Alabama football got a much-needed win on Saturday, defeating Missouri 34-0 at Bryant-Denny Stadium. The win made the UA Bowl eligible again and gave the Tide some momentum heading into the bye week.

Here are three takeaways from Saturday’s game.

Ugly but successful football

The SEC has one of the best college football products available for consumption nationwide. Saturday’s game would make viewers think otherwise.

The management team was terrible and regularly confused everyone in the stadium with strange explanations for calls. The two teams playing didn’t look much better at times.

Missouri’s big problem was that its backup quarterback kept throwing to the other team. Drew Pyne came in for Brady Cook and showed why he spent most of the season on the bench, throwing picks to Malachi Moore, Bray Hubbard and Qua Russaw as the game remained tightly contested.

The Tigers never managed to get themselves together. Alabama did. The Tide was a more talented team and showed it late for the first time in a few weeks, dashing Missouri’s hopes with a strong defensive performance.

Concerns about Alabama have not been eliminated. But despite some problems, UA accomplished its mission.

Slow start

Neither team did anything particularly inspiring in the first quarter. Missouri went three-and-out on its first drive after a poorly executed flea-flicker in which Jihaad Campbell sacked an injured Brady Cook.

Alabama was able to advance just enough for Graham Nicholson to make a field goal, his last offensive success in quite some time. For the rest of the quarter the unit looked terrible.

For the second straight game, the Crimson Tide defense kept the game. Finally, towards the end of the half, the offense took advantage.

After Cook left the game, Drew Pyne came on for the Tigers and promptly threw an ugly interception to Malachi Moore. The Crimson Tide safety returned the ball into MU territory, where the offense was able to mount a touchdown drive, capped by a Jam Miller touchdown.

UA took a 13-0 lead into the locker room. Had the offense taken advantage, it would have been almost out of reach for the Tigers.

Survive and advance

Alabama fans can breathe a sigh of relief, at least for a week. A loss would all but eliminate the Crimson Tide from College Football Playoff contention.

Instead, UA stayed alive. With the win, Alabama moved to 6-2 on the season, 3-2 in SEC play. Alabama is now bowl eligible.

With the win, the Crimson Tide gained some momentum heading into their second bye week. After the week off it becomes more difficult.

UA’s toughest game the rest of the way comes right after the opener. LSU, which faces Texas A&M on Saturday for sole possession of first place in the SEC, will welcome the Tide to Baton Rouge.

After that, Oklahoma, Auburn and Mercer are on the schedule. The path to a CFP bid remains difficult, but Alabama held on with the win on Saturday.