Red zone woes epitomize 'gut-wrenching' loss for Missouri
Minutes after Missouri running back Damarea Crockett celebrated in the end zone, punter Corey Fatony found himself standing behind the line of scrimmage, waiting for a snap to travel through the deluge so he could punt the ball back to South Carolina. When it arrived, the soaked football slipped through Fatony’s hands. He tried to pick it up and run, but had no hope of traveling the 45-or-so yards needed to gain a first down. South Carolina took over possession, drove 29 yards and kicked a field goal to take its first lead of the game.
The series of plays between what initially looked like a 70-yard touchdown run by Crockett, which would have swung the pendulum of momentum back in Missouri’s favor, and Fatony’s botched snap illustrated one of Missouri’s primary issue in a wild 37-35 loss to South Carolina that quarterback Drew Lock called “gut-wrenching:” red zone offense.
South Carolina had just cut Missouri’s lead, which stood at nine points at halftime, to two, when Crockett burst through a hole in the line of scrimmage and raced down the sideline. The play was called a touchdown on the field, but after a replay, Crockett was ruled to have stepped out of bounds at the 11-yard line — still a huge gain for the Tigers. But Missouri’s first down and 10 became first and 15 after a false start. Then Crockett got called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after a second-down run that went nowhere, resulting in second down and 30. Lock threw an incompletion, then another Tiger player got flagged for a false-start, and Missouri found itself 35 yards away from the end zone where Crockett had just celebrated, facing a third down and 34. A short rush by Crockett preceded the botched punt attempt.
The self-destructive series was the most egregious example of Missouri’s inability to convert red zone trips into touchdowns Saturday. The Tigers moved the ball well against South Carolina, but at one point had five consecutive trips inside the Gamecock 20-yard line result in a grand total of nine points. Fans will, justifiably, point to the disastrous third quarter, in which sunny skies gave way to a monsoon and Missouri was outscored 17 points to none, as the period that doomed Missouri, but running back Larry Rountree III said the team never should have been in position to surrender its lead at that point.
“We made a lot of mistakes before even the fourth or third quarter that kept them in the game, honestly,” Rountree said. “We really put them in the game. We gave it to them.”
Missouri’s offense got off to a promising start, scoring touchdowns on two of its first three possessions of the contest. In the second quarter, the Tigers had an opportunity to bury South Carolina, which was being led by backup quarterback Michael Scarnecchia, but three possessions that made it within 20 yards of the end zone netted three field goals. One drive stalled after Johnathon Johnson dropped a pass in the end zone. A holding penalty on Case Cook set another back, and the Tigers couldn’t make up for it. On the final possession of the half, Lock underthrew an open Johnson, allowing a South Carolina defensive back to recover and break up the pass.
“Give (Johnson) room to work and that would have been a fairly easy one,” head coach Barry Odom said of the throw.
Odom credited South Carolina’s defensive backs for breaking up several passes in the red zone. Missouri’s offense was also playing without two of its primary receiving threats, as neither senior Nate Brown nor Emanuel Hall made the trip due to injury. But Odom and several Missouri players said the bulk of the blame lies with Missouri for not executing in goal-to-go situations. Lock finished the game zero for seven on pass attempts in the red zone — zero for eight if you include an incomplete fade pass to Albert Okwuegbunam on a two-point conversion attempt that would have tied the game in the third quarter.
“I think it’s just the little things here and there that if we just block the right guy or run the perfect route at the exact yardage that we needed to, then a lot of those field goals don’t need to be done,” offensive tackle Paul Adams said. “They’re touchdowns.”
South Carolina coach Will Muschamp said after the game that the Gamecocks took momentum from holding Missouri to field goals on those three possessions.
“I knew in the first half when we kept holding them to field goals, we could turn this thing in the second half,” he said.
Missouri contributed to that second-half turn-around with more red zone woes in the third quarter. Even after the disastrous possession that ended in Fatony’s botched punt attempt as well as an interception that South Carolina returned for a touchdown, the Tigers had a chance to answer when Rountree broke free for a 41-yard rush. A pass interference penalty on South Carolina gave Missouri first down and goal at the two-yard line.
On first down, Lock fumbled the snap, costing Missouri five yards. Then he threw two straight incompletions. McCann ended the possession by shanking a 25-yard field goal attempt.
After the game, Rountree barely concealed his displeasure at not getting a touch on any of the three plays.
“I think we could have made some better decisions,” Rountree said. “That’s all I got to say about that.” Later, he said the team’s red zone struggles resulted from “not just execution, but other stuff too.”
The unusual weather, the absence of Hall and Brown and South Carolina’s defense all certainly factored into the Tigers’ struggles in the red zone Saturday. But Missouri players made it clear after the game that the ultimate blame lies with Missouri.
“That’s unacceptable,” Rountree said of the team’s red zone performance. “We gotta go out there and execute, and we literally gave them the game today.”
Lock explains pick-six
Missouri’s worst offensive play of the game came when it was backed up near its own end zone rather than threatening South Carolina’s. On a third down and 12 in the third quarter, Lock dropped back and looked to throw a screen pass to running back Tyler Badie. Badie fell, and rather than throw the ball away, Lock threw it right into the chest of South Carolina linebacker Sherrod Greene, who waltzed into the end zone untouched.
After the game, Lock explained his thought process on the play. He took responsibility for the blunder.
“It was just a bad play by me,” Lock said. “I need to put it in the dirt. Expected (Badie) to slip out the side. He ended up falling. I ended up seeing it mid-release that he fell. … We’ll put that on me.”
Defense falters in crunch time
Following all of Missouri’s third-quarter mishaps and a one hour, 16 minute lightning delay, Missouri actually held a one-point lead with less than two minutes to play. But a 27-yard completion from Scarnecchia to tight end Kyle Markway put South Carolina into field goal range and doomed the Tigers.
Markway ran uncovered down the seam and made it to the Missouri 27-yard line before he was tripped up by safety Cam Hilton. After the game, Odom attributed the play to a blown assignment, though he declined to identify the guilty party by name.
“We rotated our coverage weak and we didn’t have our underneath cover guy locate (Markway),” Odom explained. “We didn’t spot him, he didn’t see it. When you don’t have 11 guys on the same page, then obviously you’re going to have errors.
“That can’t really happen,” he later said, “but it did.”
McCann overcomes early mistakes
Despite a couple mistakes early in the game, McCann served as one of the lone bright spots for Missouri Saturday. He finished the game having made five of six field goal attempts, and his career-long, 57-yard kick gave Missouri the lead with less than two minutes remaining. Even though it appeared likely during the lightning delay that the game might come down to a McCann kick, he said none of the coaches discussed the prospect with him during the break.
“They know I can do it,” McCann said. “I’ve shown it in practice, and they just put faith in me to go out there and do it.”
McCann refused to cite the pouring rain as a contributing factor the 25-yard kick he missed earlier in the game.
“That one I missed was all on me,” he said. “Nothing else. It was my fault. … No excuses.”
McCann also attempted an onside kick following Missouri’s first touchdown of the game, and Odom later revealed that was not called by the coaching staff. Instead, McCann misunderstood a signal by special teams coach Andy Hill that called for a pooch kick away from South Carolina return man Deebo Samuel. McCann’s onside kick attempt didn’t travel 10 yards, and allowed the Gamecocks to take possession on the Missouri 37-yard line. They scored shortly thereafter.
“He looked over and got a call from coach Hill, and they didn’t communicate clearly, and it was a combination of a mishit and something that we wish we had back,” Odom said.
Injury report
In addition to Brown and Hall, Missouri saw several new players exit Saturday’s game due to injury. Center Trystan Colon-Castillo missed one snap in the first half due to an ankle injury, but he ultimately returned to the game. Left guard Kevin Pendleton also missed time, but Odom said after the game he was healthy enough to return to the game.
Three Tigers who did not return after leaving the game were wide receiver Dominic Gicinto and defensive linemen Rashad Brandon and Nate Anderson. Gicinto injured his ankle in the third quarter. Brandon, who has missed time this season due to an ankle injury and a personal matter, hurt his hip. Odom classified Anderson’s ailment. as a “lower leg” injury.