Missouri's Pro Football Focus player grades: Week Three

After every game, our partners at Pro Football Focus issue grades for each player that sees the field. Every week, we will pass along those grades, as well as the players' season-long scores.

Below are the grades for Missouri's players from the Tigers' 40-37 win over Purdue. First, however, here's an explanation from PFF as to how the grades are generated.

On every play, a PFF analyst will grade each player on a scale of -2 to +2 according to what he did on the play.

At one end of the scale you have a catastrophic game-ending interception or pick-six from a quarterback, and at the other a perfect deep bomb into a tight window in a critical game situation, with the middle of that scale being 0-graded, or ‘expected’ plays that are neither positive nor negative.

Each game is also graded by a second PFF analyst independent of the first, and those grades are compared by a third, Senior Analyst, who rules on any differences between the two. These grades are verified by the Pro Coach Network, a group of former and current NFL coaches with over 700 combined years of NFL coaching experience, to get them as accurate as they can be.

From there, the grades are normalized to better account for game situation; this ranges from where a player lined up to the dropback depth of the quarterback or the length of time he had the ball in his hand and everything in between. They are finally converted to a 0-100 scale and appear in our Player Grades Tool.

Season-level grades aren’t simply an average of every game-grade a player compiles over a season, but rather factor in the duration at which a player performed at that level. Achieving a grade of 90.0 in a game once is impressive, doing it (12) times in a row is more impressive.

It is entirely possible that a player will have a season grade higher than any individual single-game grade he achieved, because playing well for an extended period of time is harder to do than for a short period, Similarly, playing badly for a long time is a greater problem than playing badly once, so the grade can also be compounded negatively.

Each week, grades are subject to change while we run through our extensive review process including All-22 tape runs and coaching audit, so you may notice discrepancies among grades published in earlier articles compared with those in the Player Grades tool until grade lock each week.

One other note: players who played fewer than 10 snaps are not included.

Offense

Takeaways:

Missouri's offense certainly did its part on Saturday, especially Drew Lock. His grade from this performance wasn't quite as high as his first two games of the season, possibly as a result of the costly interception he threw in the fourth quarter, but Missouri certainly doesn't win this game without him. His Heisman campaign is still very much alive.

The fact that Hyrin White tops the list has to be encouraging for Missouri fans. White entered the game in the second quarter after Yasir Durant, who entered the game as the Tigers' highest-graded offensive lineman this season, injured his left ankle. If Durant has to miss further time, White appears capable of filling in competently.

It's a bit surprising to see Larry Rountree III so far down the list after he rushed for 168 yards on 23 carries. What's not surprising, however, is seeing Damarea Crockett receive the lowest grade of the unit. Crockett was clearly the least effective of the Tigers' three running backs, which is why he didn't play at all during the second half.

Defense

Takeaways:

Frankly, the fact that any defensive player received a grade over 70 is a little bit of a surprise. That two of the top four players come from the secondary, which allowed Purdue quarterback David Blough to throw for 572 yards, seems counterintuitive. The grades given to Cam Hilton, Adam Sparks and Terry Petry seem much more representative of the secondary's performance than those given to Khalil Oliver and Christian Holmes. However, it is worth noting that Holmes had the best game of any cornerback in relief of the injured DeMarkus Acy. He will likely get the start if Acy cannot play against Georgia next week.

Missouri's defensive tackles had the best game of any position group for the third consecutive game. To their credit, Purdue did only run for 42 yards. But the group struggled mightily to create any sort of pass rush. For that reason, the grades of Jordan Elliott, Terry Beckner Jr. and Kobie Whiteside seem a bit high.

Overall

Missouri's offense earned a grade of 74.4. That's just barely lower than the team scored in its first two games of the season. Here's how each component of the unit was graded:

Passing: 72.4

Pass Blocking: 89.5

Receiving: 68.0

Rushing: 67.2

Run Blocking: 65.3

That pass blocking score is off the charts, and it was well-deserved. Lock had plenty of time to throw on virtually every drop back, and that extra time led to multiple completions, including a touchdown to Johnathon Johnson in the first half. Once again, the line wasn't nearly as effective in the running game, though its score of 65.3 is actually its highest in any game this season. The Tigers rushed for a season-high 233 yards in the game.

The only mild surprise here is the receivers' grade being just 68.0. Aside from a dropped pass on a deep ball by Emanuel Hall in the first half, the receivers appeared to play well, never struggling to get open against Purdue's secondary.

The defense, on the other hand, earned a grade of 63.4, its lowest grade of the season by more than 10 points. Here's how that grade broke down:

Run Defense: 76.0

Tackling: 69.0

Pressure: 60.0

Coverage: 60.1

While Missouri's run defense was solid, it didn't have much impact on the game, because Purdue ran the ball just 10 times, excluding Blough's carries. As the grades suggest, the unit's pass rush and coverage, or lack thereof, are clearly the Tigers' most glaring weaknesses.