On Missouri's fourth snap against rival Arkansas Friday afternoon, it looked like the Tigers would strike first and steal the momentum with a walk-in touchdown.
It was third down and two from near midfield, and quarterback Connor Bazelak faked a handoff to the man everyone inside Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium expected to get the ball, tailback Tyler Badie. The entire Arkansas defense bit on the play fake, which allowed Bazelak to instead throw downfield for receiver Boo Smith. The speedster got behind the secondary, no defensive players standing between him and the end zone. But Bazelak's throw sailed too far, landing incomplete.
The miscue, which resulted in a Missouri punt, epitomized the performance for Bazelak and the Tiger offense. Eli Drinkwitz's unit generally moved the ball against a defense coordinated by former Missouri head coach Barry Odom. But whether it was due to penalties, missed assignments or poor throws by Bazelak, the Tiger offense couldn't generate explosive plays and struggled to sustain drives. Missouri didn't score its first touchdown until the outcome had already been decided. Arkansas won 34-17, reclaiming the Battle Line Trophy for the first time since 2015 and dropping the Tigers to 6-6 at the end of the regular season.
After the game, Drinkwitz said he felt like there were opportunities for Missouri to put more points on the board, particularly in the first half. But "self-inflicted wounds" continually derailed the team's drives around midfield.
"We kept getting in our own way," Drinkwitz said. "We’d have big gains and have holding penalties, we got a chop block, we got an illegal cut. I mean, even right before half there, we have an explosive play that gets called back on a holding penalty. So, you know, a lot of things that we're going to have to work hard to correct.”
Badie and wideout Keke Chism also pointed to the penalties as an issue for the Missouri offense, and there's a case to be made that flags cost the team points. The Tigers only got whistled for four penalties, but all four were called against the offense, all of them occurred in Arkansas territory, and all cost the unit at least 10 yards.
There was an illegal block below the waist called on center Michael Maietti that pushed the Tigers out of field goal range, resulting in a punt. A holding call on right guard Connor Wood negated a 20-yard Badie run that would have put the Tigers in position to at least kick a field goal prior to halftime. Even Badie had his fifth 200-plus yard rushing performance of the season sullied by a flag, as he got whistled for a face mask that cost the offense 15 yards.
"We want to be a successful offense, we gotta limit our penalties," Badie said. "I’m not sure how much yards we had in penalties, but it definitely impacted the game. Every time we got to the red zone or got close to the red zone, we got backed up. ... I partially blame myself."
The penalties played a part in Missouri trailing 10-6 at halftime even though it had out-gained the Razorbacks to that point and scored as a result of the game's only turnover. But the flags were far from the only issue for the Tiger offense. The unit's biggest problem was the inability to find production from anyone not named Badie.
Badie carried the ball a career-high 41 times for 219 yards, setting the Missouri record for rushing yards in a single season in the process. Missouri finished with just 316 total yards. Bazelak completed 10 of 26 passes for 65 yards, no touchdowns and an interception. Not only did that mark his lowest passing output since taking over as the Tigers' starter behind center last season, it's the fewest passing yards in a game for Missouri since Oct. 18, 2014 against Florida.
Drinkwitz acknowledged that Bazelak's miss of the open Smith on Missouri's first possession set a negative tone for the offense. After that, he said, Bazelak could never find a rhythm.
"First drive, we miss a third and short, we miss a wide open pass down the middle that felt like we had pretty good, dialed up," Drinkwitz said. "And just kind of after that we weren't able to really get into a rhythm, consistently complete footballs down the field."
Drinkwitz and Chism both credited Odom's defense for limiting Missouri through the air. With its frequent use of three down linemen and eight linebackers and defensive backs, Arkansas has tried all season to limit explosive plays for opposing offenses, instead making them sustain drives. Missouri had just one play gain more than 20 yards. The Razorback offense, on the other hand, had six different plays gain at least 30 yards, and all six led to Arkansas scores.
Chism also said that Arkansas played a lot of press-man coverage with no safety help over the top, which allowed it to disguise its blitzes. Missouri couldn't make the Razorbacks pay by beating that man coverage.
"They’re a big man-to-man team, and a mixture of 30 Storm, so from that standpoint, they stayed true to who they were," Chism said of Arkansas. "So we knew what to expect out there. I don’t think they tricked us too much. It just goes back to the execution of the game plan. We had answers to the test and just weren’t able to get it done.”
Whereas Missouri's offense moved the ball in the second half and simply couldn't sustain drives, the offense eroded into dysfunction in the second. The Tigers picked up just one first down across their first four second-half possessions. Arkansas, meanwhile, scored consecutive touchdowns to pull away. And after Missouri found points with a field goal and then held Arkansas' offense to a field goal of its own, Bazelak threw for Chism down the left sideline and cornerback Montaric Brown came down with it for an interception. The giveaway and ensuing Arkansas touchdown all but sealed the result.
Drinkwitz stuck with Bazelak for one more possession following the interception, but after Missouri once again went three-and-out, he removed Bazelak in favor of backup Brady Cook. Cook led the Tigers to their lone touchdown of the game.
It marked the second time in the past three weeks that Drinkwitz has benched Bazelak in the fourth quarter. Following the last instance, Drinkwitz stuck with Bazelak after claiming to hold an open competition for the starting job during practice. Asked Friday if he considered subbing Cook in sooner, Drinkwitz said no.
"I felt like our team was in the game," Drinkwitz said. "(Bazelak) hadn’t made a big mistake. I don't ever want our quarterbacks to feel like if they make a single mistake, they're gonna get pulled. So after the interception I wanted to give him another chance to drive us down and see what he could do. But at the end, I needed to give Brady a chance and see what he could provide for us. But even on that drive, the way they play defense, you're going to have to run the football and sustain it, and we were finally able to, but it was too little, too late.”
Drinkwitz didn't place all the blame on the right arm of his starting quarterback. He said the entire offense didn't execute well enough to take advantage of scoring opportunities, particularly in the first half, and he included himself.
"Today's about us not finding a way to get it done," he said, "me not doing a good enough job and having my team prepared, not doing a good enough job offensively having us ready to go."
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