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 Missouri's 34-27 Week 4 win over Memphis.
Quarterbacks: After not having a 300-yard passing game in his career entering Week 3, Brady Cook has strung back-to-back 300-yard games together after he completed 18-of-25 passes for 341 yards and two touchdowns on Saturday.
He started the game off hot going 11-of-12 for 213 yards and a touchdown in the first half.
He read the field well and he put the ball where it needed to be all night.
However, he would only complete 7-of-13 passes for 128 yards and a touchdown in the second half. That's not terribly bad, but he had a tipped pass that could've been intercepted and he had a fourth and one inside the red zone where he got indecisive and threw an incomplete pass because he didn't know if he wanted to run it or pass it. GRADE: B+
Running backs: It was looking really bad for the Tigers' running backs in the first half. Cody Schrader and Nathaniel Peat combined for 11 carries for 31 yards, a touchdown and a fumble by Schrader. Then in the second half, the duo really got going and combined for 157 yards on 18 carries and a touchdown. It was a resilient performance by the unit.
Schrader finished with 14 carries for 123 yards and a touchdown. Peat finished with 15 carries for 65 yards and a touchdown. GRADE: B
Wide receivers: True freshman receiver Marquis "Speedy" Johnson started it off early with a 76-yard touchdown on the team's third offensive play.
However, Luther Burden III took over from there with a career day for the second game in a row. The St. Louis native caught 10 receptions on 12 targets for 177 yards (both career-highs). He did have a false start, though. This is the third straight game he's committed a penalty.
Mookie Cooper caught all three of his targets for 53 yards. Theo Wease caught all three of his targets for 39 yards and a touchdown and Mekhi Miller caught one of his three targets for six yards. GRADE: A-
Tight ends: Without Brett Norfleet, it wasn't very likely the tight ends would be featured options in the passing game and that was true. However, when it came to blocking they did alright. Head coach Eli Drinkwitz and Schrader even went as far as praising Jordon Harris for some of his key blocks throughout the game. GRADE: B
Offensive line: It's like you can see the offensive line is better than last season, but there are still things that need to be fixed. Mainly penalties.
Cam'Ron Johnson was one of the American Athletic Conference's leaders in penalties with 11 last season, and he's headed down that road for the Southeastern Conference. He committed a holding penalty inside the red zone for what extends his team-lead to four penalties this season.
He wasn't alone though.
Center Connor Tollison committed a snap infraction and left tackle Javon Foster committed a false start.
Not to mention, the unit gave up two sacks and six tackles for loss. However, Cook did have some clean pockets and in the second half, the unit was able to wear Memphis' defensive line down and create better running lanes for the backs. GRADE: C
Disclaimer: Everyone is on the hook for all of the missed tackles and Memphis going 3-of-4 on fourth down. However, everyone will receive credit for holding Memphis to 83 yards on 29 carries.
Defensive line: Any questions people have about Johnny Walker probably should've been answered a week or two ago, but if you still had questions he answered them on Saturday with six tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, a sack and a forced fumble. He's really good when Mizzou asks him to play defensive end.
Where he struggles is when it asks him to be a pseudo-linebacker.
He had an open-field tackle in the flat on third down that he completely whiffed in the first quarter that led to a first down. He tried to drop into a cloud zone to cover a wheel route and got beat. Then, on the first drive of the second half he committed a pass interference on a pass that was sailing out of bounds and he committed the penalty for no real reason.
Defensive end Darius Robinson had two tackles, a sack and a tackle for loss before a calf injury in the first quarter ended his night.
Realus George could've put a house in Memphis' backfield. That's how often he was back there. But alas, as the disclaimer says, he was one of many Mizzou defenders missing tackles. He would get in the backfield and just couldn't wrap up the running back. He finished with a couple of tackles.
Nyles Gaddy had four tackles and a quarterback hit, Josh Landry had a couple, while Kristian Williams and Austin Firestone each had a tackle.
The unit accounted for two of the team's three sacks, but only 2.5 of the seven tackles for loss. Also, they allowed the quarterback to break contain a couple of times. GRADE: C
Linebackers: Ty'Ron Hopper was the biggest missed tackle culprit a week ago with four. It seems like he had at least a couple missed tackles in Week 4. He did finish the game with seven tackles, tying cornerback Kris Abrams-Draine for the team-high, 0.5 tackles for loss and a quarterback hit.
Chad Bailey didn't get the start but he got a lot more reps in his second game back from injury. He had five tackles, a sack, a tackle for loss and a forced fumble.
Chuck Hicks and Triston Newson each chipped in with one tackle. GRADE: C
Secondary: To go along with his seven tackles, Abrams-Draine had a pass deflection, a tackle for loss and an interception. That's two games in a row with an interception after not having any in 2022.
This team desperately needs takeaways, especially with how poor the third-down and fourth-down defense has been in the last three games. Enter Marcus Clarke to help with that.
He had six tackles, a pass deflection and an interception. He played well, but he did allow a couple of contested catches.
Dreyden Norwood was playing well before he was sidelined with a sprained ankle in the second quarter. He had a couple of pass deflections before his exit. However, the cornerback room was thin, so free safety Jaylon Carlies, who had six tackles, had to play some corner.
Daylan Carnell had five tackles, two tackles for loss and a quarterback hit.
Marvin Burks and Joseph Charleston each had five tackles while Tre'Vez Johnson had a pair of tackles.
Memphis quarterback Seth Henigan did pass for 316 yards and three touchdowns. Receiver Roc Taylor did have seven receptions for 143 yards.
Overall, it was shaky play from a secondary reeling without its second, third or fifth cornerback. Some grace is warranted, but the group still struggled and was a large part as to why this was a one-score game. GRADE: C
Special teams: This is the grade people expect this unit to get every week. Kicker Harrison Mevis knocked down both of his field goal attempts (25,32) and Luke Bauer replaced Riley Williams as the starting punter and didn't disappoint.
He had three punts and averaged 47 yards per punt. Drinkwitz was thoroughly impressed by the walk-on and said Bauer would be starting going forward.
This grade would get boosted every week and would be an A if the Tigers just fair caught every kickoff.
For whatever reason they don't do this often. Peat had three returns with a long of 26, but an average of 19 yards per return.
GRADE: A-
Coaching: The offensive was good. Kirby Moore drew up some great things. I've never seen a star receiver be as wide-open as Burden was on that 56-yard third-quarter reception. Part of that is Speedy Johnson garnering so much respect, but part of that is Moore knowing the Tigers personnel and scheming that up.
Moore also found ways to get Burden the ball more while also finding out how to spread the ball around to the rest of the receivers, but not abandoning the run game either. He also had Cook playing the best football he's ever played for the second week in a row.
However, going 0-for-8 on third down offensively can't happen.
Allowing a game that should've been at least a two-possession win to be another one-score win is not great.
Also, the defense, which is supposed to be the team's best phase of the game (and it is, don't worry) allowing 399 total yards, 21 first downs, three fourth down conversions and Memphis to convert on all three red zone drives was not good.
The defense did get two interceptions and forced two fumbles (it didn't recover either one), so for what it lacked in some areas it kind of made up with drive-killing plays like these.
Overall, there's a lot of meat left on the bone. This wasn't the team's best game, but they're still winning. GRADE: B-
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