Every week through the end of Missouri's football season, PowerMizzou.com will hand out a position-by-position report card from the Tigers' most recent game.
Here are the grades for No. 11 Missouri's 51-0 win over Murray State.
Quarterbacks: Brady Cook didn't light up the box score like some may have expected him to versus an opponent of this caliber, but he still managed and controlled the game well, completing 19-of-30 passes for 218 yards and a touchdown. He also had a rushing touchdown.
He did miss four deep passes that would've led to touchdowns and he had a couple of passes that could've potentially been intercepted. Plus, he was part of the botched handoff to Luther Burden III, which resulted in the team's lone giveaway. If Cook were the only quarterback to play then the position would've probably got a B+.
However, Drew Pyne came off the bench and went 10-of-11 for 82 yards. In the postgame presser, head coach Eli Drinkwitz was pleased with how Pyne performed in the time he was in the game. He led one touchdown drive and two that ended in field goals. GRADE: A-
Running backs: Three of the five touchdown drives were rushing touchdowns by running backs. Also, three different running backs scored a touchdown this game with Nate Noel, Marcus Carroll and Jamal Roberts each getting one. All of last season, the only running backs to score touchdowns were Cody Schrader and Nate Peat.
Noel and Carroll led the way with the former recording 11 carries for 42 yards and a touchdown. He also had four receptions for 20 yards. Meanwhile, Carroll had six carries for 35 yards and a touchdown. He also had two receptions for 19 yards.
Those two weren't the only ones in the backfield. The Tigers' other three scholarship running backs, Roberts, Tavorus Jones and Kewan Lacy got in on the action with Lacy finishing with the second-most rushing yards (42 yards on five carries) and the highest yards per carry (8.4) albeit with the third string unit. Roberts had three carries for eight yards and a touchdown, while Jones had six carries for 16 yards. GRADE: A
Wide receivers: Seven receivers recorded one reception and five had multiple receptions. Burden scored the Tigers' first points of the season when he took an out route toward the right sideline 16 yards for a touchdown. He'd finish the game with three receptions for 39 yards and a touchdown. He did have a fumble that led to the team's only turnover.
After having an impressive fall camp, Daniel Blood was rewarded with some substantial playing time and led the team in receiving, with five receptions on six targets for 42 yards.
Marquis "Speedy" Johnson had four receptions for 41 yards. He did have one drop.
Theo Wease had three receptions for 30 yards.
Joshua Manning had three receptions for 21 yards.
Mookie Cooper had one reception for 49 yards and Mekhi Miller also had one reception for 18 yards.
Of Mizzou's 300 receiving yards, 203 were after the catch and the wide receivers accounted for 166 of the YAC. GRADE: A
Tight end: Brett Norfleet started and had one reception for four yards and one drop. On the play where he got his lone reception, he appeared to head toward the injury tent with what seemed to be a shoulder injury, although that hasn't been confirmed. Drinkwitz said he expects Norfleet to be fine going forward.
Tyler Stephens had two receptions for 17 yards. Last year, he had five receptions for 49 yards. He also had a couple of decent blocks. So, this is a good start to his final collegiate season. GRADE: A
Offensive line: The most important thing the offensive line did was keep the quarterbacks upright and it did that. Cook and Pyne had ample time in the pocket on Thursday. So, any time playing quarterbacks can leave the field after four quarters with their uniforms looking like they did before the game started it's a plus. However, there were a lot of penalties by the Tigers and most of them came from the offensive line.
Mizzou had nine penalties (seven accepted) for 56 yards. Six of them were called on the offensive line.
Cayden Green had two holding penalties, Cam'Ron Johnson and Jayven Richardson each had a holding penalty and Logan Reichert had two false starts. In his post-game presser, Drinkwitz was pleased with how well the offensive line held up. He wasn't happy with the penalties but was more pleased with everything else the unit did rather than harping on the few miscues. GRADE: A-
Disclaimer: Everyone will get credit for getting the team's first shutout since 2019 and limiting Murray State to 85 total yards and 1.7 yards per play.
Defensive line: One of the team's two sacks and the only fumble came from this group. This group and the linebackers helped hold Murray State to 1.7 yards per carry on 35 carries.
Defensive tackles Chris McClellan and Marquis Gracial stood out for defensive tackles with the former recording three tackles, a sack, a tackle for loss, a forced fumble and a pass deflection. Meanwhile, Gracial led all defensive linemen in tackles with four. He also had a tackle for loss.
Justin Bodford and Sterling Webb had two tackles and Johnny Walker, Elias Williams, Kristian Williams and Jaylen Brown each had a tackle.
Zion Young had a quarterback hit that led to an interception, which was returned for a touchdown.
Joe Moore had a tackle and a fumble recovery (for the second straight game dating back to last season's Cotton Bowl) GRADE: A
Linebackers: Corey Flagg and Triston Newson led all defenders with five tackles and a tackle for loss each.
Chuck Hicks, Brayshawn Littlejohn and Nic Rodriguez each had two tackles.
Khalil Jacobs had two tackles, a tackle for loss and a sack.
Jeremiah Beasley had one tackle. GRADE: A
Secondary: This group is a big reason why the Tigers held the racers to 4-of-15 on third down and 27 pass yards.
Marvin Burks had four tackles and a pass deflection. Daylan Carnell had two tackles and one tackle for loss.
Phillip Roche had a tackle and a pass deflection.
Tre'Vez Johnson, Sidney Williams, Drey Norwood, Marcus Clarke, Nic DeLoach and Caleb Flagg each had a tackle.
Toriano Pride had an interception and returned it 25 yards for a touchdown. GRADE: A
Special teams: For the first time since 2019, the starting kicker for the Missouri Tigers was someone not named Harrison Mevis. Blake Craig had a successful debut for the Tigers by going 3-of-3 on field goals (39, 27, 22). He did have a kickoff go out of bounds but Drinkwitz didn't seem to worried about it, and the defense held Murray State to five yards on the ensuing drive. So, no harm, no foul? Blood also had a punt return for two yards. It's not much, but he didn't turn the ball over. GRADE: A
Coaching: It was whistle-to-whistle domination in all three phases of the game. Any time the defense can force a shutout that's an A+. Any time the offense can score 50-plus points with five touchdowns and go 7-of-7 in the red zone that's an A+ for the offensive coaches.
Missouri left points on the board, which is crazy to say but more so because of a lack of execution than a gameplan. GRADE: A
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