Notebook: Tigers discover pass rush, smother Tennessee offense
KNOXVILLE — On Tennessee’s third snap of the game, with the Volunteers facing a third down and 11, Missouri safety Tyree Gillespie crept down to the line of scrimmage. The ball was snapped, and Gillespie sprinted through the offensive line, then grabbed Tennessee quarterback Jarrett Guarantano and slammed him to the turf. Gillespie’s first career sack not only injured Guarantano, who tried to play through the pain but ended up being replaced by backup Keller Chryst in the second quarter. It set the tone for the Missouri defense, which held Tennessee to negative-17 yards and no first downs on the Volunteers’ first three possessions. The Tigers limited Tennessee to 255 total yards and came up with three key turnovers that led to 21 points in a 50-17 rout.
Missouri needed the fast start from its defense, as the offense mustered just six points on its first four drives combined. As a result, when the Tiger offense exploded for touchdowns on four consecutive possessions, the game was out of reach.
“I’m so proud of them,” offensive tackle Paul Adams said of the defense. “They have stepped up so many times when we needed them to. I think it’s one of those things, we’re feeding off of each other.”
Gillespie’s sack was especially important because it signified an improvement in Missouri’s greatest defensive weakness this season. The Tigers have struggled mightily to generate a pass rush this year. They entered Saturday tied for 96th nationally in sacks, having recorded 17 in 10 games. But against Tennessee, Missouri was able to consistently hurry Guarantano and Chryst. It tied its season high with three sacks.
On Tennessee’s second possession, defensive tackle Walter Palmore emerged unblocked and picked up his first sack of the year. Later, linebacker Ronnell Perkins, who started in place of the injured Brandon Lee, stopped Chryst in the backfield when Tennessee was on the Missouri two-yard line. Other players were able to hurry the two Volunteer passers throughout the game. Perkins believes the constant pressure impacted the mentality of Guarantano and Chryst and contributed to Chryst’s two costly interceptions
“If he’s in there panicking and we can rattle them a little bit, it lasts the whole game, as you’ve seen,” he said.
Tennessee has been especially susceptible to pressure this season. To take advantage, head coach Barry Odom said Missouri’s defensive coaching staff drew up some new blitz schemes that it unveiled in obvious passing situations, many of which involved sending defensive backs at the quarterback. Safety Joshuah Bledsoe said the ability to generate pressure without sending too many blitzers helps the entire defense because it frees up the linebackers to cover short patterns. That means opposing passers have to wait, in the face of pressure, for deep routes to develop.
“When we can get pressure, that means the linebackers can get into the lower holes and stuff instead of going and getting pressure as well,” Bledsoe explained.
Of course, in order to take advantage of Tennessee’s shaky pass protection, Missouri had to force the Volunteers to pass. The Tigers were able to get Tennessee into long-yardage situations on second and third downs because they largely bottled up the Tennessee ground game. Through three quarters, the Volunteers ran for just 54 yards (they broke a couple big runs late, when the game was out of reach).
For the most part, Missouri has been solid against the run all season, but the Tigers gave up 216 yards on the ground to Vanderbilt last weekend. Linebacker Cale Garrett said the Commodores’ big gains resulted from missed tackles and assignments. All week, several defensive players said, the Tigers focused on eliminating those mistakes, and it showed Saturday.
“They’re a good team, don’t get me wrong, but it wasn’t necessarily something they did that was crazy,” Garrett said of Tennessee. “It was just a zone play. So it wasn’t anything schematically that we hadn’t seen, it was just a matter of us staying in our gaps and doing our jobs.”
The one hiccup for Missouri’s defense came when Chryst entered the game and immediately led the Volunteers on a long scoring drive, surely causing some Tiger fans to have Michael Scarnecchia flashbacks. On Tennessee’s following drive, the Volunteers once again drove inside the Missouri 10-yard line and appeared en route to a touchdown, which would have given them a one-point lead.
But Missouri’s combination of stout run defense and pass rush came through. The Tigers stuffed a handoff on second-and-goal from the two-yard line, then Perkins tracked down Chryst as he tried to scramble for the goal line on a third-down bootleg. Tennessee had to settle for a field goal, and Missouri never relinquished its lead.
“All we need is a place to stand,” Perkins said after the game. “Our front seven is so solid. A lot of people can’t run the ball on us. So if (an opposing offense) is on the half-yard line, you all saw last week, we’re going to get a stop.
“Our defense, we’re never scared. We’re always going 100 miles per hour.”
Badie leads pack of true freshmen contributors
On Missouri’s first possession of the second half, the Tigers sought to answer a touchdown drive from Tennessee, but faced a third down and six from around midfield. Quarterback Drew Lock threw a screen pass to freshman running back Tyler Badie, who returned to action for the first time in two weeks. He left the team’s game against Florida after one carry due to a foot injury.
When Badie caught the screen pass, his chances of reaching the first-down marker appeared remote. One Tennessee defender hit him almost immediately, and others were in pursuit. But Badie broke the initial tackle and several more on his way for a 21-yard gain. Missouri scored a touchdown three plays later.
It was one of two third-down conversions for Badie, who totaled 53 total yards and a touchdown in the game. Odom admitted he thought Badie was going to be tackled short of the line to gain on the first conversion, which would have resulted in a punt.
“He willed his way and our team there on a couple third downs,” Odom said of Badie. “There was one, I thought it was over, I thought he was short, and he just kept coming.”
Badie was one of several true freshmen who stood out on offense Saturday. On the one possession when Missouri trailed, wide receiver Kam Scott took a short pass for a 44-yard gain, which set up the first career touchdown reception for another true freshman: Dominic Gicinto. Late in the fourth quarter, Simi Bakare gained 41 yards and scored his first touchdown on nine carries. A remarkable six true freshmen — Badie, Gicinto, Scott, Bakare, Jalen Knox and Daniel Parker Jr. — have now scored touchdowns for Missouri this season.
Wideout Emanuel Hall had high praise for Badie, as well as the rest of the freshman class, after the game.
“He is very slippery,” Hall said. “He reminds me of Marcus Murphy. I think it is similar running styles. He is going to be very good. We have a lot of freshmen that are playing really well. I am really excited about the future for Missouri and for those particular guys.”
Lock wins one for Dooley
During the week, Missouri offensive coordinator Derek Dooley downplayed the importance of this week’s matchup, despite the fact that he coached Tennessee from 2010 through 2012. He got fired with one game left in the 2012 season.
But Lock recognized that this matchup meant more than most for Dooley, and he savored the fact that the Tigers put 50 points on the scoreboard, even if seven of those came from the defense.
“It meant a lot to me, I know for sure,” Lock said, “because at the time when we hired coach Dooley — I thought about this when I was on the sideline, Taylor (Powell) was in there, just thinking about the big picture of this game. I still had Twitter at that time, and I was getting tagged in all these tweets from all these Tennessee people and it’s like, ‘Drew Lock’s got Derek Dooley now, here he goes, down the drain. There goes Missouri. Hiring Derek Dooley, what are you guys doing?’
“All this talk from all these orange and white accounts, all these Volunteer-dot-orgs and 24/7 Vols and stuff, and now we’re here and that happened today and it’s just like, you know, there’s words that go with it.”
Lock moves higher in record books
With the aforementioned 21-yard screen pass to Badie, Lock moved to second all-time on the SEC passing yardage list. He passed former Georgia quarterback David Greene on the play. Lock now has 11,699 passing yards in his illustrious college career. He trails another former Bulldog, Aaron Murray, by nearly 1,500 yards for first place.
Earlier this season, Lock also moved into second all-time in the conference in touchdown passes. He trails Murray on that list as well. Following the game, he deflected much of the credit for the accomplishments to his teammates and coaches.
“It just reflects on the teams that we’ve had and the offenses that we’ve had since I’ve been here,” Lock said. “It definitely doesn’t come down to just this one year, but we’ve had a lot of chemistry these past three years: my sophomore, junior, and senior seasons. That just has a lot to do with our coaching staff, has a lot to do with our players. We want to play for each other. I think when you get a team that wants to play for each other, not the accolades outside like that one you just mentioned, then more of those start to come.”
Injury report
The scariest moment of the game came in the fourth quarter, when Richaud Floyd fielded a punt and ran upfield for a couple yards before he was wrapped up by a couple Tennessee defenders. Before he was wrestled down, Shanon Reid left his feet and smashed the crown of his helmet into Floyd’s. Floyd crumpled to the ground and eventually had to be helped off the field.
Odom, as well as several Missouri players, described the play as “scary.”
“It hit me hard to see somebody that I look at as a big brother go down like that and he was not moving, it kind of scared me,” Gicinto said. He later added that Floyd is “doing better now.”
Aside from Floyd, Missouri lost running back Damarea Crockett during the game due to injury. Crockett sprained his right ankle in the second quarter and did not return. He totaled just three carries for 10 yards. Cornerback Christian Holmes also left the game in the second half and did not return, but no explanation was given for his absence.
Finally, several players didn’t play in the game to begin with due to injury. Tight end Albert Okwuegbunam is still on the shelf due to a shoulder injury he suffered against Florida. Cornerback Adam Sparks missed his third straight game due to an injury to his shin. Wide receiver Nate Brown continues to battle a groin injury. Odom publicized those injuries during the week, but surprisingly, the Tigers were also without Knox and Lee on Saturday. Knox apparently suffered a concussion during practice this week. No explanation was provided for Lee’s absence, but he has been limited in practice for the last several weeks due to an elbow injury.