Mizzou OL looking to prove itself against stout Texas A&M front
Texas A&M’s stunning win over Alabama on Saturday represented a seismic shift in the college football landscape — the type of result that doesn’t come around often. It represented the first win for the Aggies over Alabama since 2012, Johnny Manziel’s signature moment on his way to winning the Heisman Trophy. The loss was Alabama’s first defeat at the hands of an unranked team since 2007, Nick Saban’s first season in Tuscaloosa. It marked the first time in more than 13 years, when Oregon State shocked USC in September of 2008, that the No. 1-ranked team lost to a team from outside the top 25.
Multiple ingredients came together to create the upset: Backup quarterback Zach Calzada playing by far his best game of the season, Texas A&M winning the turnover battle, a kickoff returned for a touchdown, a well-timed hook on Seth Small’s game-winning field goal as time expired. But one of the less-publicized aspects of the Aggies’ win was the fact that Texas A&M’s defensive line gave Alabama’s offensive line fits, particularly in pass protection. This week, if Missouri wants to pull off an upset of its own, a Tiger offensive line that has been up-and-down this season will have to hold its own against A&M’s defensive front.
When he turned on film of Missouri’s next opponent, Eli Drinkwitz’s first clue that Texas A&M’s defensive front could pose a problem was seeing numbers 2, 3 and 8 lining up opposite the offensive line.
“Defensively, I’ve never seen so many single digits on one side of the ball before, which, especially when on the d-line, usually is an issue, because that means they’re really good players,” Drinkwitz said Tuesday during his weekly press conference.
The players back it up with their performance. On the season, Texas A&M ranks tied for 11th nationally with 19 sacks so far this season and tied for 22nd in tackles for loss with 42. Last week, the Aggies sacked Alabama quarterback Bryce Young four times. It marked the first time since November 2018 that the Crimson Tide have surrendered four sacks in a game.
Defensive tackle DeMarvin Leal leads the way among the group with 4.5 sacks and 6.5 tackles for loss. Defensive ends Micheal Clemons and Tyree Johnson have logged 3.5 and 3 sacks, respectively. The fourth starter up front, Jayden Peevy, doesn’t have a sack this season but has registered 4.5 tackles for loss. All four players are seniors.
“They're big, they've got experience,” Drinkwitz said of Texas A&M’s defensive line. “All of them played last year, a significant amount of time. They all are physical and big. They all have quick twitch, can bull rush, can throw people off. They keep their linebackers clean, they allow their safeties to play deep so that they don't have to be fitting in the run.”
Drinkwitz noted that Texas A&M can create pressure in multiple ways — either by overloading one side of the offensive line with a blitz or by dropping into coverage and giving its defensive linemen time to win one-on-one matchups.
“He’s got a mixture of playing aggressive and also playing to keep from giving up big plays,” Drinkwitz said of Texas A&M defensive coordinator Mike Elko. “He does a really good job disguising his blitzes. He was able to get Alabama with bringing overload pressures, something he does a really nice job off, and then he does a nice job of creating one-on-one matchups. So he’s got a multiplicity of schemes with really good players.”
On the other side of the line of scrimmage Saturday will be a Missouri offensive line that has struggled to generate running room against Power Five opponents and has seen its pass protection falter a bit in recent weeks. The Tigers have only surrendered five sacks through six games this season, tied for the eighth-fewest in the country. But quarterback Connor Bazelak has been under some heat the past two weeks. According to Pro Football Focus, he’s been pressured 26 times on 80 dropbacks across the past two games.
Perhaps good news for Missouri is that Drinkwitz believes some of Missouri’s issues in pass protection can be chalked up to miscommunication. That should, in theory, be easier to fix than players simply getting run over. Right guard Case Cook has been battling an unspecified injury, and as a result he’s either sat out or left the game in the second half in each of the past four weeks. A pair of transfers, Connor Wood and EJ Ndoma-Ogar, have manned the position in his absence. Drinkwitz said not having Cook, a team captain, on the field has impacted the line’s chemistry.
“I think we've kind of had some rotational stuff that's maybe thrown off a little bit of our chemistry and communication and some of our protections,” Drinkwitz said.
The best way for Missouri to keep Bazelak from facing too much pressure might have nothing to do with pass blocking. The Tiger offense needs to find a way to get star tailback Tyler Badie going on the ground.
Running the ball effectively will not only keep the offense out of obvious passing situations, it has been a key indicator of overall success under Drinkwitz. Since the start of last season, Missouri has averaged 217.8 rushing yards per game in its eight wins compared to 78.0 in losses. And while it’s true that the Tigers have been able to run the ball more often when playing with a lead, they’ve also done so more effectively, averaging 5.55 yards per carry during wins and 2.80 yards per carry in losses.
The contrast is even more stark this season, with Missouri’s three losses coming in its three games against Power Five competition. The Tigers have averaged 249.3 rushing yards per game and 6.86 yards per carry in wins compared to 88.7 yards per contest and 3.45 yards per rush in defeats.
Texas A&M has been susceptible on the ground at times this year, allowing an opponent to average 4.5 yards or more per carry in three of six games. But where the Aggies excel is generating negative-yardage plays, putting opposing offenses in passing downs and distances and allowing their pass-rushers to fly upfield with abandon. Conversely, Missouri has allowed 38 tackles for loss on the year, which ranks tied for 91st in the country.
“You always want to stay above the sticks,” center Michael Maietti said. “You don’t want to play from behind.”
While both Maietti and Drinkwitz acknowledged that Missouri will have its hands full against Texas A&M’s defensive front Saturday, Drinkwitz remained optimistic about his offensive line. He complimented the group’s physicality and mentality. He will hope that translates to more consistent results in the unit’s toughest test of the season.
“I think from a mentality standpoint, we've had the right mentality,” Drinkwitz said of the offensive line. “We're trying to play physical. I think there's always things in the game that you go back and say, this is something we’ve got to improve on. ... But, you know, we're going to continue to be a work in progress, and those guys are working really hard.”
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