12/24/2022 football Edit

Missouri's offense falls flat, lose to Wake Forest 27-17 in Gasparilla Bowl

Jarod Hamilton • PowerMizzou

Staff Writer

TAMPA 一 The last time Missouri won a bowl game, Eli Drinkwitz was a tight ends coach at Boise State, Barrett Banister was in the 10th grade and Luther Burden III was in fifth grade. That win was on Jan. 1, 2015, in the 2014 Citrus Bowl 2,913 days ago. That streak will eclipse well over 3,200 days since Mizzou lost 27-17 versus Wake Forest in the Gasparilla Bowl on Friday.

This is Missouri's (6-7) fourth straight bowl loss and the second under Drinkwitz, who took full responsibility for it.

"I was really proud of how we came back and scored to take the lead in the third quarter," Drinkwitz said. "Yet, at the end of the day we've got to score in the fourth quarter and we didn't do that and it was my responsibility. We were 2 of 5 on fourth down 一 I've got to give us a better opportunity to convert."

The offense scored on three of its first six possessions with the Tigers taking a 17-14 lead midway through the third quarter before they bottomed out. What followed was two punts and three turnovers on their final five possessions with three of those possessions being a minute and 33 seconds or less.

"I just felt like every time we got momentum we'd shoot ourselves in the foot with a penalty, a sack, a missed throw or a dropped ball," Drinkwitz said. "In the first half, we had multiple false starts that put us behind the chains and then it seemed like in the second half we constantly had holding penalties or something like that."

It was the same story that defined the Tigers in most of their losses. The offense didn't do enough to supplement the defense, which had played alright given the circumstances. Missouri was without starting safety Martez Manuel and starting defensive ends Isaiah McGuire, DJ Coleman and Trajan Jeffcoat. McGuire, Coleman and Manuel were the team's top three leaders in sacks.

Nonetheless, it held Wake Forest's 16th-ranked scoring offense to 14 points midway through the third. It did let the Demon Deacons (8-5) score four plays after Missouri took the lead, but it still kept the team in the game by forcing three straight punts in the fourth quarter when the team trailed 20-17.

"I've got to do a lot of reflection as far as what we're going to do offensively to get this thing moving because right now it's not good enough," Drinkwitz said. "Our defense plays too well for us not to score right there and give us a chance to win and that's all on me."

Perhaps, what turned out to be a bigger loss than the loss of four defensive starters was the loss of quarterbacks coach Bush Hamdan, who left to take the Boise State offensive coordinator position last week. Hamdan took over playcalling from Drinkwitz in the Tigers' last three regular-season games and the Tigers averaged 32 points per game while the team averaged 23 points per game in the nine previous games with Drinkwitz calling the plays.

Entering this game, Wake Forest had the 95th-ranked defense and the 93rd-ranked scoring defense allowing 29 points per game.

Drinkwitz said that he has to figure out the offense and that probably needs to involve using that $1.2 million he got in his contract extension to hire a new quarterbacks coach and probably an offensive coordinator.

The offensive line is going to need a lot of re-tooling

Missouri's offensive line combination of left tackle Javon Foster, left guard Xavier Delgado, center Connor Tollison, right guard Connor Wood and right tackle Armand Membou started the last three games together and while it was never great it was okay. It wasn't the reason the team lost 66-24 to Tennessee and it didn't handicap the team in its wins over New Mexico State and Arkansas. The group was much more noticeable versus Wake Forest, but not for the right reasons.

It started when Wood was carted off to the locker room near the end of the first quarter with an undisclosed injury followed by Tollison, who had to be helped off the field with a left leg injury early in the second quarter. It wasn't like the offensive line was playing well to start the game with them in there, but it got dramatically worse once they were out of the lineup.

Mitchell Walters replaced Wood and Drake Heismeyer replaced Tollison. Walters almost immediately made a negative impact once he got into the game with a false start penalty when the Tigers were already inside their own 20-yard line. He finished the game with three penalties and Heismeyer had one of his own. The pair had four of the Tigers' nine penalties.

"It's a next-play philosophy," Drinkwitz said. "We all had different things we needed to do a lot better. You've got to go to the next play and that's stuff we will have to work really hard to get fixed this spring and continue to improve."

The offensive line also gave up four tackles for loss and 10 sacks. So, if the Tigers hope and expect to be bigger players in the Southeastern Conference in 2023, this will have to be something that gets fixed. This game painted the Tigers' issues when it comes to this position group. Injuries and undisciplined play.

A tale of two halves for Brady Cook

This game not only painted the picture of the Tigers' offensive line, but quarterback Brady Cook. He had a really rough start to the season and led the Tigers to a 2-4 record. He bounced back after the bye and led them to a 4-2 record which included a three game stretch at the end of the regular season where Cook seemed to be the team’s best player. It was a tale of two halves then and it was again on Friday.

In the first half, he actually outplayed, Wake Forest's All-Atlantic Coast Conference third-team quarterback Sam Hartman. Cook had completed 16 of 24 passes for 148 yards and a touchdown. He also had five carries for 35 yards. Hartman had completed 12 of 22 passes for 138 yards, a touchdown and an interception. The Tigers had gone 5 of 10 on third down, converted their only fourth down attempt and outgained Wake Forest in total yards (211 to 192).

It was a different story in the second half. Hartman did his thing and completed 11 of 14 passes for 142 yards and two touchdowns en route to player of the game honors while Cook completed 13 of 24 passes for 67 yards and had nine carries for three yards. Missouri went 3 of 9 on third down and 1 of 4 on fourth down.

"He did a lot of really good things as far as giving us opportunities with his feet," Drinkwitz said. "Just like everybody else, I'm sure there are things when you go back and watch the tape 一we're all going to wish we were doing a little bit differently or would have done differently."

At some points during the game, you could see the game slowing down for Cook, especially in the first half and he's made strides over the course of the season but his second-half performance on Friday was akin to one of his early season performances.

Being down his No. 1 wide receiver in Dominic Lovett and losing two starting offensive linemen in the first half does matter and clearly impacted him as the game went on, but he did miss a few throws and took some hard hits. Some of which, could've been avoided by throwing the ball away or sliding when he scrambled.

Cook finished the game 29 of 48 for 215 yards and a touchdown. His 29 completions tied a Gasparilla Bowl game record.

"Those seniors are successful. Me as a coach, no I got to do better."

Drinkwitz was pretty hard on himself after the game and when he was asked if this season was successful, he said it was his seniors that were successful.

"I've said this before, success is not always linear," Drinkwitz said. "We've made progress, we've taken steps back, we've shot ourselves in the foot and fought forward. To have a football team be 2-4 and lose three one-possession games in a row we could've been splintered. To fight back to 4-6 and lose a game on a controversial call (versus Kentucky) and then lose a game the way we did against Tennessee 一 to fight back and go to a bowl game and fight the way they did tonight 一 those seniors are successful. Me as a coach, no I got to do better."

Banister joined Drinkwitz at the press game podium with Banister reflecting on the season and what he would say to the returning Missouri players.

"I've talked about learning from mistakes and it kind of goes back to the margins of success being so small," Banister said. "We very easily could've been a nine or 10-win team and that sucks and is a tough pill to swallow, but the good thing that you can take from that is that you were in those games and those margins could easily be flipped. No, we didn't get it done, but it doesn't mean that you can't."

Banister finished with seven receptions for 49 yards. It was his third game in a row that he recorded seven receptions, which is a career-high for him in catches.

It will be two straight 6-7 seasons for Missouri and there’s a lot to figure out. How it does that is up to Drinkwitz and he knows that now more than ever.