There were reasons--if you wanted to see them--to believe Missouri got better in a 48-35 Homecoming win over North Texas on Saturday.
There were reasons--if you wanted to see them--to believe Missouri made little progress and is exactly the team you believed it was prior to Saturday's 48-35 win.
Whatever you thought before the game likely didn't change after it.
Missouri led the Mean Green 31-7 at halftime. Tyler Badie was setting records and the defense had forced a turnover, four punts and four three-and-outs sandwiched around a 15-play, 75-yard drive that stuck out like a bit of a sore thumb.
The game--for all intents and purposes--was over at that point. And to some extent what happened after that didn't truly matter. Except we made that mistake against Southeast Missouri State. We wrote off the fourth quarter and said it didn't matter until we figured out it was more symptomatic of a defense that can't stop anyone than it was of having backups in the game.
And so, if you want to find reason to be concerned you can point to four second-half touchdown drives by the Mean Green, a complete lack of even one three-and-out by the Tiger defense while the offense could suddenly do almost nothing but go three-and-out, a game that wasn't truly over until Michael Cox recovered an onside punt and one that could have been significantly closer than it ultimately was if not for four takeaways by the Missouri defense, one of which Mekhi Wingo returned for a touchdown. Again, proof was there if you chose to embrace it.
There's merit to both points of view. Missouri was not perfect on Saturday. Newsflash here; Missouri is not a perfect team. It's not really even a good team. It might be an average team.
In the middle of the third quarter, the Tigers lead 31-14 and were marching for more and I planned to write that while the game wasn't a work of art and it was pretty boring to watch, it was an easy win when Missouri needed an easy win and it might build enough confidence to lead the Tigers to scratch their way to six wins and a minor bowl game.
But the cracks started to show as the offense ran 18 plays for a grand total of 40 yards over its first five drives in the second half. One of those drives did result in a field goal and the Tigers' lone first down in the first 24 minutes of the second half. The rest resulted in three plays and a punt.
We knew the defense wasn't very good. But now, suddenly, the offense wasn't either.
Tyler Badie posted a career-high 217 yards and three total touchdowns against North Texas, most all of it coming in the first half. But outside of him, Missouri simply doesn't look to have any weapons. The tailback accounted for 47.7% of Missouri's offense on just 26.3% of its touches.
The Tigers averaged just 4.67 yards per play when Badie didn't touch the ball. Even more alarming, they averaged 4.84 yards per passing attempt in an aerial attack that redefined the phrase dink and dunk. More than a quarter of Mizzou's passing yardage came on a single 41-yard throw from Connor Bazelak to J.J. Hester. Other than that, the Tigers averaged less than four yards an attempt.
Still, they put up 474 yards and 41 offensive points and got the big play from Hester and a 60-yard run from Dawson Downing to ice it. Like I said, you see what you want to see and focus on what you want to focus on.
Back to the defense, the only thing we can say for sure is that firing Jethro Franklin didn't solve every problem. It might have solved some. Trajan Jeffcoat was noticeable for the first time in about a month. Wingo had the pick six and largely played well. Chad Bailey replaced Blaze Alldredge in the starting lineup and had five tackles. Kris Abrams-Draine picked up his second interception and continued to flash. A week after not getting a single stop that wasn't aided by the replay official, Missouri's defense had three takeaways and forced five punts.
But North Texas had scored 35 points combined on SMU, UAB and Louisiana Tech and put up 35 on Missouri alone. The Mean Green had been held under 100 yards passing in each of its last two games and had 305 against Missouri. While the rushing defense got better (186 yards, 3.8 per carry), North Texas still outgained Missouri and the only thing the 491 yards did for the Tigers is bring the per game average below 500...all the way to 499.
You saw what you wanted to see and focused on what you wanted to focus on.
Missouri was better this week than it was last week. That's a low bar. Was it better by enough to offer optimism for the rest of the season? In my opinion, probably not, but the next few weeks will provide us the answer.
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