Alabama football kept its College Football Playoff hopes alive Saturday, beating Missouri 34-0. The win moved the Crimson Tide to 6-2 on the season, 3-2 in SEC play.

Despite the shutout, it wasn’t a perfect performance. It was an ugly game, especially early, but UA rode a solid defensive effort to victory.

Here are our grades from Saturday’s game.

Offense: B-

Turns out that when Jalen Milroe isn’t the only rushing threat defenses have to worry about, good things happen. Alabama put up 271 yards on the ground, with its quarterback only accounting for 50 of them.

It certainly opened things up. However, the offense still didn’t come close to reaching its full potential.

Especially early, Alabama squandered drives, and was hampered by penalties. In the late going, the group was able to take advantage of what the Crimson Tide defense served up, so overall a solid, if unspectacular, grade.

Defense: A+

For the second game in a row, Alabama’s defense was excellent. The scoreboard tells the story, and the shutout was clearly something the Crimson Tide valued, with starters returning to the game for a goal line stand late.

UA knocked Missouri starter Brady Cook out of the game in the first half, then ate backup Drew Pyne’s lunch. Pyne threw three interceptions, and only managed 42 yards passing.

Time and time again, the defense gave Alabama great starting field position. Saturday’s performance was as good as it gets on that side of the ball, and could serve to give Kane Wommack’s unit momentum entering the stretch run of the season.

Special teams: B-

Graham Nicholson made multiple field goals in a game for the first time this season. James Burnip played as well as he could.

However, this grade gets knocked down by some mental errors. Alabama had some painful penalties, and an ill-advised fielding of a kick from Jaylen Mbakwe.

Overall, the special teams just needs to be a bit cleaner going forward.

Overall: B

It’s a shutout victory in SEC play. There’s no taking that away, especially at a time when Alabama needs every game.

It just wasn’t particularly inspiring. Some remaining offensive and special teams problems get this bumped down a bit.