Let's start with the good (?)
The offense looks functional. It's not actually good. But it's not as terrible as it's been the last few weeks. They had two scoring drives. They had 164 yards and nine first downs. Again, it's not good. But it's a lot better than what we've seen. Kelly Bryant was not running for his life most of the night.
Barrett Banister has played well (should have been starting for a month) and Missouri's tight ends have been more productive than they've been of late.
Nick Bolton is out here killing people.
Now, the not as good. Missouri can't slow down Tennessee's passing game. At all. DeMarkus Acy hasn't played at all with a hamstring injury. Jarvis Ware went out early after a big hit. Christian Holmes has two penalties (one was questionable at best) and the Tigers just can't cover Josh Palmer, Marquez Callaway and Jauan Jennings.
Given that, I'd start bringing blitzes every down. Tennessee isn't really trying to run. They haven't run a lot of screen passes. I'd just bring linebackers and safeties from every angle and hope you force Jarrett Guarantano to throw the ball before he's ready. Maybe even get a turnover. Because if you just sit back and hope your second-string secondary is going to magically start keeping up with this receiving corps, you're going to lose the game.
One other thing: I thought Kelly Bryant looked like he tweaked his hamstring on that scramble on the last Missouri drive. No word on that, but it looked to me like he pulled up.
The game isn't out of reach...but I also don't feel very good about it.
The offense looks functional. It's not actually good. But it's not as terrible as it's been the last few weeks. They had two scoring drives. They had 164 yards and nine first downs. Again, it's not good. But it's a lot better than what we've seen. Kelly Bryant was not running for his life most of the night.
Barrett Banister has played well (should have been starting for a month) and Missouri's tight ends have been more productive than they've been of late.
Nick Bolton is out here killing people.
Now, the not as good. Missouri can't slow down Tennessee's passing game. At all. DeMarkus Acy hasn't played at all with a hamstring injury. Jarvis Ware went out early after a big hit. Christian Holmes has two penalties (one was questionable at best) and the Tigers just can't cover Josh Palmer, Marquez Callaway and Jauan Jennings.
Given that, I'd start bringing blitzes every down. Tennessee isn't really trying to run. They haven't run a lot of screen passes. I'd just bring linebackers and safeties from every angle and hope you force Jarrett Guarantano to throw the ball before he's ready. Maybe even get a turnover. Because if you just sit back and hope your second-string secondary is going to magically start keeping up with this receiving corps, you're going to lose the game.
One other thing: I thought Kelly Bryant looked like he tweaked his hamstring on that scramble on the last Missouri drive. No word on that, but it looked to me like he pulled up.
The game isn't out of reach...but I also don't feel very good about it.
