With his team already leading Southeast Missouri 21-0 late in the first quarter, Eli Drinkwitz would have been forgiven for calling a conservative play. His Missouri team had all the momentum as it started its fourth drive of the game at its own one-yard line, where a passing play comes with increased risk of a safety and any interception is a threat to be returned for a touchdown.

But Drinkwitz didn’t call for a run with star tailback Tyler Badie. Instead, quarterback Connor Bazelak faked the handoff and threw deep downfield. Ohio State transfer Mookie Cooper caught the pass for a gain of 46 yards.

“Backed up, we felt like it's something that they showed on film that we could potentially get under that deep ball there, and offensive line did a nice job in protection, and he did a nice job making a contested catch,” Drinkwitz said.

After losing its SEC opener at Kentucky last week, a few questions swirled around Missouri’s team entering its matchups with SEMO: Namely, could a defense ranked last among all Power Five teams against the run get better on the ground, and could Bazelak and his receivers connect on more downfield shots? The Tigers looked strong in both areas in the first half against SEMO. Missouri led 38-0 in points and out-gained the Redhawks 458-69 in total yardage during the first 30 minutes before removing most of its starters and cruising to a 59-28 win.

No surprise, after getting gashed for 341 rushing yards by Kentucky, defensive end Isaiah McGuire said stopping the run was the top priority for the Missouri defense on Saturday. The Tigers succeeded during the first half — and they stopped the pass, too. At halftime, SEMO had amassed 56 rushing yards on 14 attempts, and Drinkwitz said the majority of those came when quarterback CJ Ogbonna couldn’t find an open receiver and scrambled. The Redhawks gained just three first downs and didn’t cross midfield.

“We knew we had to stop the run,” McGuire said. “That was the most important thing in the game, that was our most important key thing as a unit. And we did it in the first half.”

While defensive coordinator Steve Wilks did coach this week’s game from the coaches’ box after spending the past two weeks on the sideline, McGuire said Missouri didn’t do anything different schematically against the run. The defense simply executed better. Drinkwitz agreed.

“I thought we were much better at destroying blocks,” he said. “I thought we were much better tackling. We still had a couple of contain issues. Really the rushing yards in the first half were on passes that we weren't keeping contained, which is a nemesis that’s gonna have to get fixed and continue to focus on details with that. But for the most part in the first half, we shut them out, they gained less than 100 yards.”

SEMO found quite a bit more success on the ground after halftime, when Missouri had subbed out its regular contributors. Drinkwitz said at that point, with the game in control, he didn’t want to risk injury or a player getting called for targeting and being suspended for the first half of next week’s matchup at Boston College.

While the Redhawks ran for 238 yards and four touchdowns in the second half (averaging 11.3 yards per carry) Drinkwitz isn’t sweating those numbers. He said he was “not concerned in the least” about Missouri being out-scored after halftime and noted that many of the players on the field at that point had not only never played in a college game before, but had spent most of their practice time on the scout team.

“We’d have had a better chance to run SEMO’s defense against SEMO’s offense right there,” Drinkwitz said. “I mean, they hadn’t been on the defensive side of the ball except for fall camp. So it is what it is, you’ve got to try to survive on talent, pretty vanilla. But, I mean, I take a lot of confidence away from what we were able to do and the improvements that we've made in one game.”

On the other side of the ball, Drinkwitz wasn’t afraid to let Bazelak air the ball out, even though Bazelak said the loss at Kentucky “took a toll” on him physically. He got hit a couple times against SEMO and at one point appeared to flex his right hand but said after the game that he felt fine.

“Connor, I think, is trying to get an acting deal for his NIL for as much as he sits there and wallows after he gets hit,” Drinkwitz said. “Everybody’s nervous about it, and I say, are you okay? And he’s like, yeah, I’m just putting on. I’m like, cut that crap out.”

Bazelak threw 30 times in the first half, completing 21 of those attempts for 346 yards and three touchdowns. He hit on each of his first 10 throws. He’s only topped those yardage and touchdown totals two other times in his career, despite only playing half the game.

And when he dropped back, Bazelak had the green light to throw deep. In addition to the connection with Cooper, he completed another 46-yard pass in the first quarter, a play-action touchdown to Boo Smith. He missed on a couple other downfield throws, as well.

Wide receiver Keke Chism said deep passing success results from repetition, so it was good for Bazelak and the receiving corps to connect on a couple long balls in a game setting.

“That's got to be a huge advantage for us, pushing the ball down the field,” Chism said. “Especially going into SEC play, you’ve got to be able to make the defense respect what you got going on down the field to open up the lines for the running back and make it easier for those guys to have success. I feel like we did a good job with executing deep.”

In one final act of aggression, Drinkwitz kept his offense on the field for a fourth down and two in the final minute first half. Missouri already led 31-0 at that point. Drinkwitz could have allowed the clock to wind down to the final seconds before calling timeout and sending Harrison Mevis onto the field for a chip shot.

Instead, he stopped the clock with 28 seconds left and called for a handoff to Badie. Badie gained four yards, moving the chains, and then scored a play later. Both Badie and Chism said Drinkwitz viewed the red zone reps as too valuable an opportunity to pass up.

Those would be the final snaps played by Bazelak, Badie and the majority of the offensive starters. That was fine with Bazelak, who felt he accomplished all he needed to during the first 30 minutes.

“You hope within two quarters that you play well enough and put enough points on the board,” he said. “So we did, and I was kind of glad I was able to sit out the second half.”

Even though he only played the first two quarters, Badie recorded a career high for the third week in a row. Badie scored three of Missouri’s first five touchdowns, making Saturday the first time he’s scored three times in a game.

Badie, who entered Saturday leading the country in gains of 10 yards or more, broke free for a 49-yard touchdown run on Missouri’s first possession. He accounted for 66 of the team’s 73 yards on the drive. On the following possession, he took a swing pass 11 yards for a score. He then finished off the first-half scoring with a one-yard plunge.

Badie totaled 95 yards on 11 touches. He now needs just 39 receiving yards to become the first Missouri player ever to total both 1,000 rushing and 1,000 receiving yards in his career. Perhaps most importantly for Missouri, he was able to make an impact without taking too many hits. After touching the ball 53 times across the team’s first two games, Badie said he walked away from Saturday feeling fresh.

“It was a good feeling, just being out there, being able to help my teammates out, just getting in and out,” Badie said. “It was good for me and Connor to both be able to go out there, do what we had to do, get out of the game and just rest and cheer on the rest of the teammates.”

Even when Bazelak left the game, Drinkwitz wasn’t done dialing up passing plays, and the Missouri offense wasn’t done scoring. Each making their first appearance of the season, backup quarterbacks Brady Cook and Tyler Macon both threw a touchdown.

Cook, a redshirt freshman out of Chaminade high school in St. Louis, entered the game first in relief of Bazelak. Cook completed all four of his passes during a 12-play drive. The last of those throws came when he hit Elijah Young out of the backfield for a three-yard score.

The following possession, Macon got the job done more quickly. On his third college snap and first pass attempt, the East St. Louis product hit redshirt freshman JJ Hester on a slant route. Hester caught the pass and raced 65 yards for a touchdown. Macon would play the remainder of the game and finished 3-4 for 69 yards and the score.

“Really proud of both Tyler Macon and Brady Cook for leading touchdown drives,” Drinkwitz said. “That’s not easy to do, doesn’t matter who it’s against.

Missouri took the field without two of its starters, as right guard Case Cook and cornerback Ennis Rakestraw watched the game in street clothes. Drinkwitz said both players probably could have played, but the team opted to exercise caution.

“We really didn’t want to push it,” Drinkwitz said. “I think it really hurt Case not to be able to play. But we have to sometimes protect players from themselves. I think we’ll know more Tuesday where they’re at, can they go through Tuesday’s practice, and then we’ll go from there.”

Cook was replaced in the starting lineup by Connor Wood. Wood was the one offensive lineman who played with both the first and second team, as he slid to right tackle with the backups. Tulsa transfer Akayleb Evans made his first start in place of Rakestraw.

The Tigers also lost defensive tackle Darius Robinson to injury during the game. Robinson, who started in place of Kobie Whiteside, had to be helped off the field in the second quarter and did not return. The Mizzou Radio Network reported the injury was to Robinson’s ankle. Drinkwitz said he did not yet know the extent of Robinson’s injury.

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