Kalen DeBoer made sure he talked to Lotzeir Brooks postgame.
The Alabama coach walked off Faurot Field with his freshman receiver, putting his arm around Brooks.
“I was just telling him I’m proud of him for pretty much what I just told you, how hard he works, just the plays he makes,” DeBoer said postgame. “A year ago we were not making the plays in the critical moments to win games. That was a big play to go win a football game and he did it and our team needed him and he came through.”
Brooks had secured a fourth-down catch to extend a drive that resulted in the game-winning touchdown. It was one of the most important plays in a game No. 8 Alabama outlasted No. 14 Missouri 27-24 on Saturday at Faurot Field in Columbia, Missouri. The Crimson Tide (5-1, 3-0 SEC) has now won three consecutive games against ranked opponents.
In each of those games, Alabama has displayed resiliency not often seen in 2024. Each win has oozed grit.
“I think it’s just our team,” linebacker Deontae Lawson said. “We pride ourselves on being unbreakable. That’s our team slogan. We just know that we’re going to execute in those situations. That’s something we practice every day. We’ve been preaching it all year long. It just happened to show up today and we’re going to continue to build on that.”
Each side of the ball had their moments of stumbles, but they each proved resilient. Case in point: Alabama’s offense started the second half with a fumble on the first play. Quarterback Ty Simpson faced pressure and gave up the football. Alabama couldn’t score a touchdown for most of the rest of the second half. Then Simpson managed to pull off the vital fourth-quarter drive in which he threw the pass to Brooks and also threw a touchdown pass to Daniel Hill on fourth-and-1.
As for the defense, it allowed Missouri the chance to drive down the field and score a touchdown in response with 1:39 left. The Tigers trailed by only three after that.
Then Alabama’s offense went three-and-out. Missouri would get the ball back one more time, only needing a field goal to tie it.
Then the Crimson Tide defense rallied. Freshman cornerback Dijon Lee picked off Missouri quarterback Beau Pribula to seal the victory.
“We’ve got the edge we need,” Lawson said. “It helps us when we’re in enemy territory or an away game or anything like that. We know we’ve got to bring our own juice. We preach all week and all year long to be elite in critical situations. Coach DeBoer he makes sure he emphasizes that every weekend. It showed up today.”
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