Tide Illustrated staff writer Henry Sklar spoke with Mizzou Today senior editor Kyle McAreavy to get some insight on this week's matchup between No. 15 Alabama and No. 21 Missouri.

Before last week, I would have said the outlook for the year was somewhat disappointing. The wins against Vanderbilt and Boston College had plenty of visible flaws, and the loss at Texas A&M had the look of an overrated team not ready to meet high expectations following a surprising season. And though last week’s win was against a down Auburn team, I think the way the team won could be a springboard into the back half of the season. Outside of this week, I would say the Tigers are the better team in each of their remaining games, but if this week looks like the loss against A&M, I would worry about the team losing momentum heading into the final third of the year.

I think the way that win played out has brought a renewed energy into the team it had somewhat lacked through the first half of the season. Early last year, the Tigers had a surprising win against Kansas State and a good follow up performance against Memphis that really propelled them into the rest of the season. I think the team leaders look at last week as a similar experience where everybody came together following the singular and main leader who stepped up to guide them the rest of the way.

Dreyden Norwood, Toriano Pride and recently Nick Deloach have been the team’s main outside corners, with Daylan Carnell mostly covering the slot. But the main defensive issue the Tigers have had, even in their wins, is trouble with deep passes and blown coverages. From what I’ve seen of Williams - and I’ve been very impressed he seems incredible - I’m not sure any of those defenders can contain him on their own. I expect to see a combo of coverage looks that never leave him in single coverage.

Largely it’s been on Brady Cook. He’s taken a bit of a step back in intermediate and deep passing accuracy. They really started to force the effort against Texas A&M and it’s working a bit better now, but the Tigers went about the first four games without really hitting on a deep pass, which was a key to their offensive success last year. There have also been some consistent injury issues. The Tigers were expecting a lot from tight end Brett Norfleet this season and he’s missed a good amount of time or been not 100 percent on the field. Without his presence on underneath routes, teams have been able to focus on Luther Burden and Theo Wease to keep them more contained.

I think the best case scenario for the Tigers is the momentum from last week’s win carries the defensive performance against the Tide and they are able to contain Milroe and Williams as much as possible. Missouri definitely needs to win the turnover battle. The Tigers have been very good in close games recently (7-0 in one-score contests since the start of the 2013 season) and if they are close late in the game, Brady Cook has shown he’s able to be clutch in the closing minutes. So I think the formula for Missouri is keep the game low-scoring and stay within striking distance for as long as possible.