That was just an all-around bad performance. Missouri played poorly in all three phases of the game. Yes, it was limited from a personnel perspective, but Mississippi State has lost a lot of guys this season, too. Missouri just didn’t execute, and it’s not a good enough team to play that sloppy and beat anyone in the SEC outside of maybe Vanderbilt. The defense has probably drawn the most criticism, and rightly so, but Connor Bazelak wasn’t good enough to win today, and the muffed punt that resulted in a Mississippi State touchdown totally swung the momentum. This wasn’t on one unit, player or coach. It was just an all-around bad game. That sucks, but also it happens sometimes, especially with a first-year coach and a lot of players playing new positions or playing more than they ever have in the past.
Let’s start with the defense. First of all, the secondary was pretty much doomed by its lack of available bodies from the start. Missouri began the game with three scholarship cornerbacks, two of whom were true freshmen and one of whom got ejected for targeting early in the third quarter. It started walk-on Mason Pack at safety and wound up playing a quarterback in the defensive backfield. The defensive line was banged up, and Nick Bolton doesn’t look healthy to me. That’s not a recipe for success. I’m not really sure how you scheme around that. That said, I do think there is cause for concern for Missouri’s defense. After giving up more than 600 rushing yards in the past two games combined, the Tigers allowed Mississippi State, which had been historically inept on the ground this season, to rush for 130 yards. Prior to today, Mississippi State had averaged 1.4 carries on the season and only broke the 40-yard mark on the ground one time. Once the Bulldogs started running the ball effectively, Missouri had no hope of stopping them. Overall, the Tigers have now given up more than 1,500 yards and 149 points across the past three contests (although 14 of Mississippi State’s points today were scored on Mizzou turnovers). I don’t care who’s out. That’s really, really bad. I don’t think it’s getting Ryan Walters fired or anything, but the unit that was Missouri’s strength last year has become its weak spot, and this team isn’t built to win a bunch of shootouts.
On the other side of the ball, Bazelak played far and away his worst game in a Missouri uniform. His final stat line doesn't look awful thanks to some garbage time drives, but he just never looked sharp. He missed Barrett Banister on two deep balls, one of which could have been a big play and the other was intercepted. He threw three total picks, matching his total on the season entering Saturday. In a game where you knew Mizzou’s defense was missing a bunch of pieces and probably going to have to score some points to win, Bazelak got outplayed by true freshman Will Rogers. Now, I’m not panicking about his future or anything like that. First of all, he’s still a redshirt freshman and he hardly got to practice last offseason. I’m also curious if he’s still a bit banged up from getting his hand stepped on against Georgia. Finally, this type of performance has been the outlier for him this season. So while you need Bazelak to play better than he did today to have a chance to win going forward (he especially needs to improve as a deep passer during the offseason) I’m a long way from pushing the panic button there.
I will say a couple nice things real quick. First of all, major props to Shawn Robinson. In a season full of opt outs and transfers, he would have seemed like an obvious candidate to walk away from Missouri’s team when he got beat out by Bazelak, and then again when he missed time due to injuries and contact tracing. He persevered through it all, then gave up the backup QB job to take on the inglorious roles of special teams and backup safety. This afternoon, he got a chance to play on the defensive side of the ball and he not only survived, but popped off the screen. He looked like he played the hardest of any Mizzou defender, and he got rewarded with an interception. Good for him. The other bright spot for Mizzou was Larry Rountree III. After losing eight yards on the first play of the game, he ran the ball well, racking up 121 yards and scoring twice. He now has five 100-yard games in 10 games this season and 14 touchdowns. He’s just 28 yards away from reaching 1,000 yards on the season (in a shortened schedule) and is tied for the second-most rushing touchdowns in Mizzou history behind Brad Smith. His last touchdown run was all effort.
Today wasn’t fun. Maybe it shows that Eli Drinkwitz isn’t the Second Coming and ultimately scheme can’t make up for a lack of talent and bodies. But it doesn’t change the fact that this season was a success. Missouri surpassed virtually everyone’s preseason expectations, me included, by winning five games. It will still go to a good bowl game and have a chance to cement a winning record in two weeks. We’ll find out which bowl that will be tomorrow. No need to fire anyone or jump off the bandwagon based on this game, in my opinion. We’ll have more coverage to come.
