problem with which the Missouri defense must contend.
Drinkwitz knows that whatever defensive schemes are used by his Missouri Tigers, the Crimson Tide can and will adjust. Calum McAndrew, writing for the Columbia Daily Tribune, stated the Tigers must "pick your poison." McAndrews' interesting read opens with "Eli Drinkwitz is searching for the toxin his Tigers can resist."
Drinkwitz went into detail about defending the Crimson Tide offense, with most of his comments suggesting his team has no good answers.
Eli Drinkwitz and defending the Alabama Crimson Tide
- "The quarterback makes very good decisions, not easily deceived with disguise, unaffected by pressure (and has the) ability to escape. I think those three things make it really difficult to try to gameplan a quarterback on third down. You kind of have to pick your poison. Like, if we play zone, he's going to pick us apart. If we blitz, he's going to stand in there and identify the one-on-one matchup and take it."
- "Do you want to get beat in the pass game or do you want to be light in the box and defend it from explosive passes?” Vandy was playing Cover 2, which is going to leave you short in the run game unless you're trapping it. And then they were able to kind of pick apart the Cover-2 in second-and-long situations."
What Drinkwitz did not highlight is that the Missouri rushing attack may be a mismatch in favor of the Tigers. If Ahmad Hardy continues his dominating after-contact production against the Crimson Tide, the Tigers can shorten the game. Missouri quarterback Beau Pribula is not an equal to Simpson, but he has good short-throw accuracy. Drinkwitz's comments might be perceived as the Missouri coach thinking his team needs a shootout game to win. However, the best Missouri strategy may be to produce clock-chewing scoring drives that can limit Alabama's offensive plays and Ty Simpson's effectiveness.
If Kane Wommack's defense channels some stoutness from the Crimson Tide's history, such as stuffing Ahmad Hardy as it did Leonard Fournette years ago, the Tigers will be toast. And Ryan Grubb will not need to use any surprises.