More penalties precipitate second-half slide

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On the first drive of the second half, Missouri appeared to have been handed a gift. The offensive struggles displayed on the team’s three-game road trip had followed the Tigers back to Faurot Field, but thanks to a strong first-half from the defense, Missouri trailed No. 11 Florida just 6-3. On a third down and eight, quarterback Kelly Bryant scrambled out of bounds well short of the first down marker, but Florida linebacker Mohamoud Diabate dove and hit Bryant after he had left the field of play, drawing a flag. The unnecessary roughness penalty would give the Tigers a first down that could kick start their drive.

After the play, Diabate found himself in a mass of Missouri players, who didn’t take kindly to his late hit of the quarterback. After a few seconds of jawing, tight end Albert Okwuegbunam grabbed Diabate by the collar of his shoulder pad and pulled him out of the mass. Diabate may have enhanced the action by flailing his arms as he fell to the turf, but the move elicited an obvious penalty flag.

Instead of Missouri getting 15 yards and a free first down, Diabate and Okwuegbunam were called for offsetting penalties. The Tigers had to punt.

Three plays later, after another penalty — illegal hands in the face on defensive end Tre Williams — Florida’s Kyle Trask hit receiver Josh Hammond in stride for a 34-yard touchdown. The first trip to the end zone for either team gave Florida a two-score lead and essentially put the game out of the reach of Missouri’s anemic offense. Florida went on to cruise to a 23-6 victory.

Head coach Barry Odom said he didn’t see Okwuegbunam pull down Diabate, but the officials told him Okwuegbunam pulled a player off a pile, which constitutes an automatic flag. Odom identified the penalty as one of three in the game that squelched the Tigers’ momentum.

“They said that Albert removed somebody from the pile,” Odom said. “... If you start pulling guys off the pile, it’s a 15-yarder. … For me, a teaching moment for our team. Review that rule. If you’ve got a pile of guys, you can’t grab anybody and try to pull them off the pile.”

Okwuegbunam expressed remorse for his actions after the game.

“I gotta take accountability for that,” he said. “Not intentionally, trying to do anything dirty, just trying to get him off our sideline. Maybe a little bit dramatic, but at the end of the day, I just gotta be a little smarter, keep my hands off of him.”

The flag on Okwuegbunam was made more frustrating by the fact that it looked similar to other 15-yard penalties drawn by Missouri during its current losing streak. Those penalties have elicited similar statements about “teaching moments” and “accountability,” but Missouri’s on-field discipline hasn’t appeared to improve.

Missouri entered Saturday averaging 7.1 penalties for 69 yards per game. The low point came against Vanderbilt, when the Tigers got called for 12 penalties for 120 yards, both season-highs. By that measure, the team actually played with more discipline against Florida, getting flagged six times for 55 yards.

But the flags have been so damaging because so many have resulted from personal fouls or unsportsmanlike conducts, both of which cost a team 15 yards. Missouri entered Saturday with 12 personal fouls and five unsportsmanlike conduct whistles having been accepted this season. A week after the team drew two personal fouls against Georgia, it got called for two more against the Gators.

For a team with little margin for error due to its offensive woes, those 15-yard flags are a sure way to derail a game.

“I think we kind of shot ourselves in the foot sometimes,” slot receiver Barrett Banister said. “We had some penalties that you just can’t do against teams like that and come out on top.”

Asked how he has dealt with the rash of 15-yard flags this season, Odom said his approach is “the same way with my two sons at the house. If they’re not doing the things that they need to, there’s some sort of consequence for that.” He showed that Saturday, too, as wide receiver Kam Scott didn’t play a snap. Odom explained Scott’s absence by saying the sophomore didn’t display good enough habits in the week leading up to the game, which no doubt included the punch he threw against Georgia, which drew a personal foul flag. Okwuegbunam, too, said the coaching staff addresses each penalty with players after the game, though he didn’t offer many specifics.

Yet the flags continue to fly, and continue to torpedo Missouri’s momentum. The first play of the fourth quarter embodied the penalty struggles.

By that point, Missouri trailed by two touchdowns, so the chances of a Tiger comeback were admittedly slim. Facing a third down and 13, Bryant dumped the ball off to running back Larry Rountree III and Rountree was stopped well short of the line to gain. However, Odom said after the game, the coaching staff planned to go for it on fourth down.

Those plans were scrapped when three flags flew. All three represented penalties on Missouri.

The Tigers were called for an illegal formation thanks to having too many players lined up off the line of scrimmage. Right tackle Larry Borom got flagged for a hold. And after the play, right guard Case Cook slammed a Florida player to the turf, drawing yet another personal foul penalty. All on a play that wouldn’t have moved the chains, anyway.

Okwuegbunam said after the game that he would love to say plays like that one represent an anomaly, that Missouri is largely a disciplined team that lost its cool a couple times Saturday. But he had to admit that, considering how the results the past four weeks, saying so would be dishonest.

“I’d love to say that, but our on-field play on Saturdays is telling a different story,” Okwuegbunam said. "So obviously need to get that fixed.”