Bazelak looks to bounce back after bye
The last time Missouri fans saw Connor Bazelak take the field, the result wasn’t pretty. During Missouri’s loss to Texas A&M, Bazelak threw two first-quarter interceptions, which allowed the Aggies to jump out to a 21-0 first-quarter lead, and no touchdowns. His 230 passing yards and 5.3 yards per attempt represented his second-lowest figure of the season in each category, ahead only of the prior week against North Texas.
Yet head coach Eli Drinkwitz stood by Bazelak, both during the game and after. Drinkwitz didn’t insert backups Brady Cook or Tyler Macon into the game when Bazelak struggled early, nor when the game was out of reach late. During his postgame press conference, Drinkwitz said he never considered benching Bazelak and left no doubt who would start against Vanderbilt, saying “Connor is our quarterback.”
“I think he gives us the best chance to win,” Drinkwitz said. “It’s not always going to be perfect. He’s going to get a lot of blame. But there’s a lot of things that have to improve, and he knows he's gonna have to improve from today's performance.”
It’s no surprise that, following Missouri’s idle week, Bazelak remains the man behind center. But Drinkwitz’s rhetoric has changed — slightly, but notably. Speaking to members of the media Tuesday, Drinkwitz espoused faith in Bazelak, who has started the past 15 games for the Tigers. But he also left on the table the possibility that, if Bazelak’s struggles bleed over across the bye, he might turn to one of the backups.
“We’ve got a lot of confidence in Connor, but we also understand there’s competition and, you know, you got to continue to work to improve,” Drinkwitz said. “We’ve got all the faith in the world in him and he’s got faith in himself, but we also have to continue to improve.”
Drinkwitz’s hope is that Bazelak will emerge from the week off looking like the player who earned SEC freshman of the year honors a season ago. Bazelak has demonstrated his ability at times this year. Across Missouri’s first three games, he averaged 299 yards through the air and threw nine touchdowns compared to one interception. Bazelak and the offense averaged 40.3 points in those contests, helping keep the team afloat while the defense got gashed on the ground.
But recently, Bazelak has struggled a bit, particularly with ball security. Across the past four games, he’s thrown three touchdowns and six interceptions. In each of Missouri’s past two games against SEC opponents, he’s thrown a pair of picks. Drinkwitz attributed the interceptions to Bazelak making some uncharacteristically risky decisions with the ball.
“Preparation, decision making, protection,” he said. “I think those, really, when you look at the last three games that we had multiple turnovers in, that’s what it comes down to is decision making, preparation, understanding what they’re trying to do and why that’s not a good throw.”
Bazelak added that a few of his interceptions, like his first pick against Texas A&M, which sailed well over the head of intended target Tauskie Dove, simply resulted from inaccurate throws. During the bye week, he watched film from his first seven games and determined that, often, he missed his target when he failed to step into his passes. Doing so more consistently has been a focus during practice the past two weeks.
“You don’t feel that at the time, during the game,” Bazelak explained. “You’ve got so much on your mind. But then you can go back on film and you’re like, you see some of those things messed up and stuff that you can easily correct.”
Cutting down on those turnovers will be key when the Tigers look to pick up their first SEC win of the season at Vanderbilt. The one thing a Commodore defense that ranks No. 120 out of 130 FBS teams in both scoring and total defense has done well this season is take the ball away from opponents. Vanderbilt has intercepted 10 passes on the year, including eight in its past four games.
Avoiding those interceptions doesn’t fall solely on Bazelak’s shoulders. Drinkwitz noted that the offensive line needs to be better in pass protection so Bazelak isn’t forced to throw passes off his back foot or before receivers are open. A lack of protection has also contributed to Bazelak’s hesitancy to push the ball downfield. Across the past two games, he’s thrown a combined 17 passes that traveled more than 10 yards downfield. During Missouri’s first five games of the season, he averaged 14 such attempts per contest. His average depth of target of 5.0 yards against Texas A&M was by far the lowest of his career.
Bazelak acknowledged that most of the time he’s failed to step into a throw, it’s been because he was about to get hit by a pass-rusher.
“I think maybe some of the pressure that got to me early kind of made me timid and not stepping into throws, but we worked on that a lot during the bye week, just kind of sticking in there, taking hits, stepping into throws,” he said.
Aside from stepping into more of his passes, Bazelak said his bye week self-scouting showed him that he can use his legs to help himself out in another way: as a runner. Bazelak has looked hesitant to carry the ball himself all season. Excluding sacks, he’s only rushed six times in seven games.
Some have theorized that has been the result of injury, as Bazelak has been spotted limping during several games this season. But Drinkwitz has regularly brushed aside concerns about Bazelak’s health, and Bazelak said Wednesday that he’s fine physically. He said he’s willing to run, he just needs to commit to doing so when the situation calls for it.
“Some games I’ve had opportunities to,” he said. “Like Kentucky, I had chances to, and I did. I’m willing to. Like I said, I think it’s just knowing when the right time to do that is, and not just knowing, like pre-snap, thinking that I’m going to do that. Just kind of knowing, when they all sink, in the back of my head knowing that I can use my legs to get a first down on a third down.”
The recent rough patch is a new experience for Bazelak. He led his Archbishop Alter high school squad to a 22-4 record during two seasons as the starter. Last year, Missouri won in five of his eight starts, all against SEC competition. Three times, he was named the league’s freshman of the week.
His teammates expressed no concern about his ability to bounce back. Wide receiver Keke Chism said last week that Bazelak is “probably the most poised guy on our team.” Drinkwitz, too, has enough faith in his quarterback that he’s keeping him behind center. But he also made clear that, if Bazelak continues to struggle, there is an end to his leash.
“I think it’s new,” Drinkwitz said. “I think you can find out what you’re made of on all sides of it, and I think we do a good job of making sure people understand that praise and blame are all the same. You can’t get caught up one way or the other. You’ve got to have confidence in who you are, own your mistakes and keep pushing forward. It’s easy to say all this stuff. ... It’s when you’re actually walking through it that you’ve got to prove it.”
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