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By: Andy Humphrey
Safe to say, Mizzou can’t afford to have many more games like this.
The Tigers, just like in Lexington two weeks ago, had used their offense to put them in a position to grab their first road victory of the year. On their last possession of regulation, they generated enough yardage in 25 seconds to give Harrison Mevis a chance to nail a long field goal. As we’ve come to expect from the Thiccer Kicker in his early career in black and gold, Mevis hit a 56-yarder to tie the game, and at that point the hope was alive to earn the win in overtime. But then, the Tigers turned it over on their first offensive play in OT, and were handed their second loss of the season in a 41-34 defeat at Boston College.
What makes it more frustrating is that the Tigers started about as well as a team could on the road. They started with the football, orchestrated a 10-play drive that ended in a touchdown, then got a takeaway on the second play from scrimmage for BC. All of that provided a huge platform for Mizzou to take control early. But instead, the offense had a couple of early stall-outs, letting the Eagles do what they should’ve done on every single play: run, run, and run some more. Once that happened, the control of the game flipped back in the home team’s favor. And just like their last road game, Mizzou’s offense came just a bit short of matching their opposition in a shootout-type game.
With that, let’s get into the Knee-Jerk Reactions:
There are still no answers on run defense
It has to be the most infuriating thing for Mizzou fans to watch the front four get beat up the way that they did. The Eagles ran for 275 yards on the ground, led by Pat Garwo with 175 yards on 25 carries (average of seven yards per carry). Granted, Boston College has a solid offensive line (the lightest starter is 298 pounds), but with the way they dominated the line of scrimmage, especially in the second half, you would think they were the SEC team going up against an out-of-conference opponent. That allowed BC to eat up most of the third quarter clock, holding Mizzou to just four offensive plays in the quarter, and also run out the clock on the go-ahead touchdown drive near the end of regulation.
When this happens, we always find someone to blame. A lot of the fingers right now are pointed at Steve Wilks. I don’t think that paints the entire picture, though. You can say there’s a problem with the scheme, but the truth is any defensive setup will work as long as the players execute the way that they should. The players on the field for Mizzou simply didn’t do that. Tackles were broken. Gaps were not filled. Edges weren’t shut off. Remember that this defense is made up with just about the same personnel as last year, and then take away a linebacker and two safeties that are now on NFL rosters. The ones that are left are just not getting the job done through the first four weeks. Even for the best and brightest defensive coaches, that’s hard to fix.
Can Mizzou get any kind of pressure without blitzing?
Whenever BC made the questionable decision of trying to throw in a game like this, Mizzou seemed ready for it. The Tigers only registered one sack, but Wilks brought pressure on several other key plays to liven the defense. That led to four QB hurries, and a couple of crucial stops on third down during the late part of the third quarter and early part of the fourth, forcing BC to kick a field goal and then punt. That said, those blitz packages seemed to be the only way to get any sort of pressure on backup BC quarterback Dennis Grosel. If the Tigers weren’t bringing an extra man, Grosel had plenty of time to find receivers.
If you’re going to be worth anything in the SEC, you need to generate pressure with just four players much more often than Mizzou is right now. That, also, is something that I think falls more on the players than it does the coaching staff. I understand the argument that coaches can develop players to reach above their expected potential. But nothing right now lends to the belief that Steve Wilks is incapable of doing that. These pass rush problems are not new to Mizzou’s program in 2021. We’ve seen them before. In the end, coaches can make players do the exact right things in practice to prep them for each week, but it’s up to them to make the plays on the field when they matter most. The Tigers, quite simply, are just not executing.
Connor Bazelak responded well in the tough moments
It wasn’t a stellar performance. He made some throws that shouldn’t have been made, namely the interception in the end zone in overtime to seal the win for BC. He had another bad misfire that led to another pick earlier in the game. Despite all that, I don’t see Bazelak’s 73% completion rate for the day and 303 yard-performance as one that necessarily hurt Mizzou in the end. He kept to the things that he does well; going through the progressions and find the right option, even though it was the short option more often than not. Give the Mizzou offensive line some credit for giving Bazelak time to do all of that, especially since veteran starting guard Case Cook was ruled out for the game.
I think we know by now that there are obvious limitations with Bazelak’s game. And no, the way that he plays quarterback doesn’t always make for the most exciting plays. But it’s the Tigers’ best chance right now. While the upside and talent-level of Tyler Macon might be intriguing, Mizzou is not even close to making that type of change right now. Bazelak’s composure at the QB spot keeps Mizzou on schedule more often than not. Even after that first interception, he led Mizzou to two touchdowns and a field goal on the next three drives. Most young quarterbacks fold in those situations. As long as he keeps responding well after those bad plays, he gives Mizzou the best chance to win each week.
This offense needs another difference-maker to compliment Tyler Badie
It’s still true that Badie needs as many touches as possible, and he proved that again by gaining over 100 yards of total offense and scoring twice. He also had a one-handed catch-and-run to convert a big third down late in the game. That said, it felt like BC’s defense did about as well of a job on Badie as any of Mizzou’s opponents have done so far. They tried to limit him as much as possible, and forced Mizzou to turn to other players. If Mizzou can finally answer the question of who they turn to when Badie is neutralized, they can unlock another level of the offense.
For most of the game, it seemed that Keke Chism was the best option not named Tyler Badie. The senior receiver caught seven passes for 67 yards, including a tough catch late in the game that helped Mizzou get into field goal range to send it to overtime. Drinkwitz also used him on short passes to try and give him some room to run on the edge, similar to what he does with Badie. I know it doesn’t necessarily matter which player is making the plays in the end, but Bazelak needs another reliable target he can turn to when the game gets tight like this one did. Maybe a game like this can help Chism reach that point.
The season isn’t over, but this loss really stings
It hurts a lot more than the Kentucky game two weeks ago. Mizzou wasn’t favored to win that game. It wasn’t necessarily a shock. While this one isn’t either, it’s still one of those matchups that you can qualify as a “toss-up.” And the more often Mizzou turns those games in their favor, the more successful of a season they have. Now that you’ve lost two of those games, your margin for error to reach bowl eligibility shrinks to almost nothing. I can still classify North Texas and Vanderbilt as expected wins, but aside from that, it’s all either expected losses or more swing games.
There is still plenty of time in the season to improve your team as a whole, but you can no longer afford for that learning process to take another 2-3 weeks like it has already. Tennessee’s team as a whole isn’t the strongest, but you know that Josh Heupel will find a way to move the football. And there’s still no real evidence to believe that Mizzou’s defense can handle a challenge like that. This is now two FBS games in a row where the Tigers have had to rely on their offense to keep them in games. While they’ve shown that they can hang around, they haven’t shown that they can finish the job yet. And if nothing changes, we may see the exact same outcome at Faurot Field next week against the Vols.
