Dive into the Heart of Mizzou Athletics

With Nate Noel out, Marcus Carroll made the most of a golden opportunity

Stakes were high as the No. 21 Missouri Tigers looked to bounce back from a gargantuan loss last Saturday, with a needed road win against the UMass Minutemen. Amid some bangs and bruises to the first team, the Tigers picked up a needed 45-3 victory to help them regroup for the rest of SEC play.

“We had a lot of reasons to not play our best football today,” head coach Eliah Drinkwitz said. “But we responded the right way and played a nice game.”

In a season that’s been plagued by bad starts, a good start was in high order for the Tigers and it came in the form of a 61-yard touchdown on a jet sweep from Luther Burden III. Touches for the junior wideout were aplenty in the early going of the game, as he picked up 79 of the Tigers 143 yards on their first two drives. At the game’s conclusion, Burden wound up with 127 total yards and a touchdown on seven touches.

A noticeable omission from the running game in the early going was Nate Noel, as the Tigers opted for a duo of Jamal Roberts and Marcus Carroll with the latter making the most of it. Carroll picked up the Tigers second score of the game after a 13-play, 80 yard drive that concluded after just over seven minutes. Carroll finished the game with 15 carries for 91 yards and three scores.

After a drubbing at the hands of a potent performance from Texas A&M, all eyes were on the defense and the question was if they could bounce back. The task? Keeping the ball out of the Minutemen’s hands, with their offense coming in as the fourth-ranked team in time of possession in all of college football. Missouri led the time of possession battle 29:24 to 28:19.

Following two short-lived drives, the Minutemen were able to string up a productive possession at the hands of a few untimely Tiger coverage busts. Behind 10-plays and 65 yards, UMass were able to put up three points on the board thanks to some impressive play from quarterback Taisun Phommachanh.

Brady Cook looked in good form to begin the tilt chalking up 111 yards whilst completing 82% of his passes in the first half. Cook seemed to thrive in the intermediate passing game in the early going, with quick medium throws to the middle of the field being aplenty. Cook finished the game throwing 14-of-19 for 219 yards and two touchdowns with 16 yards rushing.

UMass produced a second high-flying drive in the first half via a fake punt, which saw the Minutemen gain 39-yards on fourth and one. After a 10-yard run on the subsequent play, Phommachanh was picked off by Corey Flagg Jr. who rumbled for 80 yards to the opposition’s 25-yard line. With eight seconds left and a timeout, Cook was sacked and the Tigers were forced to kick a half-ending field goal to make the Tiger lead 24-3.

Disaster struck for the Tigers in the second half, as a high pass from Brady Cook to Luther Burden was met with a crushing hit from UMass and down went the Biletnikoff candidate. Burden walked off the field under his own power in noticeable pain, as he seemed to be keeled over grabbing his left shoulder. During the game, Drinkwitz was quoted saying that Burden will be “just fine.”

Missouri’s woes this season have come primarily from their inability to create explosive plays and their inability to stuff gaps in the run game as of late. Missouri was able to curb their woes on the former with a few 60-plus-yard scores but were ineffective at correcting the latter. Per Gameonpaper, the Tigers were in the zeroth percentile of defensive run stuff rate in the game.

Brett Norfleet got some needed action towards the later stages of the third quarter, as he caught two passes including the eight-yard score on a three-play scoring drive. Norfleet’s late success was likely propped up by the absence of Burden, which forced Cook to spread the ball across the field to all of his targets.

Missouri put in the backups on the offensive side of the ball at the beginning of the fourth quarter after the Norfleet score, with the second team being significantly less productive. Drew Pyne picked up just three yards of total offense but the Tigers coasted to a 45-3 victory.

Statistically, the Tigers picked up 461 yards of offense to UMass’ 237. The Tigers were also 4-4 in the redzone with all four of those scores being touchdowns, the inability to get said touchdowns in the red zone a noted issue in weeks prior. Missouri was in the 91st percentile of yards per play and in the 92nd percentile of EPA per rush.

The win moved the Tigers to 5-1 on the season, as the game also marks the end of the Tigers non-conference slate. Missouri will take on the Auburn Tigers next week on Saturday October 19th at 11 or 11:45 AM CT.

The Tigers hope to conquer The Bay State in dominant fashion after getting annihilated by Texas A&M a week ago.

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First Quarter

Second Quarter

Third Quarter

Fourth Quarter