The Tigers came to Amherst, they saw the pretty leaves, they conquered the UMASS Minutemen.

A brisk wind, a chill in the air, leaves changing, pads popping, nothing like football in… Amherst? The Tigers have finally put to bed one of the strangest scheduling quirks in recent major college football history, wrapping up three trips in seven years to the college football hotbed of New England. With no more trips to the Northeast on the horizon, the program can finally cast its recruiting gaze away from a region where they cashed in by pulling a grand total of 0 recruits in the last forever. So what did we take away from this shellacking of the Minutemen? Let’s get to it.

1. Why are we here?

I promise I’ll stop whining about this game soon, but really. Why did Mizzou play this game in this location? McGuirk Alumni Stadium fits a grand total of 17,000 polite, demure New Englanders, though at kickoff the stadium featured no more than half that number. I don’t blame them, with the beautiful fall foliage this time of year, I’d much rather go leaf peeping than watch a UMASS team get pummeled mercilessly at home. The only group today that showed less energy than either team on the field was the crowd.

2. Fast starts are fun

It has been a minute (since week one actually) since the Tigers came out fast on both sides of the ball. Since the Buffalo game, the Tigers have had slow starts and taken into the second quarter to wake up the offense. Well the offense chugged their coffee this morning as Luther Burden III took a hand off on the second play of the game 61 yards to the house. In fact, the offense was humming in all phases early, scoring three touchdowns on their first three possessions. The defense followed suit, forcing punts on the first two UMASS drives and bowing up in the red zone on drive number three, forcing a field goal.

3. How hurt is Luther?

Perhaps the most concerning thing coming out of a largely meaningless blowout is the apparent injury to Luther Burden’s left shoulder. Early in the third quarter, Burden ran a slant into the middle of the field and went up for an errant Brady Cook pass. The pass sailed high which left Burden exposed to a major (and legal) hit from a UMASS defensive back. Burden landed hard on his left elbow, jamming his arm into his shoulder. He walked off the field but spent time in the injury tent and never returned to the field.

Getting the ball to Luther was clearly a priority for the offense today, as he finished the day with two carries, five catches, 127 total yards and a touchdown. The question now is how much, if any, time will Luther miss due to the injury? It’s too early for us to know, but it could be anything ranging from a bruise to a broken collarbone. With Auburn, Alabama and Oklahoma on the horizon, any missed time for the star receiver will be too much time.

4. Injuries starting to build up

The Tigers have experienced a good deal of positive injury luck to this point in the season. The only two major injuries they’ve had to deal with occurred before the season in quarterback Sam Horn and defensive end Darris Smith. Well, that luck might be starting to turn. Luther Burden wasn’t the only player to get banged up during this week’s game as linebacker Khalil Jacobs also left the game early with a right shoulder injury.

Before the game, linebacker Donavin Newson and defensive end Joe Moore were scratched with unspecified injuries suffered either during practice or in last week’s game. Running back Nate Noel also missed today’s game with back tightness. Noel did dress for the game, so it’s presumed he suffered his setback during warm ups before the game. Since this was not an SEC game, the coaching staff was not required to submit an official injury report before the game, so we’ll have to wait until the post game press conference concludes to find out more.

5. We can’t take anything away from this

Winning is good. Winning on the road is even better. Winning by a lot on the road is the best. The problem is, the now 1-6 UMASS team is such a moribund program that nothing positive can be gleaned from today’s blow out. The offensive line looked improved in the running game, gaining 231 yards on 38 carries and four rushing touchdowns, but will that carry over to Auburn? It’s impossible to tell because the UMASS defense is terrible. The defense was infinitely better than last week, allowing just over 3 yards per carry and an excellent 2-14 third down conversion rate. But will that matter for next week? Once again, it’s impossible to tell.

The one thing we can take away is that the Tigers were able to rinse the awful taste left in their mouths after last week. Will that carry forward now that the schedule ratchets up to 10 for the last half of the year? Time will only tell. We’ll find out starting next week.

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