alabama scored on the game's opening drive to take a quick 7-0 lead, and a long touchdown pass from quarterback blake sims to receiver deandrew white early in the second quarter extended the lead to 14-0. missouri's offense pieced together a response, but the drive fizzled out and ended in a field goal. another bama touchdown late in the quarter gave the crimson tide a 21-3 halftime lead. missouri fought their way back into the game in the third quarter, ripping off 10 points to cut the alabama lead to 8. unfortunately for the tigers, they would fail to score for the remainder of the game, as alabama scored three unanswered touchdowns to secure a 42-13 victory. the win gave alabama its 24th sec championship, sims set an sec championship game record for completion percentage, and wide receiver amari cooper set both the sec record for most receptions in a single season and the record for most receptions in the sec championship game.