MO State HS Sports

Schaeffer: Auburn loss showed Mizzou football is a circus—Eli Drinkwitz is the ringmaster

After that ending, I don’t even have the emotional energy to write up a clever intro for this Mizzou football reaction article like Andy usually does. Here are my ‘Five Things’ following Missouri’s 17-14 loss to Auburn on Saturday afternoon:

Mizzou football in 2022 is a circus, and Eli Drinkwitz is the ringmaster

A lot happened in Saturday’s 17-14 overtime loss for Missouri at Auburn. Here’s the bottom line: the outcome falls on the shoulders of head coach Eliah Drinkwitz. 

The mental mistakes by Missouri in Saturday’s game that could be traced back to coaching were numerous. Illegal formation penalties on offense, two offsides calls on Auburn field goal attempts. Both kicks were missed, giving Auburn’s kicker new life. In overtime, he made the second chance, which ended up being the deciding score of the game. Those are the kinds of mistakes that winning teams simply don’t make. And when they do and get away with it (like Mizzou did before the half) they damn sure don’t make them again.

After a true-freshman quarterback briefly entered the game in the third quarter following an injury to Auburn starter Robby Ashford, a clear-as-day backward pass was thrown as the Mizzou front got pressure. But not one Tiger swarmed to the football on what was obviously going to be ruled a fumble. It can’t happen. It’s unforgivable. And it’s coaching. Drink has to own that.

It wasn’t even the most abhorrent mistake of the day, though.

Nathaniel Peat’s error in stretching for the goal line with the game in the balance in overtime is unfathomable. It’s bad strategy, bad game theory, bad all-around. It can’t happen. But I’m going to refrain from pinning the entire loss on Peat for a play that happens multiple times every year in this sport, and instead shift the focus to the head coach for allowing it to be even an option in his running back’s mind to stretch for the goal line in that situation, when 1st-and-goal from the one-yard line means an almost assured victory on the ensuing plays.

As head coach, it’s your job to instill in your players the ‘dos and don’ts’ of scenarios like that one. The player should make a better decision, absolutely. But when discipline issues cropped up for this team literally the entire afternoon, it’s easier to see why Peat’s error happened. Drinkwitz has not adequately prepared this team to win games in 2022. Period.

With a similarly inept offense and problematic kicking game Saturday, Auburn proved itself to be completely beatable. There were dozens of reasons Missouri let this one slip through its grasp. The mistakes made by the Tigers due to bad coaching were the ones that ultimately sank the ship.

Nathaniel Peat runs with purpose but his fatal, season-altering error is a gut-punch

The ESPN telecast seemed surprised to see Nathaniel Peat handling the bulk of the workload Saturday, but those who have been closely following the Tigers all season knew better. Peat dealt with some nagging injuries during fall camp, but he has slowly shown that the most explosive player in this backfield.

Though his workload may have gotten a boost with Elijah Young out for the Auburn game, Peat displayed, for the bulk of this game, why it’s only natural that he should be the workhorse moving forward. A limited Tigers passing attack put the offense in undesirable down-and-distance scenarios throughout Saturday’s game, but Peat consistently brought Mizzou back into third-and-manageable. 

The Rock Bridge product and Stanford transfer ran 20 times for 109 yards On the Plains. Offensively, there’s an argument to be made that he was the best player on the field for the Tigers on Saturday–until, of course, the final moment of the football game.

It is time to worry about Mevis

When Harrison Mevis missed a couple of field goals last weekend against Abilene Christian, it didn’t garner much attention because the Tigers easily won the game. Missouri was not so lucky on Saturday at Auburn.

Brady Cook, for all of his deficiencies throughout the afternoon, led a game-winning drive at the end of regulation. Harrison Mevis just had to make the 26-yard kick to win the game. This was the chip shot of all chip shots. And Mevis missed it. And in that moment, it cost Missouri a football game.

One player did not lose Missouri this football game. But in that moment Mevis was the guy whose job it was to win it at the end of regulation. His inability to make that happen combined with remembering that it happened a couple of times last week, too, means you can no longer mentally count it as automatic points every time Mevis steps on the field.

And for what it’s worth: bleeding out the clock for the field goal try at the end of regulation is one thing I’ll say I didn’t mind from Drinkwitz. That was the right decision, especially knowing what we now do about his running back’s predilections for carelessness with the football around the goal line. I would have preferred Drinkwitz to use his timeout with a few more seconds remaining on the clock in case of a bad snap on the third-down field goal try, but that ultimately was not a factor in the miss by Mevis.

Brady Cook’s decision-making has to improve

A first-quarter interception on a tipped pass only happened because Cook forced the ball Burden’s way when he was blanketed. It led to a short field for Auburn and concluded with a Tank Bigsby touchdown run. Get the ball to Burden, absolutely, but not like that. Not in a situation with no chance for success.

In the middle of the third quarter, Brady took an option keeper for negative yardage on a third-down play that Nate Peat would have broken for an easy first down and potentially much more given the wide open space in front of him up the middle of the field. Cook made the wrong read and the Tigers had to punt. On a sack late in the third quarter, the ball should have been quickly heaved toward the sideline instead of remaining in Cook’s chest as he crumpled in the shadow of his own goal posts. I could go on.

Cook got the nod as the starter this season due to his combination of experience and athleticism trumping the others in the QB competition. His performance on the final drive of regulation was lightyears better than what we saw from him in the game previously, so that’s a step in the right direction. But if the consistency of Cook’s decision-making doesn’t improve, the Tigers are looking at a severely-capped upside offensively this season.

The run defense was a concern but then the Tigers… bowed their necks?

Auburn came out looking to pound the football, daring Mizzou to stop it. In the opening quarter, the Tigers couldn’t. QB Robby Ashford ran at his discretion, scampering for the opening touchdown with his legs. Tank Bigsby ran freely and scored a touchdown in the first quarter. But after that, Missouri adjusted.

Though tackling form was underwhelming the entire day for Mizzou, the defense as a whole played the run remarkably well after the opening stanza. After the first 15 minutes, Bigsby was stopped in his tracks on almost every hand-off. He finished the day with only 44 rushing yards and 2.3 yards per carry.

The mobile QB Ashford beat Mizzou for several big gains on the ground but still ultimately averaged only 3.3 YPC on 15 rushing attempts. For the most part, he was held in check.

If you’re looking for a silver lining from Mizzou’s loss, it was the play of the run defense after the first-quarter struggles.