Breaking down Mizzou's struggles against the run
It took less than five minutes for Tennessee to showcase its embarrassment of riches on the offensive line Saturday. Facing first and goal from the three-yard line, the Volunteers sent seven linemen onto the field. The super-sized front had little trouble knocking Missouri’s defensive linemen off the ball, paving the way for tailback Ty Chandler to find the end zone and give Tennessee a lead it never relinquished.
It seemed like throughout the contest, whether Tennessee needed just a few yards or a big gain, the Volunteers consistently got it done on the ground. Tennessee rushed for 232 yards and four touchdowns. A Missouri defense that was expected to be the team’s strength couldn’t find an answer, which not only allowed the Vols to cruise to a 35-12 victory, but led to concern about how the defense might hold up against the eight remaining SEC teams on the Tigers’ schedule.
“If we can't stop the run in this league, it's going to be a long day,” head coach Eli Drinkwitz said during his Tuesday press conference. “We've got to do a much better job than we did this past week, and nobody knows more than me.”
Defensive coordinator Ryan Walters said it wasn’t just one issue that led to Tennessee gashing Missouri on the ground, it was “the whole gamut.” That might sound like cause for concern. But for the most part, Walters thinks the issues are correctable. So much so that he said he wished the Tigers could have taken the field again last Sunday “just to get that taste out of your mouth.”
“What we’ve got to do is eliminate the (mistakes) that we can control, and that’s scheme, getting lined up, having eyes in the right spot and playing physical,” Walters said. “... We've addressed some of the schematic issues that I felt like were a problem.”
The biggest challenge, both literally and figuratively, for Missouri on Saturday came when Tennessee put two extra offensive linemen into the game in place of tight ends. Walters said the Volunteers didn’t show that formation in their season-opener against South Carolina, possibly because Georgia transfer and former five-star recruit Cade Mays didn’t gain eligibility until a few days prior to the Missouri game.
Walters said about 80 of Tennessee’s rushing yards came with extra offensive linemen in the game. That also led to Tennessee’s success in short-yardage situations: The Vols kept the offense on the field for four fourth downs, each time needing one yard to move the sticks. All four times, they converted.
“We tried to get that corrected on the sideline, and sometimes we did and it wasn't an issue, a lot of times we didn’t and it hurt us,” Walters said. “So really made that a point of emphasis this week.”
Drinkwitz also noted that Tennessee had success when it picked up the tempo following a successful play. Several times, Missouri failed to get its defensive play called and players aligned properly prior to the snap. Walters said the blame for that lies with him. He’s thinned out the defensive call sheet a bit since last week and made playing fast an emphasis during practices.
“We've practiced tempo this week,” he said, “... just the importance of being where you're supposed to be, and having your eyes where they're supposed to be before the ball snapped in order to give yourself a chance before the play even starts.”
The fact that Tennessee was able to catch Missouri off guard with quick snaps or unique formations underscores the difficulty of preparing to face an opponent early in the season, especially this year. When asked about facing LSU’s offense this coming Saturday, Walters noted that it’s impossible to know which players a team has had available during practices, which could impact the packages and plays that a team has put on film or what it can run in the next game.
The solution, he believes, is not to “chase ghosts” — obsessing over what a team has done in past seasons (especially LSU, which had 14 players from its national championship-winning squad selected in the NFL Draft) or what it might do. Instead, the focus this week has been on fixing the things Missouri hasn’t done well during the first two weeks.
“In my opinion, you got to work on the things that hurt you from previous weeks, so that, you know, if they're trying to copycat from teams that have had success against some of the things that we've done, make sure that you correct those, and so they're not issues moving forward,” Walters explained. “And then we got to do a great job of in-game adjustments.”
However it happens, Missouri will need to get better push from its front four than it saw Saturday. Of Tennessee’s 233 rushing yards, 106 came before contact. That’s the second-most yards before contact recorded by any SEC team this season. Excluding sacks and kneel-downs, the Volunteers ran the ball 47 times, and not one of those plays went for negative yardage.
Upon watching film of the game, Walters said there were a few plays where you just had to tip your cap to Tennessee and its massive offensive line. But most of the big runs resulted from mistakes in execution by the Tiger defense. Walters knows that needs to improve for Missouri to have a chance against future SEC opponents. He’s optimistic it will.
“You work on the things that you can control, which is alignment, assignment, keys, execution,” he said. “And if you do those things, I think we can play with anybody. If you don't do those things, we can get beat by anybody. It's that simple. You got to be detailed and execute.”
“And like I said, we didn't do that enough the past two weeks, but I think we're improving and will improve every week, and I’m excited to go play.”