3 things to watch for when No. 21 Mizzou faces No. 15 Alabama

Here comes the big one.

No.

21 Missouris biggest game of the season so far is on tap for Saturday afternoon in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where the Tigers (6-1, 2-1 SEC) will face the No.

15 Crimson Tide (5-2, 2-2 SEC).

The game will kick off at 2:30 p.m.

and be televised nationally on ABC (KDNL, Channel 30 locally).

Mizzou will enter Bryant-Denny Stadium as a clear underdog, and its chances of staging an upset are likely to be determined by the health of key offensive players namely quarterback Brady Cook, who is expected to try to play after suffering a high ankle sprain against Auburn last Saturday.

At a surface level, thats the most important thing to watch for: Whether Cook or any of the 10 MU players listed on the first injury report of the week are healthy enough to play could listing almost the entire crop of safeties as questionable be mostly gamesmanship from coach Eli Drinkwitz? But there are plenty of other storylines and keys to the game beyond simply which players ultimately put on their pads Saturday afternoon.

Here are three things to watch for when Mizzou takes on Alabama this weekend: Postseason stakes? It may be October and still a couple of weeks before the College Football Playoff Selection Committee releases its first rankings of the season, but this showdown between the Tigers and the Tide could functionally be a CFP elimination game.

Alabama has two losses already.

A third would make its win-out ceiling 9-3 overall, which could be a tough sell to the playoff selection committee.

Mizzou has only one defeat, but with a second its best result would be a 10-2 record.

The Tigers signature win would then be beating Vanderbilt, which has aged well in the wake of the Commodores beating Bama, but MU wont have the opportunity to make a splash against a highly regarded opponent after this weekend.

To be clear: Its still too early to say with complete certainty that a loss would remove either team completely from landing a spot in the 12-team College Football Playoff.

But the loser of Saturdays game will likely relinquish control of their destiny and need help to sneak into the bracket as a bubble team.

The impacts of this storyline will unfold in the weeks after the end of the game, but it raises the stakes of what will happen on the field.

Coaching reunions When the Missouri and Alabama coaches shake hands after the game, itll be something of a reunion special.

Mizzou offensive coordinator Kirby Moore and Tide coach Kalen DeBoer twice overlapped at Fresno State.

When DeBoer was the Bulldogs offensive coordinator from 2017-2018, Moore was their wide receivers coach.

And when DeBoer returned as Fresno States head coach in 2020, Moore became the passing game coordinator.

Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the ball, Alabama defensive coordinator Kane Wommack hired Missouri defensive coordinator Corey Batoon at South Alabama, where they worked together until both left the school for SEC opportunities in January.

Thats interesting because there is quite a bit of familiarity from both sides of the ball on what schemes (they run), Drinkwitz said.

The Tides run game is quite different from Mizzous, Drinkwitz said, but their passing attack is quite similar.

Our quarterback can watch all the (Alabama) throws and say, OK, thats this concept, this concept, this concept,' he said.

The challenge is we dont know when theyre going to do it.

The Tigers have used their first-team offense and defense against each other in practice to get acclimated with going against a schematically similar team, but its not an exact science.

Its going to be the players on the field making plays, and were going to try to put them in the best positions possible to defend what they do, Drinkwitz said.

Obviously, I think both sides of the ball will try to have some wrinkles that put us in a bind, whether its for us, offensively, a coverage that we dont like or defensively, a motion we dont like.

Fixing coverage busts Theres another similarity between Alabama and Missouri that could come into play Saturday: Both teams secondaries have been prone to coverage busts.

The Crimson Tide gave Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava opportunities to heave the ball deep in their loss to the Vols and have given opposing wide receivers chances to skirt over the top more often than theyd like.

MU, meanwhile, has given up long touchdowns because of broken coverages to Boston College, Vanderbilt and Auburn.

For the sake of solid coverage, the Tigers are gonna need blankets, Drinkwitz joked, before getting into the real keys for Mizzous defensive backs.

Were gonna have to do our jobs, he said.

I think Coach Batoon has a pretty good feel of mixing up coverages, and I thought we did a really good job of that on Saturday.

But we cannot let the deep ball beat us.

Thats been an issue for us.

Weve given up way too many deep balls, deep shots.

...

Were gonna have to keep the ball in front of us.

That aligns with what the Tide coaches have told their cornerbacks and safeties.

You want to make sure that youre staying on top of routes, Wommack said.

Theres times where youre going to challenge routes in the first 10 yards, so theres different ways of being able to defend the deep ball..

This article has been shared from the original article on stltoday, here is the link to the original article.