Every week PowerMizzou.com has handed out a position-by-position report card from Missouri’s most recent game. Here are the grades for Missouri's final game of the 2022 campaign, a 27-17 loss to Wake Forest in the Gasparilla Bowl.
Quarterbacks: Brady Cook started the game strong completing 16 of 24 passes for 148 yards and a touchdown through the air and five carries for 35 yards in the first half, but just like the rest of the offense the floor fell from beneath him and he would have a less-than-stellar second half completing 13 of 24 passes for 67 yards and had nine carries for three yards. It didn't help that he had two starting offensive linemen go down, but he missed a number of throws and never seemed to get in a real rhythm in the second half. He finished the game by completing 29 of 48 passes for 215 yards for a touchdown. GRADE: C-
Running backs: Cody Schrader had 13 carries for 54 yards and a touchdown, Nathaniel Peat had five carries for 25 yards and Tavorus Jones chipped in one reception for four yards. It was a very pedestrian game for the Tigers' running backs. Take away Schrader's longest carry of 16 yards then he has 12 carries for 38 yards. Take away Peat's and he had four carries for 14 yards. Schrader's touchdown from four yards out was huge and gave Mizzou a brief 17-14 lead in the third quarter. Missouri has struggled to score touchdowns in the red zone all season, so Schrader's score helped with this, but overall it was a lackluster day for the position. GRADE: C-
Wide Receivers: The game plan early on seemed to get the ball into Luther Burden III's hands early and often and the Tigers succeeded at doing that. Burden had four receptions for 49 yards on the Tigers' second drive and he finished the game with seven receptions on 12 targets for 46 yards. One of those targets was a drop on a drag route where it appeared Burden was looking towards all the green grass he had ahead of himself once he would've caught the pass.
Barrett Banister led the team in receptions (seven) and had 49 yards in what was his final game. This was his third straight game with seven receptions. Mookie Cooper had six receptions on eight targets for a team-high 57 yards in what was his best game of the season. Demaryion “Peanut” Houston had six receptions for 39 yards and scored his first touchdown of the season. Mekhi Miller chipped in with a pair of catches for 20 yards.
Overall, the group struggled to gain separation against a 95th-ranked Wake Forest passing defense, but they made up for it with 117 of the position’s receiving being after the catch. GRADE: B-
Tight Ends: The one reception a tight end (Tyler Stephens) had was negated by a penalty. Other than that the tight ends were non-existent. GRADE: D
Offensive line: Coming into this game Wake forest averaged 6.4 tackles for loss which is tied for 38th in the FBS. On Friday, it recorded 10 tackles for loss to go with four sacks and three quarterback hits. The progress the offensive line had made in four of its last five games was nowhere to be found against Wake Forest. Connor Wood and Connor Tollison both left the game with injuries and before they left in the first half it wasn't like the line was clicking on all cylinders, but the line did go from bad to worse once they weren't on the field.
Mitchell Walters replaced Wood at right guard and committed four penalties, but only three were accepted. Mizzou as a team had nine penalties and Walters and Drake Hesimeyer, Tollison's replacement, accounted for four of them.
The Tigers rushed for 114 yards, but 38 of those yards came from Cook who had a long of 36 yards on a scrmable. Schrader and Peat combined for 18 carries and 79 yards and a touchdown. Again, subtract their big runs and the Tigers' running backs combine for 16 rushes for 52 yards (three yards per carry). GRADE: D-
Defensive line: Realus George led the way with four tackles and a tackle for loss, Darius Robinson had four tackles, Josh Landry had three tackles and 0.5 tackles for loss, Arden Walker and Kristian Williams each had a couple of tackles. For the most part, the pass rush was lacking, understandably without the team's top three pass rushers in Isaiah McGuire, DJ Coleman and Trajan Jeffcoat out. The group forced more pressure as the game went on, but for the most part, Wake Forest quarterback Sam Hartman got to keep his white jersey clean most of the game.
Also, Robinson was called for roughing the passer and Landry was called for being offside. GRADE: C
Linebackers: Chad Bailey was the team's best defensive player and it showed in the box score. He tied for the team-high in tackles with nine to go with 2.5 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks in what would be his best performance of the season. Ty'Ron Hopper also had nine tackles. GRADE: B
Secondary: Jaylon Carlies had nine tackles and an interception, Kris Abrams-Draine had eight tackles and a pass deflection, Daylan Carnell had a pair of tackles and a couple of pass deflections and Ennis Rakestraw had a tackle.
Overall, the Wake Forest wide receivers got the best of this group. Wake Forest wide receiver AT Perry had tied a Wake Forest bowl game reception record with 11 receptions for 116 yards. Jahmal Banks had three catches for 76 yards and a touchdown and Taylor Morin had three receptions for 30 yards and two touchdowns. It seemed like the Demon Deacons' receivers sat in the soft spots of the zone and Hartman found them time and time again. This group never really got into a flow and even had their bright spot (Carlies' interception) offset by blown coverage on the third level which allowed Banks to score a 48-yard touchdown untouched.
Caiman Hayes also received a roughing the passer penalty and Abrams-Draine was called for pass interference in the end zone. GRADE: D+
Special teams: Kicker Harrison Mevis made both of his PATs and his lone field goal attempt from 35 yards out. Sean Koetting started at punter for the first time since week three and had five punts for 38.6 yards per punt with two being downed inside the 20.
Burden was on punt return duty until early in the second quarter when he tried to recover a dying ball by running and attempting to scoop the ball up. He didn't pick up the ball cleanly and Wake Forest recovered the ball. Abrams-Draine took over punt return duties for the remainder of the game. GRADE: D+
Coaching: The offense scored on three of its first six possessions and then finished with three turnovers on downs and a couple of punts to end the game. It was a tough game for head coach Eli Drinkwitz, who was admittedly hard on himself in the postgame press conference for the offense's poor performance. Going 8 of 19 on third down isn't too bad, but going 2 of 5 on fourth down and having nine penalties for 85 yards isn't going to get the job done more times than not and that was evident on Friday.
Defensive coordinator Blake Baker called a decent game considering he was down four starting-level players. Wake Forest was averaging 36 points per game coming into this game and had just 20 points with three minutes left in the game. The defense allowed a touchdown to seal the game with a little over two and a half minutes left, but Missouri's offense had just punted twice and had turned the ball over on downs twice before that. Only one of those four Missouri offensive drives went over four minutes. So, it's fair to say the defense was gassed. GRADE: D
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