
What a nutso game.
As fun as it was to see an old Big 8 foe back in Columbia, the real story is the wild twists and turns that occurred in the 4th quarter. The rock fight transformed into a shootout and there’s no way anyone who saw the first 30 minutes would believe the last 30 could happen. I’m still decompressing from everything but here’s what I’ve got for you.
1. We finally saw what a fully actualized Drew Pyne can be
With Brady Cook, Mizzou’s offense was all efficiency, no explosion. And for the first half of the game we saw that without Cook, this offense was neither efficient nor explosive. But then a funny thing happened: Drew Pyne became a real SEC quarterback. Starting in the 3rd quarter, Drew Pyne demonstrated an ability to accurately read an offense, make throws to covered receivers, and run effectively… and it only took 2.5 quarters to get to that point. Mizzou couldn’t capitalize on three OU fumbles recovered by Missouri to create enough of a point cushion to keep Oklahoma at bay, but Pyne did enough down the stretch — including some beautiful deep balls — to keep Mizzou in the game.
2. Turnovers. So many turnovers.
Obviously, Missouri had one key fumble that nearly lost them the game. But Oklahoma had six fumbles and four lost. FOUR. Including a scoop and score to counteract the one that Mizzou gave up.
Heading into this game, I said that OU had been incredibly lucky in terms of turnover luck, being on the positive side of the ledger despite playing in a manner that a normal amount of luck would place them in the negative. Well… that luck came crashing back to earth HARD. Jackson Arnold’s butterfingers continuously undid Oklahoma’s momentum early in the game and led to the final score that salted the game away for Mizzou. It’s rare to see a 5-star quarterback for a blue blood team have such an issue with ball control but we witnessed it tonight. And what a fortuitous turn of events it was for the Tigers.
3. The Defense continues to be legit
At the conclusion of the first half, Oklahoma’s punter had as many passing yards as Jackson Arnold. The Sooner ground game could not gain any traction outside of random Arnold scrambles, and OU’s terrible offense looked somehow even more incompetent than usual. The Missouri defense will continue to have too much asked of it and for too long, but with even an average offense to pair with it, is a unit that can hold almost any offense in check. They don’t create as much havoc but they tackle well and operate in an actual scheme rather than just blitzing every down. Good, competent offense is hard to find, and Batoon has done an incredible job with the imported pieces that came into this unit.
4. Kirby Moore needs to get more creative
Here’s a hypothetical: Let’s just say that your starting quarterback goes down and you don’t really have a guy you trust to throw deep or provide any sort of threat at a level that you’re used to. But you do have a ton of athleticism at your skill positions. What do you do? Do you get creative and rotate a speedy running back or 5-star receiver as a wildcat quarterback? Or experiment with some two-back sets with misdirection? Or do you just run your offense with a slight emphasis on the ground game and hope for the best?
I get it; this is college. You only have so much practice time and you can’t just overhaul your offense in two weeks. But you can certainly sprinkle in some looks or schemes that are simple to execute but haven’t been seen before. And, other than two diamond formation plays…creativity is not happening. Now, if Drew Pyne wants to be “2nd Half Against Oklahoma Drew Pyne” for the rest of the year, it might not matter. But it would be nice to see a few different looks given the personnel at hand.
5. Eli Drinkwitz has this team winning games with a backup quarterback.
Drink is not a dumb man. Nor is he deaf. Everything that fans are complaining about? I guarantee you he sees and is upset about as well. And, for most of this game, it seemed like his answers to the test of “lose your starting quarterback” were uninspired and not working. And that’s before you get to the special teams errors, funky end of half management, and punting in plus territory issues that plague his game management.
But a funny thing happens when your backup quarterback starts playing like the 4-star recruit he was supposed to be: stuff works. I don’t know if it’s going to work against the rest of the teams on the schedule, or if Drew Pyne will even be needed after this week. But the defense kept this team in the game long enough for the offense to wake up and, with a little luck, this team pulled off a victory over Oklahoma. It was wild. I still can’t believe it happened. But Missouri is 7-2 and ready to prepare its last three games with momentum and confidence.
I still can’t believe what I just saw.
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