1) There were plenty of positives and we’re going to talk about those, but the one common question mark coming out of the game was about the deep passing game…or lack thereof. I’ve already said I understand why it was a topic because Mizzou clearly wasn’t good in that regard, but I’m not overly concerned about it. Still, it’s worth looking at. Let’s break down some of the numbers.
Brady Cook was 0/4 on passes that traveled more than 20 yards past the line of scrimmage in the air. At least three of them certainly could have hit, but didn’t. In the intermediate range, Cook was 3/6 for 54 yards, giving him an overall 3/10 for 54 yards on passes ten yards or longer.
Obviously not what you’re looking for. It didn’t matter in this game. I wanted to put these numbers in context.
Last season as a whole, Cook was 27/58 (46.55%) for 1010 yards (17.4 ypa), 9 TD and 2 INT.
But I wanted to go a bit further and compare Thursday night to the first couple of games of last year. Ideally, you wouldn’t have had the early season hiccups, but the truth is, you haven’t played a game for eight months, there are some nerves and some rust for most players. It’s not like you just pick back up where you were at the end of last year. So here are those numbers:
Week 1: 1/1 for 30 yards
Week 2: 1/3 for 44 yards
Total: 2/4 for 74 yards
Realistically, you’re talking about two throws from Thursday night that would have put him not only where he was last year, but ahead. If he hits on two of the four, there is no complaining about the deep passing game. He didn’t, I get it, but you’re talking about the thinnest of margins here. Last year Mizzou succeeded on a little less than half of the deep shots it tried. There will be weeks it works. This wasn’t one of them. If we get through the Boston College game and they’re still missing it starts to be a trend and a concern. But let’s wait at least that long.
2) To me one of the more encouraging things about Thursday offensively was the quarterback play after Cook exited. Drew Pyne came in and went 10/11 for 82 yards. He averaged more yards per attempt than Cook (7.5 to 7.4) but his adjusted depth of target was also significantly shorter (3.9 to 10.5). Pyne looked better for one simple reason: He didn’t try any of the deep passes that Cook missed on. On passes within ten yards of the line of scrimmage, Cook was 17/21 for 174 yards and a touchdown. Pyne was 9/10 for 67 yards. They played the same game, Pyne just didn’t have the opportunity to miss the big plays Cook did.
But that’s a good sign for Missouri. Basically, the backup played very similarly to the starter. He’s not as much of a threat with his legs, but he came in and other than red zone efficiency Missouri wasn’t much different on offense than it was with Cook. I won’t go so far as to say we know there wouldn’t be a drop-off if something happened to Cook. I think there probably would be. But I can tell you what I’ve heard since Pyne hit campus is that Missouri feels like Pyne could keep the train on the tracks and headed in the right direction if it did happen. Backup quarterbacks are rarely going to come in and make the offense significantly better. If that happens, the coaches were playing the wrong guy. The goal is to have a guy who can minimize the regression. Again, he’ll have to prove it against someone other than Murray State, but I think Mizzou has that in Pyne.
3) We’ve talked a lot about the depth of the playmakers on this team. Man it showed up on Thursday. Obviously Missouri won’t play as many guys in any other game this season as it did against Murray State. So that’s a part of it. But a lot of those guys weren’t just playing at the end of a decided game. There were players getting touches who will continue to get touches this year because Mizzou has a lot of options.
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