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Notes and Quotes from Gainesville

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Two weeks after hanging on to the ball for just more than 17 minutes in a 42-7 loss to LSU, the super-speed Missouri offense maintained possession for just 23:07 in a 40-14 loss to Florida. And that number was artificially inflated by Florida scoring three times on defense or special teams, putting the Tiger offense right back on the field without a Gator possession.

“Our margin of error is always going to be so slim and so slight that we’ve got to be spot on in every area to have a chance,” Barry Odom said. “[That’s] hard to overcome against air. Much less against a team like Florida.”

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And Missouri didn’t overcome it. Or even come particularly close. Odom was asked, with an offense that didn’t get a first down for the first 27 minutes of the game, why the hurried-up hurry-up?

“We’re not gonna be very good in a slow paced offense,” he said. “That’s just not our style. That’s not the skill set that we have. Maybe some day it will be, but it’s not this year with our current roster.”

But why? Beyond “because it won’t work” what’s the theory in going as fast as you can all the time, even when it’s not working?

“Getting guys out of position. Instead of the DL being set, they’re kind of walking around getting spots and we’ve got leverage on them,” quarterback Drew Lock said. “Bottom line those guys not getting in their position.”

It sounds good in theory. But it’s not working for the Tigers right now. All it did on Saturday night was leave a defense that was gassed by the fourth quarter, unable to offer up much resistance on the off chance Missouri’s offense found a pulse to try to mount a comeback.

“That makes it tough,” linebacker Michael Scherer said. “But I think something we’re prepared for. It’s a team game. When defense is up, defense has got to go out and defense has got to produce. We really did a good job of that. As you go on and on it gets tougher and tougher.”

“We had a lot of juice, honestly, all the way till the fourth quarter,” defensive end Marcell Frazier said. “We played hard. We played hard the whole game I felt like on defense.”

“Any offense that goes three and out’s gonna feel bad about what they’re doing to the defense,” Lock said. “Especially us when we play fast. Got to stay away from that.”

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                                                NEW LOOK ON DEFENSE

Missouri had a bit of a new look on defense. Frazier, safety Ronnell Perkins and middle linebacker Cale Garrett all got their first career starts. With Garrett in the middle, Scherer moved over to weak side linebacker in place of Joey Burkett.

“They practiced a little better over the bye week and had a chance to really evaluate some of the things. We thought we could move some guys around, give ourselves a little better look there,” Odom explained. “(Scherer’s) knowledge of the defense and his skill set, he can play a lot of different spots. That was the easy move.”

Scherer had a team-high ten tackles and Garrett had eight. Frazier made five stops and had a pass breakup and Perkins made four tackles, including a third down stop, and had a quarterback hurry.

“Perkins played a good game. Hopefully he can keep it up and we’ll get some W’s,” cornerback John Gibson said. “We feel good with anybody out there.”

The players said the changes discussed earlier in the week by defensive coordinator DeMontie Cross were all about personnel. The scheme didn’t change much from last time out against LSU.

“We just had a good two weeks of practice,” Frazier said. “People were buying in more. We were like forget the old system. Forget it, it’s not coming back. So let’s buy into this new system as much as we can. That was kind of our mindset after the LSU game.

“We also got in our playbook a lot more and everybody practiced really hard.”

The result was far from perfect, but it was a step in the right direction.

“The yardage (523) didn’t look good but when you’re on defense, it’s about the outcome and we gave up 19 points,” Scherer said. “It’s a lot better than the 40 some last week.”

                                                CROCKETT GETS SOME RUN

Freshman Damarea Crockett made the first start of his career at tailback for the Tigers.

“It was exciting,” Crockett said. “First college start, that’s always exciting, not to mention it was in the Swamp.”

He made the most of the extended opportunity, running for 145 yards on 14 carries. He now leads the Tigers with 390 yards on the season on just 54 carries. He set up Mizzou’s first touchdown with a 36-yard run.

“It was good. It felt normal, it felt natural. I felt good, I felt in my zone. I haven’t really felt like that before,” he said. “I definitely felt like I did good tonight, but I’m not satisfied.”

While Crockett set up the touchdown, he didn’t score it. That honor went to defensive tackle Josh Augusta who plunged across the goal line from a half a yard out.

“I mean, yeah, that was awesome,” Augusta said with a smile. “I’ve been waiting that for a long time.”

Augusta got another carry in the fourth quarter with Missouri pinned at its own one-yard line, giving him five carries for seven yards on the year.

                                            CORNERS TAKE IT AWAY

One of the bright spots for the Tigers was the play of their starting cornerbacks. Aarion Penton grabbed his third interception on the season, briefly taking the team lead. But by the end of the night, he'd been caught by teammate John Gibson who victimized Luke Del Rio for two picks of his own.

“When we get takeaways it’s always a positive and we’re defensive backs so that always feels good for us because we’re doing our job,” Penton said. “That’s what we’re on the field for.”

“Career night,” Gibson said. “It hurt we lost, but career night for me.”

                                                    COMING UP NEXT

Mizzou (2-4) faces Middle Tennessee for Homecoming at 3 p.m. next Saturday in Columbia. The game will be televised by the SEC Network. The Blue Raiders are 4-2 after a 44-43 double overtime loss to Western Kentucky on Saturday. They lost 47-24 to Vanderbilt in the second week of the season.

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