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 14-3 Cotton Bowl win over No. 7 Ohio State.
Quarterbacks: Brady Cook was named the Offensive MVP after completing 11-of-18 passes for 128 yards and a touchdown. He also rushed for 66 yards on 19 carries. Cook didn't necessarily win MVP of his stat line but because of his fourth-quarter play leading back-to-back 90-yard touchdown drives to win the game. Before hitting Speedy Johnson for a 50-yard gain, he was 8-of-15 for 38 yards. Part of that poor stat line was because of his offensive line, but also because he was missing some reads as well.
Nonetheless, he helped keep them in the game in any way he could, and even if that meant taking a few nasty hits. He toughed it out and found a way to get the job done. GRADE: B
Running backs: Cody Schrader needed 106 yards to break Tyler Badie's single-season rushing record and he did it by getting 128 yards and a touchdown on 29 carries. Not only did he record his sixth straight 100-yard game to end his Mizzou career, he was just the second player to rush for over 100 yards on Ohio State's defense all season.
Cook deserves the MVP, Schrader even said so himself. However, if the "Shredder" had won the award it would've been justified. He was seemingly the only offensive player who had some sort of rhythm before Johnson's catch. GRADE: A
Wide receivers: Cook didn't have a big day, so inevitably that means neither did the receivers. Sometimes Cook was missing open receivers but a lot of the time the receivers couldn't get much separation or didn't have a chance to get the ball because Cook had already been sacked or decided to scramble.
However, the pass to Johnson, the 31-yard completion to Theo Wease and the touchdown pass to Luther Burden III are plays that changed the tide of the game.
Wease led the way with four receptions for 43 yards. Burden had three receptions for 15 yards and a touchdown. Former Buckeye Mookie Cooper had two receptions for 18 yards and Johnson had the one reception for 50 yards. GRADE: B+
Tight ends: Brett Norfleet caught one of his two targets for two yards, but he was a helping hand in the run-blocking game. GRADE: B
Offensive line: For three quarters, it looked like the offensive line from last year was playing. This was easily the worst game the offensive line played all year. The line couldn't match Ohio State's defensive line physicality and was allowing four to get pressure on Cook.
The unit was in Cook's lap for the majority of the game.
Also, center Connor Tollison had a botched snap that went over Cook's head and cost the team about six yards.
However, once Cook completed that pass to Johnson the offensive line took advantage of a worn-out Ohio State defense and wore them down even more run blocking the rest of the game. GRADE: C
Disclaimer: Everyone will get credit for not allowing Ohio State to score a touchdown for the first time since the 2016 Fiesta Bowl (89 games), as well as holding them to its worst offensive game of the season.
Defensive line: Before starting quarterback Devin Brown left the game early in the second quarter, he was flustered. This unit was all over Brown and then it was all over Lincoln Kienholz when he entered the game. It was easily the best defensive game of the season for the defensive line and that's saying something for a group that has had some pretty impressive games this season.
Two of the four sacks and 4.5 of the 10 tackles for loss were recorded by this group.
Johnny Walker won the Defensive MVP award after recording two tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, a sack and a forced fumble.
Darius Robinson had two tackles, two tackles for loss and a sack. He also did this while dealing with a groin injury, he suffered on Wednesday.
Kristian Williams had five tackles and a tackle for loss.
Nyles Gaddy and Realus George each had a tackle, while Joe Moore had a fumble recovery. GRADE: A+
Linebackers: Chuck Hicks and Triston Newson got their third straight start as a duo and their outing Friday looked closer to their great performance in Week 13 against Arkansas as opposed to the poor outing they had the week prior versus Florida.
Newson had 10 tackles and 2.5 tackles for loss, while Hicks had four tackles and a tackle for loss.
They helped limit Ohio State to its third-fewest rushing (97) yards this season. While the Tigers would've loved having Ty'Ron Hopper and Chad Bailey out there, Hicks and Newson did a great job in this game and most other opportunities holding down the fort for those players. GRADE: A
Secondary: This unit allowed just 10 completions on 24 attempts for 106 yards. Even though Brown was hurt and Kienholz had 19 snaps entering the game, had either one of those players had a career day against the secondary then it would be a problem. So, praise is due for this unit after it did what it should've done.
Daylan Carnell had a strong case to be Defensive MVP. He was laying big hit after big hit and finished the game with three tackles, a sack, a tackle for loss and a forced fumble.
Kris Abrams-Draine showed why he was a second-team All-American selection by recording four tackles and a pass deflection.
He stayed in the whole game despite separating his shoulder at some point during the game. Head coach Eli Drinkwitz had ruled him out before Abrams-Draine told him he wasn't going to come out of the game, and his play backed up why he should still be on the field.
Safety Jaylon Carlies had a busted nose and led the team in tackles with 11 tackles, a sack and a tackle for loss.
Sidney Williams, Tre'Vez Johnson and Dreyden Norwood each had three tackles.
Marcus Clarke had a pass deflection.
Joe Charleston had a tackle. GRADE: A+
Special teams: For half of the game, punter Riley Williams looked like the Tigers' MVP. He averaged 40.8 yards per punt on eight attempts with five landing inside the 20-yard line.
Something that wasn't a huge problem but was a recurring one was the fielding of punts. Mizzou fielded a lot of punts in bad spots or just let them bounce past them which gave it worse field position.
Burden could've fair caught a punt at his own 30-yard line and let it bounce 20 yards behind him.
Schrader downed a punt on the 10 despite the momentum of the ball looking like it could go a little further. He also had a host of Tigers around him. So, he didn't have to do that and it probably cost the Tigers five or six extra yards.
Kicker Harrison Mevis made both of his PATs.All in all, a good game by special teams GRADE: A
Coaching: Defensive coordinator Blake Baker gets an A+. His defense was awesome. Again, the quarterback situation was murky for the Buckeyes but they still have a host of elite athletes and Baker neutralized all of them. Ohio State could never really get its rhythm and a lot of that is because of Baker.
Drinkwitz and Moore had some issues for most of the game.
For Drinkwitz, it was just a lot of undisciplined things going on. Namely in the form of penalties and an unprepared offensive line. The unit was on its heels for almost the entire night and had Cook not used his legs like he did, maybe we're not talking about a Mizzou win.
Walker's unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and the delay of game penalty before halftime were egregiously bad and cost them points, and in a low-scoring affair like this, could've cost them the game.
For Moore, props to him for staying true to his offense and still dialing up the deep ball because for most of the game, receivers were running deep routes and Cook didn't have enough time for those routes to develop. Also, at times he'd go away from the run, particularly the outside zone even though Ohio State was loading the box, so the offense could pass.
Once the team got the lead, it prioritized running more, but it could've prioritized running more often and sooner. Schrader seemed like the only one who had any rhythm before Johnson's reception.
Nonetheless, it was great resilience by all three coaches. GRADE: A-
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