Alabama football will have its way with Missouri in season opener

Alabama football is loaded and ready to challenge for another national championship under Nick Saban and begin the season on Saturday against Missouri.

It took an injury to their superstar quarterback, a once-in-a-generation LSU team and some turnovers in the Iron Bowl against Auburn to prevent Alabama from making the College Football Playoff for a sixth straight season.

The Crimson Tide will be out for revenge this season and the first team in their path will be Missouri, which is breaking in a new coach and quarterback.

Mac Jones has gotten the nod once again at quarterback after filling in once Tua Tagovailoa went down with an injury and was out for the season and Jones played pretty well. There were a couple of turnovers against a very good Auburn defense, but Jones made some plays in that game and then torched Michigan in their bowl game.

Mac Jones will have plenty of weapons with running back Najee Harris, receivers Jaylen Waddle and Devonta Smith, and the offensive line returns Alex Leatherwood at offensive tackle. The defense should return to form with linebacker Dylan Moses returning from injury and cornerback Patrick Surtain Jr. back to anchor the secondary.

Missouri is starting over once again after firing Barry Odom after last season and hiring Appalachian State head coach Elijah Drinkwitz. He only coached the Mountaineers for one season, but it was a heck of a year as he led the Mountaineers to a 13-1 record and a Sun Belt title before leaving for Columbia.

There will be a lot of turnover on the offensive side of the football for Drinkwitz and the schedule is not doing them any favors either. Missouri will look completely different on both sides of the ball and that is never a good thing when playing Alabama.

Here is how you can watch Alabama vs. Missouri on Saturday night:

Date: Saturday, Sept. 26
Time: 7 p.m. ET
Location: Columbia, Mo.
Venue: Memorial Stadium/Faurot Field
TV: ESPN
Live Stream: WatchESPN

Keys to Victory

For Alabama, everything is reliant on Jones and how he makes this offense move. Nobody is expecting him to be Tua, but he can’t turn the ball over or put the Crimson Tide in bad field position and give a much inferior team any easy points. Jones’ turnovers were a costly factor in the game against Auburn last season and will be the only thing stopping what might be the nation’s most talented offense.

The defense for the Tide will have to stop the run, because if you have watched App State in recent years. that is how you beat them and I think that Drinkwitz will try to be very similar in that regard.

For Missouri, it is going to have to have every single thing in this football game go its way and even that might not be enough. Causing turnovers and getting easy points in Alabama territory is a must when facing a team of this caliber. App State was known for time consuming drives and being efficient on offense and that is going to have to happen in spades for Missouri to even have a prayer in this game.

Betting Odds

Odds courtesy of The Action Network

Point Spread: Alabama -26.5
Over/Under: 56.5

Prediction

I think that Alabama is one of the favorites to make it to the playoff and it’s going to show why on Saturday night. The Crimson Tide have far too many playmakers on offense to think that Missouri’s defense can hold them to fewer than 30 or 40 points. Alabama’s defense is much healthier than last years unit and they will be eager to prove that they are still a dominant unit with the offense getting all of the headlines. This one gets ugly and gets ugly quickly.

Final Score: Alabama 48, Missouri 10