9/24/2023 football Edit

Missouri's offense is the real deal, leads Tigers to 34-27 win over Memphis

Jarod Hamilton • PowerMizzou

Staff Writer

ST. LOUIS 一 There were some reservations about Missouri’s offense after it seemingly dinked and dunked its way to a 35-10 win over South Dakota in Week 1 and kind of slipped passed Middle Tennessee State with a 23-19 win in Week 2.

Then, in Week 3 the offense amassed 30 points and 430 yards and we saw glimpses of the explosive offense the team had promised all offseason.

The only question was could Mizzou do it again in Week 4? The answer was yes.

The Tigers of Missouri defeated the Tigers of Memphis, 34-27, in The Dome at America’s Center behind quarterback Brady Cook’s second straight 300-yard passing game and receiver and St. Louis native Luther Burden III’s career-high 10 receptions for a career-high 177 yards.

But before the offense put on fireworks. It was special teams that started off with a bang. Well, at least it tried.

Mizzou tried an onside kick on the opening kickoff and recovered it. Unfortunately, for Missouri, there was an offside penalty called on Tyler Hibbler which forced it to re-kick the ball, with Mizzou electing to kick it off to Memphis.

Head coach Eli Drinkwitz harkened back to the team's “Something to Prove” motto as a reason why he wanted to try something like that to start the game.

“I mean it's there. You know, it was there. And I mean, everybody thinks I'm not aggressive, so I figured I'd show y'all I can play aggressive,” Drinkwitz said sarcastically.

From there, it didn’t take long for Missouri offensive coordinator Kirby Moore to join in on the aggressive playcalling, as he would dial up what would be a 76-yard touchdown pass from Cook to true freshman receiver Marquis “Speedy” Johnson on the team's third offensive play of the game.

"Yeah, we probably don't throw him the ball enough that's what I think,” Drinkwitz said of Johnson. “I mean, the sucker is fast as lightning and he is making some tough catches. So, we’ve got to continue to find ways of getting vertically down the field."

First, Johnson being in the game as a true freshman, catching a 42-yard pass last week, and then catching a nearly 80-yard receiving touchdown in this game is proof this offense is more explosive and different than last season.

A year ago, the only true deep threat was Dominic Lovett, who averaged a little less than 16 yards per reception, but even then he had so many other responsibilities as the lead wide receiver.

The Tigers didn’t have (or at least they didn’t use) a deep threat that when you saw them you knew they were trying to throw deep. They have that in Johnson.

So, when Johnson’s in that means the next play has big-play potential.

Secondly, the Tigers are finding ways to create big plays but it’s not just on deep bombs like the one to Johnson. Last week, Mizzou had nine plays of 15 yards or more.

In Week 4, it had 13 plays (nine passing, four rushing).

Of the passing plays, six of them were legitimately thrown downfield and weren’t just plays by the receiver after the catch.

Speaking of rushing, the Tigers’ run game was actually really bad in the first half.

After the first quarter, Mizzou had minus-4 yards. Then to end the second quarter, it had just reached 44 yards on 14 carries, which included Cody Schrader fumbling for the first time in his career.

The Tigers would bounce back and finish with 157 rushing yards in the second half, while all but 11 of Schrader’s 123 yards and a touchdown came after halftime.

It would’ve been understandable if the Tigers didn’t give Schrader any more carries or neglected the run after the team’s terrible first-half running game and his fumble, but they stuck with it and ended up rushing for 201 total yards on the night as a team, while Schrader finished with 14 carries for 123 yards and a touchdown.

“I think it's a testament to what type of brotherhood we have when the coaches still believe in you,” Schrader said. “And even though I fumbled, they didn't take me out of the game. They trusted me. They put me right back in there, and they trusted me at the end of the game to get it done.

“I think we knew we just had to tire them (Memphis’ defense) out. We have the offensive line to get the job done. And that's kind of what we did in the second half.”

Then, when you look at Missouri’s scoring drives it scores so quickly.

Last week, on its six scoring drives they were all three minutes and four seconds or less.

Against Memphis, only one of the six scoring drives eclipsed four minutes (5:14). The second-longest drive was three minutes and 53 seconds.

Mizzou finished with six 70-plus yard drives and went 4-of-4 in the red zone, and that’s not even the best part.

Things to fix

Don’t worry, you weren’t left on a cliffhanger. The best part about Mizzou’s offensive day isn’t all that good, but it shows how good this offense has the potential to be.

Missouri put up 34 points and 542 total yards and went 0-of-8 on third down.

If you combine what it did last week versus Kansas State, the team has scored 64 points, amassed 972 total yards and is 3-of-21 on third down.

To put it simply, that’s incredible. And insane.

“Potential means we haven't arrived yet. But yeah, we know we're capable. We've got to really dial in on third down,” Drinkwitz said. “I mean, 0-for-8? I don't know that I've ever been 0-for-8 on third downs. So, that's something we got to really look at and fix.”

On top of third-down struggles, there was a lot of meat left on the bone in other places.

The aforementioned offsides on the onside kick, the fumble, horrendous tackling and letting Memphis go 3-of-4 on fourth down, were just some of the issues. When you add the fourth down stat to the third down stat (Memmphis was 7-of-18), Memphis was 10-of-22 (45%) on those downs.

“It's really man-to-man coverage. I mean, bottom line is you’ve got a man you got to cover him. Why we are cutting guys loose in man-to-man,” an annoyed Drinkwitz asked. “I don't know. And that's gotta get fixed.”

In Weeks 2 and 3, Mizzou had allowed MTSU and Kansas State go a combined 17-of-35 on third down and 2-of-3 on fourth down.

So, this team has won four straight to start the season and hasn’t even played close to their best game. This is good because they’re 4-0 (for the first time since 2013), but it’s also bad because eventually, the plays they don’t make will come to bite them in the butt.

This is three straight one-possession wins for Mizzou and there are legit arguments that it should've won all three by two possessions at least.

Newcomers getting love

After a couple of games, it would be easy to assume Speedy Johnson is just a downfield threat known for his verticality and only that, like that of a rook in chess. But on Saturday, he showed he's more valuable than that and Drinkwitz noticed what things he could do when the ball wasn't in his hands.

"I will say this, (on) the big throw to Luther in the third quarter, it was because Marquis cleared that side out," Dirnkwitz said. "They have so much respect for him. But yeah, he's a really good player that we got to get more involved in what we're doing."

Not only did Johnson clear out the whole side, which allowed Burden to catch the ball with the nearest defender legitimately 20 yards away from him, but he threw him a good block at the end of the play. It just so happened to be that Burden just went the wrong way and cut inside instead of out and started cramping on what looked to be a would-be touchdown play.

Another true freshman who was making some plays was tight end Jordon Harris.

His name won't appear in the box score because he didn't record a catch but Drinkwitz and Schrader both made sure to point him out during their post-game pressers.

"Having to play a lot this week with Brett (Norfleet) being out. They're bringing an edge pressure, he's got to alert the pressure and execute a call. He's got to relay that information down to the rest of the offensive linemen and he does it perfectly," Drinkwitz said. "And we execute versus a pressure which is something that's hard to do. I've been coaching for a long time. I don't know that I've seen a true freshman in that situation, execute that thing that well, and ultimately it resulted in a score, so I'm really proud of Jordon."

"I think a guy that showed up huge tonight was Jordon Harris. He's a true freshman, who hasn't been playing football that long," Schrader said. "And he had the big key blocks on my touchdown and on the one to get that last first down of the game."

Injury updates

It's been a tough seven days for Mizzou.

Heading into conference play against Vanderbilt in Week 5 the squad is beat up.

In Week 3, Cook sprained his knee and offensive lineman Marcellus Johnson had an ankle injury. Obviously, the former was able to play, but the latter wasn't.

On top of that, Cook took a couple of brutal hits on Saturday. He stayed in the game, but the hits pile up. Mizzou is only done with one-third of its season.

Norfleet, who had two receptions for 40 yards last week, was sidelined for this game due to a rib cartilage injury and his return date is unknown.

Wide receiver Mookie Cooper took a big shot to the head and neck area with around five minutes left to go in the game. He appeared to be fine on the sideline talking to teammates, but he didn't re-enter the game.

Again, Burden was cramping so much that he had to go get an IV.

Star cornerback Ennis Rakestraw was a game-time decision with an undisclosed injury, but he didn't play. In his place was Dreyden Norwood, who had a couple of pass deflections before he suffered a sprained ankle in the second quarter. He wouldn't return to the game.

Marcus Clarke played admirably and had six tackles, a pass deflection and an interception. But he was playing before Norwood got hurt.

So, Norwood's replacement turned out to be free safety Jaylon Carlies. The fifth corner is usually Shamar McNeil, but he was ruled out on Thursday.

Defensive end Darius Robinson has been dealing with a calf injury for a while, and Drinkwitz said the calf gave out on him in the fourth quarter last week and gave out in the first quarter this week. Robinson came out of halftime in street clothes.

Drinkwitz is on record saying how deep this team is multiple times. This team will have to show it because they're banged up and it only gets tougher facing Southeastern Conference opponents for the rest of the regular season.

PowerMizzou.com is a proud game day partner of Yuengling Traditional Lager the taste of game-time @yuenlingbeer #LagerUp.