With a little more than a minute left in the first half, the momentum had shifted. Missouri had started slow against No. 9 Georgia, throwing an interception on its second snap, but battled back and tied the game at 14 points apiece. As the Bulldogs faced third down and 10 from their own 25, it looked like the Tigers might get the ball back with a chance to take the lead prior to the break.
Instead, Georgia quarterback JT Daniels rolled right and delivered a perfect pass to Kearis Jackson for a 12-yard gain. That would be a theme for Missouri. The Tigers allowed conversions on eight of Georgia’s first 11 third downs, including three of eight yards or more. Three plays later, Bulldog wide receiver George Pickens celebrated in the end zone after out-competing cornerback Ishmael Burdine for a jump ball, catching it for a 36-yard touchdown.
It would be the first of five consecutive touchdown drives for Georgia, a run Missouri could never counter. The Bulldogs cruised to a 49-14 victory, snapping a three-game winning streak for the Tigers.
“We’re just not there right now with our program, and able to compete every down,” said head coach Eli Drinkwitz after the game. “Need your best stuff in order to beat a team like that, and we didn’t have it today.”
Despite Georgia’s score late in the first half, Drinkwitz said he felt good going into the locker room. Missouri had battled back from a 14-0 deficit in the opening quarter, thanks in large part to a successful double-pass and a blocked punt. Get a stop on Georgia’s first possession, he told his team, and the Tigers would be in a good position.
Instead, the defense would not only allow a touchdown on Georgia’s first drive of the second half, but on the following three, as well. Bulldog tailback Zamir White, who finished the game with 126 yards, rushed for 44 combined yards on the first two plays of the half to put Georgia in scoring position. Missouri then got stops on first and second down, but on third and 10, Daniels looked for Pickens again. Pickens slipped past true freshman cornerback Ennis Rakestraw on a quick slant, caught the pass and took off for the end zone.
Missouri’s offense looked like it might answer on its next play, when quarterback Connor Bazelak dropped a perfect pass into the hands of Damon Hazelton for a gain of 33. But the Tigers followed that up with three incompletions and a penalty, prompting a punt. They wouldn’t advance into Georgia territory again. The defense, meanwhile, would get gashed for yet another big play on third down when White broke free for a 43-yard score on third and two. The score gave Georgia a 35-14 lead and pretty much extinguished any remaining hope of a Missouri upset.
On the game, Missouri gave up an average of 13.1 yards per play on third downs. Third down defense has been a reliable barometer for the Tigers this season. In the team’s four losses, it has allowed opponents to convert on 50.9 percent of third downs. That percentage dips to 27.0 in the five wins.
“I’ll have to go back and look at the tape,” Drinkwitz said when asked about his team’s third down defense. “We got pressure a couple of times there in the second quarter when we got back in the game, but it didn’t seem like we could get back to that pressure (in the second half).”
Ultimately, the defensive problems stemmed from the fact that, for the second week in a row, Missouri couldn’t stop the run. On its first possession of the game, Georgia ran the ball on all six plays. For the game, the Bulldogs rushed for 316 yards, averaging 7.6 yards per carry outside of sacks. Across the past two weeks combined, Missouri has now given up 608 combined rushing yards and 1,181 total yards.
“We knew they had a good offensive line, we knew they had a good running game,” Drinkwitz said, “we just weren’t able to stop it.”
In an effort to bolster the defensive front, Drinkwitz said Missouri had to play its linebackers and safeties near the line of scrimmage. That left an all-freshman cornerback trio with Jarvis Ware absent to defend Georgia’s pass-catchers one-on-one. Pickens, in particular, took advantage, catching five passes for 126 yards and two touchdowns. Regardless of who covered him, Daniels’ go-to passing play was simply throwing a jump ball in Pickens’ direction.
“It’s kind of a pick-your-poison type deal,” said Drinkwitz. “We felt like we needed to try and stop the run, and we weren’t able to do that unless we put extra people in there, and then that opens up the pass game.”
Ultimately, Drinkwitz chalked up the defensive struggles not to a lack of effort but a lack of talent and depth. “We didn’t lack fight, we just lack bodies right now,” he said. He noted that, due to a combination of NCAA sanctions, opt outs and injuries, Missouri took the field Saturday with just 59 scholarship players. The NCAA maximum for a team is 85.
In addition to Ware, the defense missed starting nose tackle Kobie Whiteside, who didn’t dress due to an injury suffered last week. Freshman offensive lineman Drake Heismeyer played a few snaps at nose tackle. Drinkwitz said the team has been able to mask some of the depth issues on defense in recent weeks by holding the ball, but the lack of offensive success “exposed our defense.”
He also expressed optimism that the unit will rally in time for next week’s season finale at Mississippi State.
“We’ve had a hell of a season up to this point,” Drinkwitz said. “I’m not going to let this game define the season. We didn’t have our best stuff. That’s part of it. Wish we would have played better. We didn’t. You know what, our guys have answered the bell every single time.
“We didn’t lack fight, we just lack bodies right now, lack depth. So we’ll get there, we’ll get it. We lost, but hope’s not lost. Like I told them, I’m disappointed in the result, I’m not disappointed in the team, at all.”
Offense shut out in second half
After lighting up Arkansas for 50 points a week ago, Missouri’s offense got off to a poor start Saturday. On the first snap of the game, Bazelak tossed a swing pass to running back Larry Rountree III, who dropped it. The next play, Bazelak tried to force a pass down the left sideline to tight end Niko Hea. The pass bounced off Hea’s outstretched hand and into the arms of Georgia defensive back Eric Stokes, who was defending nearby receiver Keke Chism, for an interception.
“We’re supposed to run a clear out with our X receiver right there, and he obviously didn’t get the corner cleared out,” Drinkwitz said. “I don’t think there’s anything else Connor could have done. He hit the wide receiver in the hands and the X doesn’t do his job.”
Missouri would muster a couple touchdowns later in the half, set up by a pair of unusual plays. But for the most part, the early miscue would be a sign of things to come for the Tigers.
Missouri’s issues started on the offensive line. The Tigers only gave up one sack, but Bazelak took a barrage of hits throughout the game. The offense rushed for just 22 yards on 22 carries, its worst output since rushing for 21 yards against Georgia in October, 2015. Drinkwitz pointed to the trenches, on both sides of the ball, as the biggest difference between the two teams.
“I mean, they rushed for 316 yards and we rushed for 22,” he said. “So both sides of the line of scrimmage.”
That lack of an effective ground game, combined with the increasingly lopsided score, put Bazelak in a tough spot against arguably the SEC’s most talented defense. He said the difference in speed between Georgia’s secondary and those the Tigers have faced in recent weeks was noticeable. Bazelak completed 17 of 28 passes for 139 yards and an interception. The 60.7 percent completion rate and yardage total both represented season-lows. Missouri’s overall output of 200 total yards represented its worst offensive performance since last season’s Georgia game, when Missouri mustered just 198 in a shutout.
“It gives the edge and the pass rushers an opportunity to tee off on the pass and not really have to worry about the run,” Bazelak said of Missouri’s struggles on the ground. “So it makes my job more difficult, but some games are like that and I gotta find a way to move the ball down the field and score points.”
Drinkwitz explains end-of-half strategy
After Pickens scored to reclaim the lead for Georgia, Missouri had a chance to answer. The Tigers got the ball back at their own 25-yard line with 37 seconds remaining before halftime, with all three timeouts. Fans had to think back only seven days to a similar scenario, when the Tigers went 60 yards in 40 seconds to set up Harrison Mevis’ game-winning kick against Arkansas.
Instead, Drinkwitz called for a handoff to Rountree, then let the clock expire. Asked after the game why he chose to play it safe, he harkened back to Missouri’s loss at Florida, when the Tigers tried to answer a Florida touchdown with a two-minute drill but didn’t gain a first down, allowing the Gators to get another possession.
“I had flashbacks of what we did at Florida,” Drinkwitz saids. “We had given up one right there and didn’t want to risk it. I knew they were getting the ball right there to start the second half and didn’t want to risk really losing the momentum.
“Felt good going in at halftime, 21-14. Told our team, hey, we’re right in position. Needed to come out and get a stop, and we didn’t, and they scored every possession in the third quarter, and offensively we didn’t do anything with it. So we weren’t able to mount that charge, but I thought we were in good position.”
Injury report
Not only did Missouri enter Saturday’s game shorthanded, the Tigers saw a few key contributors go down with injury. The most notable of those was Bazelak, although he didn’t miss much of the action. On a second down and four in the second quarter, Bazelak scrambled for a first down. He slid feet-first to try to avoid a hit, but as he did so, he took a knee to the back of the head from Georgia nose tackle Jordan Davis. Bazelak laid face-down on the turf before walking off the field and into the medical tent on the sideline. True freshman Brady Cook replaced him behind center, despite junior Shawn Robinson, who started the season at quarterback, being available for the game.
Bazelak admitted he “got his bell rung” on the play, but he apparently passed concussion tests. Of more concern was the fact that his right hand got stepped on during the play. He said it remained sore for the rest of the contest.
“I think if you go down in the locker room and ask anybody, I think they’re going to say that they’re some sort of banged up,” Bazelak said. “I think everybody’s a little banged up. I got banged up last game, took some hits this game, and nothing to complain about, but it’s a tough game. Playing quarterback in the SEC isn’t easy, and you’re going to take shots and just have to move on.”
Among the players who went down with injuries and did not return were safety Tyree Gillespie and slot receiver Jalen Knox. Gillespie, who forced an incompletion when he got to Daniels on a third-down blitz in the second quarter, was replaced by redshirt freshman Jalani Williams during the second half. Knox’s reps went to redshirt junior Barrett Banister.
