Missouri beat Eastern Michigan 61-21 for the first win of the season and the first of Barry Odom’s career. We look back at the game with three things we learned, two questions we have and a prediction.
THREE THINGS WE LEARNED
*This passing game might have some weapons. Drew Lock tied the school record with five touchdown passes. He was awfully close to the school record of 480 yards (he came up 30 yards short after telling his receivers earlier in the week he was going for it). After three quarters, he was threatening Chase Daniel’s school record for passer rating. There’s a reason this kid was so highly touted out of high school a couple years ago. Missouri had two more receivers (Johnathon Johnson and Ray Wingo) go for 100 yards and Emanuel Hall get 90. In two weeks, the Tigers have had five players with more receiving yards than anyone had in any game all of last season. The Tigers also accumulated all those numbers without a single guy catching more than five passes and with the starting tight end sidelined with a sprained foot.
"Drew did a tremendous job on going through the progression of reads on what he needs to see pre-snap,” Odom said.
Six Tigers scored the first touchdowns of their career on Saturday. The five touchdowns went to five different receivers. Two guys had 100 yards last week, and neither of them figured in the scoring.
"That’s the coolest part," Lock said. "I've been asked about the whole record thing and being 30 yards away, the coolest thing to me today was throwing to the guys who have never caught the ball in the end zone. Seeing their faces after they catch a touchdown is probably the coolest thing."
*The offensive line is better than we thought. Lock wasn’t sacked. He was rarely pressured. The running game wasn’t great, but it was okay. The Tigers have held up well up front through two games, when most observers thought that would be the biggest problem spot on the field.
“Those guys didn't let them breathe on me,” Lock said.
"It's a group that continues to work every day,” Odom added. “You want to continue to build on that. They're gaining some confidence, which is great. Glen Elarbee is an unbelievable offensive line coach.”
*Missouri will be more fun to watch this season. Because the offense CAN score. It’s not going to score 60 every week, but it’s capable moving the football in the general direction of the other team’s goal line. Missouri scored 14 points in every quarter on Saturday night. The Tigers had eight games last season in which they didn’t score 14 points.
When Missouri went in with 33 at halftime, Lock told his team it wasn’t enough.
“I went in and told the guys, that’s not enough for us,” Lock said. “Thirty three’s still going to get us the little sweep under the rug, like, ‘they only scored 33.’ So let’s come out and put 60 up on them. That’s the respect we need and that’s the respect we’re going to get.”
TWO QUESTIONS
Is Missouri’s defense good enough? It seems surprising that’s a question we would have, but two games in, the Tigers have one sack (and it’s questionable whether tackling the quarterback who had dropped a backwards pass should count as a sack) and have given up 912 yards. Both West Virginia and Eastern Michigan have moved the ball with relative ease on the Tigers, and both have done so without some of their starting personnel. Missouri isn’t going to hang 60 every week. But are they going to need to hang 30?
Can the Tigers make a kick? Mizzou had two different kickers miss extra points on Saturday. It didn’t matter in the slightest, but at some point this season, it’s going to. Turner Adams started kicking, but after missing his third PAT, Tucker McCann took over…and promptly missed his first one. Sure, Mizzou went 7/9 overall on extra points, but that’s not a good percentage on 20-yarders. The placekicking is most certainly concern.
ONE PREDICTION
Johnathan Johnson will score on another kick return this year. The kid has electric moves and blazing speed.
“I think JJ should have been doing that for us last year,” Lock said.
The redshirt freshman was going to play last year before breaking his ankle in fall camp. Asked what flip he switched on this year, Johnson said simply, “My ankle started feeling right.” When the best return man in school history is tweeting at you, you’re doing something right.
