Blake Sims, Alabama Peaking at Perfect Time for National Championship Run

ATLANTA — Saturday afternoon in the Georgia Dome was as much a coronation as it was a competition for Alabama.

The top-ranked Crimson Tide topped No. 16 Missouri 42-13 to claim the 2014 SEC title and punch their ticket to the inaugural College Football Playoff. 

The Crimson Tide jumped on Missouri early with a 10-play, 68-yard drive to open the game, built a 21-3 halftime lead and then shut the door late to earn the 24th conference title in program history.

"I can't tell you how proud I am of our team and our players," head coach Nick Saban said. "I don't know if I've ever been so anxious to win a game for a group of guys who did a phenomenal job all year long of working to improve, overcome adversity and did a great job with their competitive character in some really tough circumstances."

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It was Alabama's finest hour, as the defense held Missouri to just 313 yards and got consistent pressure with four, while the offense torched Missouri's defense with 504 yards of its own.

With a semifinal in its future, Saban's team is peaking at the right time.

The game served as a validation of sorts for head coach Nick Saban, who was heavily criticized in the offseason for the hiring of new offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin.

"I think I got exactly what I expected," Saban said on Friday. "I don't think anybody else expected what I expected, to the point where I even got criticized for doing it by a lot of people."

Under the direction of Kiffin, quarterback Blake Sims sliced and diced the Missouri defense early, completing his first nine passes and finishing the afternoon 23-of-27 for 262 yards and two touchdowns.

Just how good has Kiffin been this year?

Sims now has 3,250 yards this season, eclipsing former quarterback AJ McCarron for the most single-season passing yards in program history. As Marquavius Burnett of The Anniston Star notes, it's just the latest single-season program record to fall this season:

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The work Kiffin has done with Sims has been nothing short of phenomenal.

Nobody except Sims and possibly his family expected him to be the Crimson Tide starting quarterback on Sept. 6, much less Dec. 6. All Sims has done is evolve into the SEC's most efficient passer and earn MVP honors in the biggest game of the season—just down the road from his hometown of Gainesville, Georgia. 

"I don't know if I've ever seen a player go through as much as Blake went through for four years," Saban said. "Never once did he not do whatever he needed to do to help the team. He played on [the] scout team so many times when we played against zone-read quarterbacks—never complained about it.

"I've never seen a guy work so hard from last spring when he had the opportunity, through the summer and into fall camp, and get the confidence of his players and execute well."

In short, Sims earned moments like the one below, which I captured shortly after the clock struck zero inside the Georgia Dome.

It also is a great sign for Alabama moving forward.

There's no small game for the Alabama football program, but Kiffin and Saban put the ball in Sims' hands early, and he responded in a big way, completing his first nine passes to soften up the Missouri defense.

This is what Alabama football is now. If Kiffin wants to pass to set up the run, the Crimson Tide have the quarterback, receivers and system to do it. 

That flexibility will be invaluable moving forward. With Oregon likely in and TCU and Baylor competing for the two other spots in the playoff, there's a pretty good chance Alabama will have to open things up at times. 

After winning a shootout last week against Auburn and following it up by putting the biggest game of the season in the Sims' hands early, this team knows it can do it.

Alabama's offense has continued to progress all season long and is hitting its peak now.

That sound you hear is the sound of other defensive coordinators shaking.

Barrett Sallee is the lead SEC college football writer and video analyst for Bleacher Report as well as a co-host of the CFB Hangover on Bleacher Report Radio (Sundays, 9-11 a.m. ET) on Sirius 93, XM 208.

Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. All stats are courtesy of cfbstats.com, and all recruiting information is courtesy of 247Sports. Follow Barrett on Twitter @BarrettSallee.