Every week through the end of Missouri's season, PowerMizzou.com will hand out a position-by-position report card from the Tigers' most recent game.
Here are the grades for No. 9 Missouri's 48-14 Week 13 win over Arkansas.
Quarterbacks: Ironically, in a game where everyone played phenomenally Brady Cook played alright. It’s usually not like this, after all, he is the reigning Southeastern Conferce Co-Offensive Player of the Week.
Cook seemed to be a little off-target with some of his throws. He was overthrowing receivers and throwing behind them more times than normal , and wasn't as accurate as we have know him to be.
He finished the game having completed 12-of-20 passes for 113 yards and two touchdowns. It was a bit underwhelming, but in a game with the run game and defense dominating, he didn't have to be sensational. He just had to not mess it up and sometimes that’s all you can ask for. GRADE: B
Running backs: Cody Schrader had 27 carries for 217 yards and a touchdown. His play has gotten so good over the last few weeks that that Eli Drinkwitz is done with the feel-good story and thinks Schrader’s new story should be about his chances to be a Heisman finalist.
Schrader had 22 carries for 192 yards and a touchdown in the first half, which marked the third straight game he recorded 100 yards or more before halftime. It was his fifth straight 100-yard rushing game, his eighth of the season, and it was his eighth straight game with a touchdown.
Nathaniel Peat had eight carries for 29 yards and a touchdown in his final regular season game, while Jamal Roberts got his first in-game action this season. GRADE: A+
Wide receivers: Because it was a quiet game for Cook, naturally it was a quiet game for the wideouts. Luther Burden III paced the team with six receptions for 55 yards, while Theo Wease, Speedy Johnson and Mekhi Miller all hauled in one pass. GRADE: B+
Tight ends: Another reason why it was a quiet day for the receivers was because true freshman Brett Norfleet was living up to his four-star billing and then some.
The 6-foot-7, 235-pounder hauled in three receptions for 32 yards and two touchdowns, the first of his career. Norfleet actually had both of his touchdowns in the span of 11 game seconds, and both scores had a common denominator 一 he was wide-open. GRADE: A+
Offensive line: Typically, having a starting right tackle and one the team sees as one of the building blocks of the future, getting ejected isn't ideal and isn't a positive. However, Armand Membou's second-quarter ejection is getting praised by us. It seemed to motivate an already super-motivated team to destroy their rival and that's what happened.
Schrader doesn't run for over 200 yards if the line didn't dominate in the trenches.
The line showed a type of physicality in-between the hash marks and outside of them that isn't always on display.
Arkansas did get five tackles for loss and the three false start penalties on Javon Foster (two) and Xavier Delgado (one) are what slightly dings the grade (not including Membou's personal foul/ejection). GRADE: A-
Disclaimer: Every group will get credit for limiting Arkansas to 87 total yards through three quarters. The Razorbacks didn't cross midfield until there was a minute left in the third quarter. They accumulated a lot of garbage time yards in the fourth quarter. So, those garbage time stats will not be weighed as heavily.
Defensive line: You know it's a good day when the defensive line accounts for six of the team's 12 tackles for loss and two of the four sacks.
The best thing about it was it was a number of guys who had big roles not just the normal suspects.
Joe Moore led the group in tackles with six to go with 0.5 tackles for loss.
Realus George had four tackles, a sack, a tackle for loss and a forced fumble.
Kristian Williams had three tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss and a pass deflection.
Jay Jernigan had a tackle, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery for a 10-yard touchdown.
Nyles Gaddy had a sack and Marquis Gracial recorded a tackle in his first-ever game.
The usual suspects Darius Robinson and Johnny Walker had quieter games than we've grown accustomed to them having but they still contributed.
Robinson had two tackles, 0.5 tackles for loss and a fumble recovery. In the process, he snapped his seven-game streak with a sack.
Walker had four tackles, 0.5 tackles for loss and a quarterback hit. GRADE: A+
Linebackers: Chuck Hicks and Triston Newson knew they didn't play well in their first start as a duo last week versus Florida, and they made good on that performance by dominating Arkansas.
Newson had a game-high 15 tackles, two tackles for loss and two fumble recoveries. Hicks had six tackles and a game-high 3.5 tackles for loss.
From playing like a couple of the worst players on defense a week ago to two of the best in a week's time is remarkable. GRADE: A+
Secondary: This was easily the secondary's most dominant game of the season.
Arkansas's leading receiver Andrew Armstrong had four receptions for 40 yards and a touchdown, but his touchdown came down 41-0 in the fourth quarter with reserves in. It counts in the box score, but I'm not going to hold that over the entire secondary.
Arkansas quarterback Jacolby Criswell completed 12-of-20 passes for 96 yards and a touchdown, and a lot of those passes were dink-and-dunks.
He completed one pass that went 21 yards and one that went 18 yards.
Sidney Williams got ample playing time and led the group with six tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss.
Tre'Vez Johnson had five tackles.
Jaylon Carlies had three tackles, a sack, a tackle for loss and a forced fumble (Stat Broadcast incorrectly has him with just two tackles).
Daylan Carnell had three tackles, a pass deflection and a forced fumble.
Marcus Clarke had three tackles.
Marvin Burks had two tackles and a fumble recovery.
Joe Charleston had a pair of tackles.
Dreyden Norwood had one tackle and a pass deflection.
Keep in mind this unit did all of this without star cornerback Ennis Rakestraw. GRADE: A+
Special teams: Riley Williams got his second straight start at punter and averaged 38.8 yards per punt on four attempts and had two land inside the opposing 20-yard line. Luke Bauer had one punt go 42 yards.
Williams' first punt went 29 yards. The punting position has been consistently inconsistent all season and we saw a little of that in Week 13.
Kicker Harrison Mevis made both of his field goal attempts (22,24).GRADE: A
Coaching: Coming off of a closer-than-it-needed-to-be win over Florida, it was clear Drinkwitz and the coaching staff wanted to bring it to Arkansas, so they could put themselves in a good spot to not only win the game and the Battle Line Trophy but to show the College Football Playoff committee one more time that it definitely deserves a New Year's Six bowl berth.
The defense was amazing. Blake Baker's unit pitched a shutout through three quarters before a lot of the starters were removed and it was arguably the most dominating performance in his tenure as defensive coordinator.
Offensive coordinator Kirby Moore learned from his only true mistake on the first drive of the game which was not running the ball once. After that he called Schrader's number 27 times to great success. This was complementary football at its finest. GRADE: A+
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