9/24/2022 football Edit

Mizzou's dominant defense against Auburn not enough, fall 17-14 in overtime

Jarod Hamilton • PowerMizzou

Staff Writer

Auburn, Alabama 一 It took a missed 26-yard field goal from arguably the best placekicker in the nation and the ball slipping out of the hands at the goal line from a running back who has never fumbled in his career for Missouri to lose 17-14 against Auburn in overtime.

Mizzou (2-2) had Auburn (3-1) beat at least twice it seemed like on Saturday, and they came away with one of the worst losses the team has had in a long time.

“To come so close and lose that way twice 一 it’s devastating for our locker room and our coaches. It stinks and it’s hard to take, but we will pick it up and go to the next one,” said Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz.

After the Mizzou defense gave up 14 points on its first two defensive drives it buckled down and forced eight punts, a missed field goal and a turnover on downs on nine straight possessions. On the last possession, the defense almost recorded an interception but instead gave up a field goal.

Who knows if college football overtime rules don't state that offenses will start on their opponents’ 25-yard line, does Auburn even get in field goal range?

The defense needs some help. The offense has gotten off to slow starts in all four games, and twice the defense won them the game (Louisiana Tech and Abilene Christian) and twice (against Kansas State and Auburn) the defense gave the team a shot to stay in the game at points during those games.

“Defense did a great job. We just couldn’t get any rhythm until that last series,” said Missouri quarterback Brady Cook.

After racking up just five tackles for loss and two sacks in weeks two and three, Missouri recorded four sacks and 12 tackles for loss. Auburn quarterback Robby Ashford completed 12 of 18 passes for 127 yards with the longest completion being for 24 yards. So, they kept him in check.

The defense’s biggest struggle last season and through three games this season was run defense. On Saturday, they probably had its best game in run defense in two seasons when it held Auburn to 82 yards on 42 attempts. Auburn had a Preseason All-SEC first-team selection in Tank Bigsby and held him to 19 carries for 44 yards (2.3 yards per carry) and a touchdown.

The defense showed up and did what it needed to do to keep Missouri in this game. The offense did not.

Missouri’s offense did score 14 unanswered in the second quarter on consecutive drives and Cook completed a 39-yard pass to Dominic Lovett to put Missouri at Auburn’s five-yard line with about a minute in regulation with the game tied at 14 on Mizzou’s final possession of regulation. Although, Harrison Mevis would miss the game-winning kick from 26-yards away as time in regulation expired it was still one of Mizzou’s three best drives of the game.

The other 10 offensive drives resulted in eight punts, an interception and a fumble at the goal line.

"The defense played its butt off. It gave us a chance to win and did everything it could possibly do including a fourth down stop (on Auburn’s final possession of regulation),” Drinkwitz said. “We put together a great two-minute drive and it just didn’t end the way we wanted it to end.”

Through four weeks, it appears Lovett is the only consistent offensive player but he alone is not enough to help Mizzou win games on a week-to-week basis.

Drink makes a number of changes

Drinkwitz realized that his team was struggling offensively especially up front with the offensive line in the first three games and decided to do some things he hasn’t done much of in 2022. He used a lot more 21 personnel (two running backs and one tight end) to have the running backs help block, he made a change in the offensive line with Mitchell Walters getting the start at right guard for Connor Wood, he used six linemen on a number of plays to help set up the run and he found ways to get the tight ends involved.

Everything didn't work but it was something different.

Tight end Kibet Chepyator had his first three receptions of the season and took one of the passes for 14 yards. First, it showed a different wrinkle to the offense. The tight ends haven’t often been targeted this season, so after Chepyator made a couple of plays the Auburn defense had to respect the idea of him possibly getting targeted more.

Wood led the team with four penalties, including two holding calls last week and was replaced in favor of Walters and there appeared to be a slight difference in what happened up front. Last week, the offensive line alone committed six penalties and five of them were holding calls. This week, Missouri as a team had seven penalties with one penalty (a holding call on Wood who was in at right tackle for an injured Zeke Powell) being called on the offensive line. Armand Membou was the sixth offensive lineman more times than not, and while Mizzou didn’t break any big runs it was a different look that the team doesn’t run too much.

The 21 personnel set and the six offensive linemen do come at the expense of having an extra playmaker on the field or having to use a position player in pass protection but it seemed like it limited Auburn’s front seven.

Defensively, Mizzou changed from its 4-2-5 package to a 5-2 defense to start the second quarter after giving up 14 unanswered points to start the game. This was an adjustment the team made against Kansas State when it struggled to stop the run and was down double-digits early in week two.

It worked in week two and the change worked in week four, as Missouri allowed 83 yards in the first quarter and then allowed 134 yards for the rest of the game. Mizzou didn’t stay in the 5-2 defense for long in either game but it seems to reset the defense whenever it makes to switch to that defense.

Odd day for special teams unit

More times than not Missouri usually has an advantage in special teams. It has an All-American as a placekicker (Mevis), it has a five-star freshman wide receiver (Luther Burden III) who returned eight punts for touchdowns in high school just a season ago as a punt returner (kind of) and it has a punter (Jack Stonehouse) who looks better as time passes. Mizzou only got one of the three components to special teams to work out for it against Auburn with Stonehouse’s punting.

Stonehouse, who was making his first start of the season, punted eight times for 384 yards with his longest being 68 yards. He had three kicks of over 50 yards and four punts landed inside Auburn’s 20-yard line.

Mevis converted on his two PATs but he obviously missed the kick at the end of regulation. This comes a week after he missed consecutive kicks for the first time in his career in week three.

The question coming out of the game is whether Burden is the full-time punt returner or not?

When Burden took his first punt return 78 yards for a touchdown last week it seemed like it was all but guaranteed he’d be Mizzou’s punt returner for the rest of the season. That wasn’t necessarily the case against Auburn. He was splitting punt return snaps with Lovett, who bobbled his first punt that he caught on Saturday and then muffed his second one before Missouri retained possession. Considering Burden wasn’t named the starting punt returner to start the season and then he had four punts returned for 111 yards and a touchdown in week three it was odd to not see him get every opportunity against Auburn.

Burden did miss an opportunity or two field punts as it seemed like he was briefly hurting on the sideline but it wasn’t until Lovett muffed the second punt for Burden to return to his return duties.