Published Oct 29, 2017
Mizzou 3-2-1: UConn
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Gabe DeArmond  •  Mizzou Today
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After each game, we take a look at what we learned, what we still don't know and make a prediction going forward. Here is the 3-2-1 report following Mizzou's 52-12 win over Connecticut.

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                                         THREE THINGS WE LEARNED

1. Drew Lock is playing the best football of his career. Sure, there have been numbers piled up against weak competition. But going back to the Auburn game, Lock has actually been very solid for five consecutive weeks. Over those five games, Lock is 114-for-166 (68.7% completion rate) for 1,668 yards, 20 touchdowns and three interceptions. I don't care who you're playing, that's damn good quarterback play. Lock is currently 9th in the nation in yards per game, 8th in quarterback rating and tied for first in touchdown passes. Does he need to go do it against an SEC defense? Yeah. Does he need to be the reason his team wins some games down the stretch? Yeah. We are not saying every question has been answered, but this is clearly the best Lock has been since coming to campus.

2. Terry Beckner is back. The last two weeks, the junior defensive tackle has been a disruptive force. Like Lock, we understand the level of competition has to be taken into account, but Missouri State and Purdue aren't exactly powerhouses and Beckner didn't look like this against them. Beckner had 2.5 tackles for a loss, broke up a pass, and nearly caught that pass and could have run it in for a touchdown. That was the guy everyone hoped to see out of high school and before two knee injuries. If Beckner can be that force on the line and get a little bit of help off the edge, Missouri's defense can be at least adequate the rest of the way.

3. You'd better learn to say his name. Albert Okwuegbunam (and, yes, you can get away with just calling him Albert O if you would like) is a bad man. In the last two weeks he has eight catches for 91 yards...and five touchdowns. Okwuebgunam is becoming the red zone weapon Missouri hasn't had for the last few years. He now has seven touchdowns on the season, which is tied for 12th in America overall (with J'Mon Moore among others) and is more than any other tight end in the country. Mizzou's version of Cris Carter (you know, all he does is catch touchdowns?) has helped elevate the offense in the last two weeks.

                                      TWO QUESTIONS WE STILL HAVE

1. Does it mean anything? All you can do is play the teams on your schedule, and Missouri's featured Idaho and Connecticut. The Tigers went 2-0 and ran away from both of them by halftime. Missouri has clearly improved since the start of the season (Missouri State is worse than both of these teams and put up 43 points and hung with the Tigers well into the third quarter), but has it improved enough? Florida, Tennessee, Vandy and Arkansas aren't exactly a murderer's row in November--they're a combined 4-17 in SEC games with three of the wins from the Gators--but they represent a step up from the Vandals and the Huskies. Are the Tigers up to the challenge or have the last two weeks said more about the opponents than about Mizzou itself?

2. How big a problem is the secondary? Because make no mistake, it's still a problem on some level. The numbers against Connecticut looked better. The Huskies completed just 22-of-52 passes and averaged 4.5 yards per attempt. But UConn inflicted quite a bit of damage on itself. There were some drops and some flat out bad throws, most notably by a wide receiver to a wide open man 15 yards behind Missouri's secondary on a trick play in the first quarter that could have drastically changed the way things looked. UConn was 9-23 on third down, which is a big improvement for Missouri and a number that got significantly better in the second half. But perhaps the biggest difference in Power Five teams and the level below is the type of athlete each puts on the field at the skill positions. Even if the last four teams on the schedule aren't great, they've got some athletes at receiver. Can Missouri cover them or will we see more receivers running free with no Tigers in sight? And if we do, can the opposing quarterbacks make Missouri pay more dearly than the Huskies did?

                                               ONE BOLD PREDICTION

Drew Lock will throw for 4,000 yards this season. He's currently at 2578, averaging 320 per game. But as we said above, he's playing the best football of his career. Lock needs 1422 more yards, which comes out to 356 per game. He has only played three quarters each of the last two weeks and that won't be the case again this year. Missouri's going to need him to put up numbers in the last four games. Florida is good on defense, but doesn't have quite the lockdown defense it has the last few years. Vandy and Arkansas have each given up at least 34 points in every SEC game they have played and Tennessee saw the best game of Lock's career prior to this season up close and personal in Knoxville. If Lock can guide the Tigers to three more wins and get them in a bowl game, 4,000 is a virtual lock. Even if he can't, he's got a chance to get there in 12 games. Chase Daniel is the only Mizzou quarterback ever to throw for 4,000 yards in a season. Daniel did it twice while playing 14 games in both of those seasons.