Every week PowerMizzou.com will hand out a position-by-position report card from Missouri’s most recent game. Here are the grades for Missouri from Saturday’s 21-17 loss to Kentucky.
Quarterbacks: Brady Cook followed up his best performance of the season in week nine with one of his worst performances of the season in week 10. He completed 18 of 26 passes for 143 yards. He added eight rushes for 31 yards, two touchdowns and a fumble. Looking at his stat line alone can be a bit deceiving.
Cook missed reads and throws throughout the game and led the Tigers to just two third-down conversions on 13 attempts. He had one of the worst quarterback sneaks that you'll see. He hiked the ball and instead of leaning forward for the fourth and one conversion he stood almost straight up before bouncing backward off of his offensive lineman and getting tackled for a turnover on downs.
He did show toughness by taking a couple of big hits and still playing despite being an obvious pain. After going 7 of 9 for 19 yards in the first half he went 11 of 17 in the second half for 124 yards.
He scored Missouri's only two touchdowns, including breaking two tackles on a 20-yard scamper to help Mizzou get a 17-14 lead in the fourth quarter, but a big part of why the Tigers were down 14-3 and needed to come back was because of him. GRADE: D+
Running backs: Cody Schrader had 21 carries for 65 yards (3.1 yards per game). Schrader did as much as he could behind his offensive line, but when you take out the 15 and 14-yard runs he had in the first quarter he rushed the ball 19 times for 36 yards (1.89 yards per carry). He had eight carries go for one yard or less. Part of that is on the offensive line, but some of that is on Schrader. GRADE: C
Wide Receivers: Similar to Dominic Lovett last week, if Luther Burden III was being graded individually he'd receive somewhere between an A- and a B+. He had six receptions on seven targets for 60 yards. He also added two carries for nine yards. Barrett Banister had five receptions for 47 yards. Tauskie Dove didn't have an offical catch but was on the receiving end of a two-point conversion. Mekhi Miller had a 25-yard reception on his only target. Lovett had no receptions after his monster game last week and finished the game with a rush for minus -4 yards. GRADE: C
Tight Ends: The run game was poor and the tight end group was non-existent (again). There was no sign of Ryan Hoerstkamp after he made cameos in the Tigers’ last two games. GRADE: D
Offensive line: After putting its most complete performance together last week, the inconsistent offensive line from weeks one through eight returned. The unit was only called for two penalties, but it allowed nine tackles for loss and two sacks. Both sacks seemed to shake Cook up quite a bit. Also, the other part of one of the worst quarterback sneaks was the offensive line getting no push.
Right guard EJ Ndoma-Ogar left the game with a lower left leg injury and didn't return. Left guard Xavier Delgado was shaken up too, but he finished the game. GRADE: D-
Defensive line: Four of Mizzou's six sacks and 7.5 of the Tigers' 11 tackles for loss came from this position group. The unit was getting consistent pressure on Kentucky quarterback Will Levis time and time again. DJ Coleman led the team with nine tackles, two tackles for loss and 0.5 sacks. This is Coleman's third time in four games getting at least half of a sack. Darius Robinson had four tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks. He was a little banged up after one of his sacks midway through the third quarter and seemed to be laboring his shoulder from that point, although he stayed in the game. GRADE: A
Linebackers: Chad Bailey had seven tackles and a tackle for loss. Ty'Ron Hopper had his most quiet game of the season recording a tackle, a tackle for loss and a sack. Hopper has now recorded four tackles over the last two games after having five tackles or more in the first seven games of the season. These two were instrumental in holding one of the better running backs in the country, Chris Rodriguez Jr., to 25 carries for 112 yards (3.9 yards per carry). If you erase Rodriguez' longest rush of the game of 25 yards, he was limited to 24 carries for 87 yards (3.62 yards per rush). GRADE: B
Secondary: Safety Jaylon Carlies paced secondary players in tackles with six, but he did admittedly say he was out of place on the first touchdown of the game. Safety Daylan Carnell had four tackles. Safety Joseph Charleston had four tackles, a tackle for loss and a sack. Cornerback Kris Abrams-Draine had three tackles and two pass deflections, but also got a pass interference penalty for the second game in a row. Cornerback Ennis Rakestraw had three tackles, 0.5 tackles for loss and a pass deflection. Coming into the game Kentucky had the 68th-ranked passing attack averaging 240 yards per game. This unit limited Levis, a likely first-round draft pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, to 12 of 18 passing for 160 yards and three touchdowns. He had a solid day, but the secondary played well. The secondary (and defense) can't be perfect every drive of every game. GRADE: B-
Special teams: This unit is slowly creeping into one of the worst units on the team. The biggest play of the game was Will Norris Jr. hitting Kentucky's punter and getting a roughing the punter penalty. It was a bizarre play and one that you can't completely blame Norris for making. Nonetheless, he made the play and it cost them the opportunity to get the ball back for one last drive.
Kicker Sean Koetting had another kickoff go out of bounds for the second week in a row and his last squib kick (23 yards) hit one of Kentucky's front linemen so, the Wildcats had a short field for the game-winning touchdown drive.
Punter Jack Stonehouse had five punts for an average of 40 yards with a long of 53 yards, but one of those punts was for 23 yards. He muffed the snap on another one and failed to get the first down to give Kentucky the ball at Mizzou's 34-yard line.
Kicker Harrison Mevis converted on a 44-yard field goal, but that's because Kentucky was called for having 12 men on the field and gave him an extra five yards. GRADE: F
Coaching: Like the Vandy game, this was more of a game of poor execution than it was poor coaching from head coach Eli Drinkwitz and defensive coordinator Blake Baker. But part of coaching is making sure players can execute.
The biggest difference between this week and last week was the lack of change. Last week, there were a number of personnel changes and there were some players who came off the bench and made an impact that didn't see a lot of time or touches. There also wasn't the same urgency to get the ball in Lovett's hands like last week. There were no jet sweeps to him and there were a lot of long developing plays when last week Cook was getting the ball out of his hand quickly. The defense played well as usual, but it seemed like players were in the wrong spots on a couple of plays. Some of those plays helped the Wildcats convert on third down or even score.
The first time or two when Mizzou lost a one-possession game it could be looked at as progress. This is the fourth time Missouri has lost a one-possession game this season. The Tigers have to start winning these games. GRADE: C-
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