Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz held his weekly press conference with the media Tuesday as the team reflects on it’s win against Auburn and prepares to hit the road to face Alabama on Saturday.

I picked a few of Drinkwitz’s quotes that I thought were most telling.

What Drinkwitz said: “I don’t know if I’d say participate. I anticipate that he will be out at practice, but that’s why I’m not letting the media at practice so that y’all can’t worry about what he’s doing or not doing at practice.”

What was left unsaid: OK, I put this one in here to let you guys know I won’t be at an open practice this week because there is no open practice this week. I think the key takeaway here is Brady Cook is probably going to show up on every injury report this week listed as at best “Questionable” for Saturday’s game. I would say as long as he is able to walk, expect him to start, but there’s a lot of room for injuries to get worse after a couple of days so we’re just going to have to play it by ear throughout the week on what to expect.

What Drinkwitz said: “Obviously, if there’s open gaps again, these guys up front are so big, they create space just by the size that they have. So we’re going to have to do a really good job of stopping the run and anytime you commit more people to do that, you’re leaving one-on-ones or voids in your zone coverage. So it’s a real challenge. And then you add on top of it that if you rush four and he gets vertical in his escape, then you’ve got real problems.”

What was unsaid: The defensive line is going to be a major key in this matchup. Because of how good freshman receiver Ryan Williams is and how well Jalen Milroe has been able to get him the ball in single coverage, the Tigers are really going to have to pick the their spots to send extra pressure and it’s going to have to work when they do. Plus the Tigers have seemed to face good mobile quarterbacks every week and Milroe is the one they’ve been building towards. He’s one of the best in the game at turning an over-pursuit by a defensive lineman into a big gain through an open pass rush lane. Being able to contain him without committing five or six rushers on every play will go a long way to putting the Tigers in position to win.

What Drinkwitz said: “We can’t play over analyzing every situation. We can’t have too many checks on both sides of the ball. We can’t have too many what ifs, … I think sometimes we get caught up too much into minutia and if you gust go back and watch our game from a 10,000-foot view, just because it was a good idea, doesn’t make it the best idea for our team. We’ve got to focus on what we can do and if our base call allows our guys to play fast and without hesitation, then that’s going to be the best thing we can do in the game.”

What was unsaid: OK I’ll start by saying that what I took out was some repetitive stuff about evaluating the situation “if they do this then we’ll do that” stuff and “it’s going to come down to who can run the ball and who can stop the run” stuff.

I think the key takeaway here is the coaching staff has decided that paralysis by analysis was a big issue against Texas A&M. I don’t know how much that’s the case, but if you’re forcing players into their own heads too much trying to match up the most strategic way possible, that’s going to lead to more issues if one or two things go wrong. You can’t have zero extra analysis going in if you’re not the more-talented/physically gifted team, but putting your players in the best position to play on instinct is definitely a better setup for a game in a challenging environment.

What Drinkwitz said: “I think it’s a great stat, I thing our guys focus on situational football. I think we understand that … the margins are so small and maybe that’s when a coach can have some impact on the strategy they use. … I do think the one quality that I think this team really has that shows up is a refusal to give in. I think in college football, that’s not always the norm.”

What was unsaid: Drinkwitz went on to mention that the LSU and Georgia games last year should have been one-score losses and late interceptions turned them into two-score games so the undefeated record is skewed a little.

I think my takeaway here is more on the stat than on the quote, even if we put it at 7-2 instead of 7-0. Drinkwitz has taken a lot of crap about not being a great in-game coach, but the past two seasons, when it’s close late, he knows how to motivate the team to get the job done. The play calling isn’t always perfect, but to me, a record like that in one-score games is a sign of good motivating, good buy-in from players and good preparation. Being able to consistently feel like a close game is a situation you’re team is going to come out on the right side of isn’t something a lot of teams get to have. And from reading some comments about past Mizzou teams, it doesn’t sound like something a lot of fans are used to having here either.

Head on over to the Tiger Walk to discuss this and so much more.