By: Billy Jones
Missouri fell 34-30 to South Carolina in a game that featured four lead changes in the fourth quarter. The Tigers fell to 7-3 on the season.
Here are the five major takeaways from Saturday’s loss.
Missouri’s tackling was atrocious to finish the game.
Whether it be from exhaustion or just from South Carolina’s physicality, Missouri was unable to wrap up in key situations. While their tackling was suspect in the first half, it seemed to be cleaned up in the third quarter; however, on the final two drives, the defense had opportunities to make key plays simply by wrapping up, but they could not do it.
Johnny Walker had a chance for a sack on 3rd down that could have given Mizzou the ball back up one point, but LaNorris Sellers was able to escape and covert a first down. Rocket Sanders ran through four Tiger defenders on his way to the endzone on the go-ahead score. Missouri’s defense played flawlessly in the third quarter, and most of the fourth quarter, but could not find a stop on either of its final two possessions, which ultimately cost them the football game.
The offense was great in the second half, but again, struggled to get going early.
Missouri has seemingly been unable to put together strong offensive performances in the first halves of games. Missouri has now scored just 22 combined first-half points in their last four games. While the Tigers did some nice things in the second half, they dug themselves into a major hole and gave themselves no margin for error in the second half.
Part of the slow start could be attributed to rust for Brady Cook, but this now seems to be a pattern throughout the season. They have only scored double-digit points once in the first half this season in SEC play. Missouri needs to find a way to get their playmakers involved earlier in the ball game.
Much like the end of the game against Auburn or even in the second half against Oklahoma, Missouri’s offense looks like two completely different teams.
The running game was great today, especially with Nate Noel.
Nate Noel is a difference-maker when he is on the field. The running game looked as strong as it has been all year with his ability to slash on the zone schemes. Missouri ran both inside and outside well. Especially in the second half, Missouri leaned on the offensive line.
The running backs averaged over five yards per carry in the game today. Missouri was also not one-dimensional in the running game as they ran behind both the left and the right side of the line. If they can replicate what they did in the second half over the next two games, the offense could look a lot different.
The secondary needs help.
Missouri’s defense just looks very different structurally than it did last year. Yes, the front seven was solid last year but they were anchored by two NFL cornerbacks. This year, Missouri just does not have the same effectiveness on the outside and to run a scheme that required cornerbacks to play press coverage, Missouri needs to be very effective rushing the passer. Perhaps it was fatigue or just a regression to the mean, but Missouri was incapable of creating pressure and finishing plays late in the fourth quarter.
Missouri’s secondary is going to need help and Corey Batoon understands that. He called a game that trusted his defensive line to get home, but they did not On the 39-yard pass that set South Carolina’s final touchdown up, Missouri rushed five. They failed to get pressure and that helped run Dalevon Campbell wide-open over the middle of the field. If Missouri is going to gamble, they must come up with sacks.
Maybe they were due for a heartbreaker.
In Missouri’s three SEC wins, they tied or trailed in the fourth quarter each time. Perhaps, Saturday was a regression to the mean. This one will sting and it probably should. For as badly as they played in the first half, Missouri had every chance to win the game late.
But, this league is difficult. You cannot always get away with playing half-games, especially on the road. Leaving games like that to the final two minutes can come back to bite you. Missouri, last year, was ruthless in five of their six SEC wins. In those five wins, they led in the half in every single game and relied on a strong running game to take them over the line. Despite a superhuman effort from the defense in the third quarter and some late heroics offensively, the bad start was just too much to overcome. It came down to a “who has the ball last” game and…Missouri did not. It only feels natural that eventually one of these games was going to go the other way.
