Was it the pass rush or the coverage? The chicken or the egg?
Theories abound exactly why Missouri gave up 572 yards passing to David Blough and Purdue on Saturday night. The truth is, it’s a little bit of everything.
“I thought our underneath coverage was not very good in helping on the back end. The quarterback didn’t feel enough pressure and then we didn’t win any one-on-one battles on the back end,” head coach Barry Odom said. “Not many times you can play like that and still have a chance to win the game.”
That was part of Odom’s opening statement on Tuesday at his first meeting with reporters since Saturday in West Lafayette. He didn’t even have to be asked a question about his defense because it is the 572-pound (yard) elephant in the room.
Missouri’s coverage wasn’t exactly stellar. Top cornerback DeMarkus Acy went out on the first play from scrimmage and the Boilermakers immediately went after his replacement, completing two passes for 62 yards, including a 12-yard touchdown pass, against Terry Petry.
Once Christian Holmes entered the game, the Boilermakers completed only one of six passes in his direction, though they did connect on 10-of-14 for 133 yards against Adam Sparks. The bigger problem than the secondary (though it was an issue) was Missouri’s coverage on shorter routes. Purdue completed 19-of-21 passes when the primary defender was a Missouri linebacker. Those passes went for 290 yards. a little more than half of Blough’s school-record total.
“I still think we’ve got the opportunity on the back end to be pretty good,” Odom said. “It’s 11 guys getting better. We’ve got to get a better pass rush. We’ve got to be better in our underneath cover zones with our linebackers on helping those guys out.”
But while the back seven was busy getting burned, the front four wasn’t exactly making things difficult on the Purdue passing game. Pro Football Focus credited the Tigers with 14 hurries on 59 Purdue dropbacks (a number that seems admittedly generous). But of those 14, just four came from defensive ends. It wasn't a new trend.
So how exactly do you fix a defense that doesn’t get much pressure off the edge and doesn’t cover very well in the back seven? That is Barry Odom and Ryan Walters’ mission with No. 2 Georgia headed to town for an 11 a.m. kickoff on Saturday.
“They’re the No. 2 team in the country for a reason,” Walters said of the Bulldogs. “They did play in the national championship last year.”
The Tigers could blitz more, bringing pressure at Jake Fromm from different directions. It’s a high-risk and potentially high-reward strategy…if the blitz gets home. But against Purdue, Missouri brought a linebacker or a defensive back 27 times against Purdue and those players got just two total hits on the quarterback.
“Depending on what you’re getting it kind of dictates what you’re capable of doing in terms of how you bring pressure,” Walters said. “It’s a robbing Peter to pay Paul kind of deal. You want to play coverage to help out with some of the slot receivers if you’re having problems or are you going to go get after the quarterback and leave guys singled up? You just kind of have to feel the flow of the game and where your matchups are.”
“You never can get enough pressure. We’d like to get a little bit more,” defensive line coach Brick Haley said. “A lot of times the ball’s coming out fast. There’s a lot of factors in getting pressure on the quarterback. We got to ramp up what we’re doing up front and get a little bit better, getting off blocks a little bit better.”
The other potential solution is a personnel switch. Freshman defensive ends Jatorian Hansford and Trajan Jeffcoat have both seen action in each of Missouri’s first three games, but neither played a snap on defense Saturday. Both are considered long, athletic players whose strength at this point is their athleticism off the edge. Could one or both turn into contributors and help Mizzou pressure opposing passers?
“I think they’re very close,” Haley said. “I’m really pleased with those guys. The biggest thing for me right now is I’ve got to be able to take it upon myself and say ‘Screw it, I’m going to let them get in there and let them go play.’”
“I think (they’re) getting days away from helping us,” Odom said of the freshmen. I think there are some things, not only just on third downs, I think they’ve got a chance really working their way in helping us on normal down situations too.”
“There’s going to be times during the course of a season where you’ve got to win. You’ve got to win a one-on-one matchup. I do think we’ve got some guys who can get that done.”
The Purdue game exposed plenty of red flags on the Tiger defense. What remains to be seen is whether Missouri has the answers either on its roster or in its strategy. But one thing is certain:
“Obviously, as a team, you’re happy as heck to get out of there with a win,” Walters said. “But we ain’t been like that in a while. Our guys understand that.”
