Welcome to Four Down Territory which is a spin-off of Ten Thoughts.
So, I’ll give you three thoughts on Missouri football or college football in general. Then, the last thought will be whatever I want it to be.
1. If the offense is going to look like this, Missouri is much closer to 9-3 than 6-6.
A lot of us have seen the meme when the guy is playing the game and starts losing, and then he sits up in his chair and locks in. That was Brady Cook, Harrison Mevis and Eli Drinkwitz.
First, let's start with Cook, who had a herculean performance.
There have been doubts from a lot of the fan base about whether Cook is the right quarterback for the job since he was named the starter before the start of last season through the starting lineup introductions before taking the field versus Kansas State.
In my opinion, this guy’s mental and physical fortitude is unmatched.
He played 97% of his snaps a season ago with a torn labrum in his right throwing shoulder and finds a way to adjust to help the Tigers win the last three of their last five to become bowl-eligible.
In fact, he was the team’s best offensive player during the last three games, with said injury.
He has offseason surgery and misses all of spring football, presumably putting him behind the eight ball in a quarterback competition that features a former four-star redshirt freshman, who also happens to throw a 98-mile-per-hour fastball, and another former four-star prospect coming from a Power 5 team expecting to have a chance to start.
Cook overcame that and was still able to reclaim his starting gig entering fall camp.
He took most of the first-team reps through camp and then shined in the first half versus South Dakota in the season opener. Then, after a solid, but not great, game versus Middle Tennessee State in Week 2, he puts up a career-high 356 yards while completing 65% of his passes for three total touchdowns versus the No. 15 team in the country.
Not to mention, he sprained his knee in the second quarter and still completed 14-of-22 passes for 170 yards and a touchdown.
I mean, it’s very easy to see why he’s a team captain and the starting quarterback.
The “Thiccer Kicker” has had Mizzou fans on edge for quite a bit dating back to the 26-yard field goal he missed at Auburn in Week 4 last season that would’ve won Mizzou the game.
He entered the Kansas State game 1-of-3 on field goals and 7-of-8 on PATs.
Through the first two games, there have been many issues with the snap, hold and kicks through the first couple of weeks and even Drinkwitz said he was concerned about the field goal unit after the win over MTSU.
The problems seem like they were going to rear their head in Week 3 after Mevis missed a 53-yard field goal in the second quarter. Not because he missed the kick, but how he missed the kick.
He said in his postgame presser that his foot hit the ground before it hit the ball.
However, whatever issues they had seemed to dissipate when it was time to attempt and make a Southeastern Conference record 61-yard field goal to win the game.
If there’s any way to silence the doubters it’s to have a chance for a 56-yard field goal and then have it get moved back to a 61-yarder, and still make the kick. Rightfully so, he earned SEC Special Teams Player of the Week honors.
Lastly, Drinkwitz (and by extension offensive coordinator Kirby Moore)
Instead of putting some plays on tape for Kansas State and SEC opponents to watch, he opted to just take what South Dakota and MTSU defenses presented to him in the first couple of weeks and stack a couple of Ws entering the Week 3 tilt with the Wildcats.
Well, he clearly knew what he was doing having Moore and the offense surprise Kansas State with what looks like the true explosive offense they had been telling everyone about all offseason.
Sometimes when a team is withholding new stuff until it faces a big opponent it can bite them in the butt because there aren’t any live reps in a real game to go off of. So, whenever they face that opponent everything has to go off without a hitch, and fortunately for Drinkwitz and Moore it did.
From the Tigers’ first offensive possession of the game, it looked like a different offense.
Mizzou scored its first opening-drive touchdown versus a Power 5 opponent since Week 8 versus Vanderbilt last season and largely had a great day on that side of the ball with little help from the run game while also going 3-of-13 on third down.
Missouri finished the game with 430 total yards, 20 first downs, nine plays of 15 or more yards, averaged 15.5 yards per completion and all six scoring drives were three minutes and four seconds or less.
If this is going to be the offense, then the Tigers' floor becomes 7-5 and the ceiling becomes 10-2 with 9-3 being a much more real possibility than it was a week ago.
2. Don’t sleep on “Touchdown Luther” and the pass-catching options.
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