By: Andy Humphrey
Good. At least that’s out of the way.
Mizzou fans that were lamenting about having to play at UMass no longer have to, because it’s in the past now. That’s the important thing.
What’s also important is that Mizzou came away with a pretty comfortable 45-3 victory in their first-ever trip to Amherst.
Mizzou didn’t win every single play. Maybe they should’ve won a few more. But ultimately, they left no doubt who would win it. All hope for UMass was deflated by Corey Flagg’s interception at the end of the half. So from that standard, Mizzou met the expectations.
You always want to come out of these games relatively healthy, however. Luther Burden and Khalil Jacobs both came out due to injury during the second half, so we’ll see how well Mizzou accomplished that goal when we hear more about their status next week. On the bright side, Eli Drinkwitz did say on the TV postgame interview that Burden’s injury doesn’t seem serious right now.
Not much to learn from this game, but still a few Knee-Jerk Reactions to give:
Mizzou’s skill players were no match for UMass
The Tigers did exactly what they needed to do on offense: Put the ball in the hands of their skill players and let their talent win out in the open field. That happened immediately with Luther Burden’s 61-yard touchdown run on a jet sweep. Every time he touched the ball, he seemed to break at least one or two tackles along the way. Which is exactly what you expect against the UMass secondary. Other receivers had chances to make plays, too, notably Josh Manning who scored his first career touchdown on a 63-yard catch.
But the run game was the most dominant. Nate Noel was absent on the field due to back tightness. But Marcus Carroll filled in quite well, scoring three times and racking up 91 yards on 15 carries. As a team, Mizzou accumulated 204 rushing yards, with 130 coming in the first half. Again, it’s not a clear sign that things are fixed, but giving the offensive line that confidence boost by establishing a solid run game can’t hurt.
Brady Cook had solid numbers too (14-of-19, 219 yards, two touchdowns), but he leaned a lot on his receivers making plays downfield, as they had a combined 132 yards after the catch. That’s not a bad thing. Cook didn’t play poorly. I’d just like to see it happen against an SEC opponent to feel better about things getting fixed in the passing game. It wasn’t perfect. But it was exactly what it needed to be for Mizzou to win large.
The first-team defense still had some leaky moments
Corey Batoon’s defense had a solid start, allowing just 44 yards of offense in the first quarter. But in the second quarter, before Mizzou had really put the game away, the Tigers let up a few too many big plays than they would’ve liked. Several UMass receivers were left open by the Mizzou secondary. The quarterback run game was hard to handle. A fake punt that the Tigers seemed wildly unprepared for gave UMass another scoring chance. The Minutemen had 131 offensive yards in the second quarter, and were it not for Corey Flagg’s interception at the five-yard line at the end of the half, it could’ve been more than just three points for the Minutemen Saturday.
It’s nitpicky, sure. Mizzou’s defense still performed pretty well. They only allowed two third-down conversions on 13 attempts. UMass was still held to 95 team rushing yards. The Tigers had a couple of takeaways and three sacks. And they were also missing Triston Newson and Joe Moore. It wasn’t necessarily a bad day for the defense. But I think we can all see room for improvement for this group, especially in the secondary. The next game against Auburn will tell more about how much they have bounced back.
It was good to see the young guys
Games like this let teams like Missouri try out some lesser-used players. I would’ve liked to see at least a little bit of Nate Noel, but him not playing did allow for Jamal Roberts and Kewan Lacy to get more opportunities in the backfield. The injury to Joe Moore allowed for Williams Nwaneri to get a rotational role at defensive end, and he took advantage by recording his first collegiate sack. Of course, Josh Manning also scored for the first time. And the defensive starters were all off the field by the end of the third quarter.
Even though some young players struggled with their chances in this game, it’s still helpful for them to get out on the field to build that confidence. Missed chances here could mean better performances down the road for those guys. Not sure how many more will burn the redshirt this year and get more games to contribute in, but I liked that a) Mizzou built a big enough lead to allow for some game time to play with, and b) Drinkwitz gave a number of key young players some meaningful reps.
They won. Cool. Move on.
Honestly, there’s not a ton to take away from this. Maybe that fact alone is a good thing. Only bad things could be learned from games like this from Mizzou’s perspective. It was far from a perfect performance from the Tigers, but hardly any game is. I think they ultimately accomplished the goal of having a mostly stress-free blowout victory against an inferior team. But it won’t give them any extra sign that they’ve figured things out after the A&M loss.
But soon, we’ll find out. Auburn isn’t the cream of the crop in the SEC, but a similar performance against those Tigers will put Mizzou’s Tigers a lot more on track. Then, you take you’re chances against Alabama and Oklahoma and see where you’re really at. Yes, the A&M loss is still weighing this team down in the national spotlight. But everything is still on the table for this team with the rest of their schedule. Time to find out how much of it they will take.
(Photo credit: LG Patterson)
