Missouri beat Abilene Christian 34-17 on Saturday at Faurot Field. We will have complete coverage throughout the weekend. Here are ten thoughts coming out of the game.
1) It wasn't good enough. Period. The offense scored only 27 points against an FCS team. They've averaged more points than that in the first half of their FCS games since the 2015 season (led SEMO by the same 17-3 score at halftime of that one...and we all know how legendary the 2015 offense was). This was supposed to be the game everybody played. We were supposed to get a look at some more quarterbacks and some freshmen. We didn't. Because Missouri didn't play well enough to put itself in a position to do that. That's not good.
2) Everybody who watched the game knows the biggest problem is the offensive line. It doesn't really matter how good the quarterback or running back or receivers are (and I'm not saying any of them are necessarily great) if the line can't block anyone. Missouri has gotten shoved around in short yardage in three games. They ran for 320 yards in week one and 195 today but I didn't come away from either one impressed with the running game. Eli Drinkwitz said they need to identify the five best guys. I don't actually think that's the problem. I trust them enough to think the five best are playing (or at least that there isn't a huge dropoff to the point they've got a lot of talent languishing on the bench). I think the problem is that they just don't have five guys who are good enough to make up a decent SEC offensive line. Missouri has played three games and I haven't come away from any of them thinking they had a decided advantage up front when they have the ball. Which means I'm not sure I'll think that coming out of any game this year.
3) The question is if there's anything Missouri can do about it.
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