Sunday Grade Card

QUARTERBACK: Drew Lock was hurt by drops. He was okay, but not great. He took good care of the ball and picked up some yardage in the ground game, but finished just 10-25 for the game. He did enough, but he can be much better. FINAL GRADE: C+

RUNNING BACKS: Ish Witter was fantastic in the first half, but didn’t play much in the fourth quarter. Larry Rountree III had trouble gaining a lot of traction other than a couple second quarter runs. The pair did combine for 148 yards on 28 carries, which is a good day, but not spectacular. FINAL GRADE: B

WIDE RECEIVERS: J’Mon Moore had one big play. Other than that, the receivers had four catches for 48 yards and 30 of them came on Richaud Floyd’s touchdown catch. Emanuel Hall had two drops…at least. FINAL GRADE: D+

TIGHT ENDS: Albert Okwuegbunam is very good. Like Coffman/Rucker/Egnew good. He had 116 yards and two touchdowns including a 57-yarder on which he outran the Vanderbilt defense. That’ll play. FINAL GRADE: A

OFFENSIVE LINE: It was decent. But Lock was hurried a fair amount in the first quarter. The holes weren’t there most of the second half. It was just all right. FINAL GRADE: C

DEFENSIVE LINE: When the Tigers managed to line up on the right side of the football, they were pretty good. Vanderbilt ran for just 50 yards on 29 carries. You’ll take that every day of the season. And Terry Beckner almost won the Piesman trophy before getting tripped up at the Vanderbilt 47-yard line, approximately halfway to what would have been a glorious pick six. FINAL GRADE: A

LINEBACKERS: They were fantastic. Brandon Lee had the game of his life by halftime. Cale Garrett had 12 tackles and was all over the field. FINAL GRADE: A

SECONDARY: Adam Sparks had his first career pick. The Tigers were very good in the first half. There was a third quarter lull, but they regained things in time to put it on cruise control for the final ten minutes. DeMarkus Acy has made great strides since the start of the season. FINAL GRADE: B

SPECIAL TEAMS: Tucker McCann made a 41-yard field goal on a really tough night and handled kickoffs well. Richaud Floyd scored on a punt return, which is a huge boost. Corey Fatony resembled a normal punter and Larry Rountree III did down one kickoff at the two, but overall a solid night. FINAL GRADE: A-

COACHING: Missouri was 1-and-5. They are now 6-and-5. The blame for the first was given almost solely to Barry Odom. Time to heap some credit on the guy. FINAL GRADE: A+