Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz held his weekly press conference with the media on Tuesday as the team reflects on its bye week and looks ahead to a matchup with No. 25 Texas A&M.

On what the team spent the bye week focused on improving:

What Drinkwitz said: “There was multiple things in really all three phases, but it really kind of was summed up in third down offensively in the red area has not been good in the two power-4 games, I think we were 3-for-10. There’s a lot of things that can get fixed, but if you fix those issues, I think everything else kind of falls into place. Being better at third downs in the red zone. Defensively, we missed 22 tackles against Vanderbilt and in the two power-4 games we had four busted coverages that directly resulted in 28 points. So, you know, clearly communicating, making sure we’re all on the same page and then better tracking angles and tackling, which was a point of emphasis last week in our drill work. And then consistency at the specialist position, we’ve had two out of bounds kicks in four games, which just can’t happen and we’ve had multiple games with multiple missed field goals, which has got to get cleaned up. Every position coach had things for their position and every player had things that they needed to improve, but from the 10,000-feet view, that’s what my focus was.”

What it means: The Tigers recognize the same issues in the first third of the season that we all do, which is good to hear

Drinkwitz was slightly off on the numbers, Missouri has turned 4-of-8 trips into the red zone into touchdowns, but it’s a pretty reasonable mistake since two more Tiger drives ended at the opponent’s 21, so 4-of-10 reaching the end zone when you get within a yard of the red zone. If you add in field goals, that becomes 8-for-10 scoring at all from within the opposing 21, but settling that often isn’t a winning formula against teams in the top half of the SEC.

We also heard from Brady Cook and Theo Wease, who both said the difference will just be execution, which the bye week gave them the reps to improve on.

The coverage busts have turned what’s otherwise been a stellar start to the season defensively into a big question mark and it seems like the challenge of running quarterbacks has been whats drawn down Tiger defenders with their eyes in the backfield. That won’t get any easier against Texas A&M or Alabama down the line, so hopefully the bye week gave the coaches enough time to convince the back-end defenders to stay in coverage longer.

On facing another running quarterback in Texas A&M’s Marcel Reed:

What Drinkwitz said: “It’s a common theme for the opponents we play. He’s got a speed dynamic that’s similar to Thomas Castellanos … until you see him live, I don’t know if the short–area quickness or burst is the same and I don’t know if he has the physicality necessarily that Diego (Pavia) had. But he’s kind of somewhere in between both of them, he does a really good job keeping his eyes downfield, throwing the ball. Obviously he had the wheel route against Florida for a big one that kind of exploded the game in A&M’s favor. So he can definitely create on the move and he does a really good job of buying himself time.”

What it means: Similar to the last answer, Missouri HAS to focus on staying in coverage on the back end of the defense. The coverage busts the past two games have come when Castellanos and Pavia extended plays with their legs to the outside, pulling defenders with their eyes in the backfield toward the line. If the Tigers have another play or two like that this week, Reed will make them pay with more big plays.

Johnny Walker Jr. also talked at media day and said he thought one of the keys to fixing the back-end issues was for the pass rush to keep Reed contained better and reach him quicker so their isn’t the same temptation to extend the play.

Nice to hear from a pass rusher and adding more pressure, while containing a rushing quarterback better is definitely a major plus defensively. But most of the coverage busts have happened when opposing QBs escaped pressure in their face, so the contain is more important at this point than additional pressure.

On playing at Kyle Field and the issues an intense road environment brings:

What Drinkwitz said: “It’s an interesting situation just because we’ve got 46 new players on the team so it’s going to be a lot of newness for everybody traveling. We’ve all traveled before, but it’s the first time traveling together. So for a head coach who worries about everything, that’s a little big of a point of concern for me right now. It’s gonna be hot, it’s supposed to be 92 degrees on Saturday … You’re going to have to combine that with 105,000 people who are joining forces to try to create distractions for your team. So you’re going to have to block out the noise … communication is going to be a premium.”

What it means: Of course going on the road is difficult anywhere, and it’s even more difficult at places like Texas A&M. But the main places where teams have issues with noise, communication between the quarterback and the offensive line, getting plays out in the huddle, calling audibles at the line, are all things the Tigers should be able to do pretty effectively by now. Cook has been playing a long time at this point and he’s been playing with center Connor Tollison basically the whole time. Same with the receivers, they’ve been in the program and understand what the game plan is going in.

Where I’m worried is more on the defensive side, that’s where a lot more of those new faces Drinkwitz mentioned are on the field, but the Kyle Field crowd isn’t there to mess up Texas A&M’s offense, so the defensive communication should be easier than at home games. I think where the main issues arise for the Tigers haven’t been areas that are exacerbated by crowd noise, so while I’m sure there will be some extra false starts, I wouldn’t expect any major issues on that front.