How a military-esque offensive attack clinched a victory in Starkville

Nov 24, 2024 | Uncategorized

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Missouri quarterback Brady Cook (12) hands the ball off to running back Marcus Carroll (9) in the first half of a game against Alabama on Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024, at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (CAL TOBIAS/ROCK M NATION)

After a stellar first half against Mississippi State, the Tigers salted away a victory by simply not letting the Bulldogs have the ball.

Cowbells can be extremely annoying. Will Ferrell’s persistent pounding of the bell, for example, made for one of the most legendary SNL skits of all-time in part because it annoyed everyone else in SNL’s acting cast of Blue Oyster Cult.

It’s also uplifted Mississippi State football for decades (outside of an SEC-wide ban on artificial noisemakers from 1974-2010). Mizzou J-School alumni Pat Forde called Davis Wade Stadium an “ear-splitting slice of hell” in 2014 after being in-attendance for then-No. 3 MSU’s win over then-No. 2 Auburn.

Historically, the best means of silencing the cowbells has been the opposition playing well, which Mizzou did for most of Saturday evening against Mississippi State. After both sides of the ball started out slow, a 67-yard scoop-and-score by Daylan Carnell off of a sack-fumble forced by Kristian Williams seemed to reinvigorate not just the defense, but the entire team.

“I thought our defense really flipped the script in the game with the fumble recovery for a touchdown,” head coach Eli Drinkwitz said after the game. “That allowed our offense to find themselves.”

The aerial attack was strong, as Brady Cook completed 15 of his 20 pass attempts for 263 yards and a touchdown with no turnovers. There were plenty of explosive plays through the air, too; the Tigers registered five passing plays of over 25 yards, including a 45-yard rainbow to Marquis Johnson through double coverage in the first quarter. Early in the second quarter, Cook connected with a twisting Luther Burden III in the back of the end zone from 28 yards out for a touchdown.

“We’re just clicking, getting the right looks,” Drinkwitz said of the passing game’s performance. “The deep ball was just Luther and Brady was out of magic. They’re in a pretty good rhythm right now together.”

However, Mississippi State wouldn’t go away quietly, just as it had many times this season. Van Buren, the dynamic freshman, and running back Davon Booth kept the Bulldogs alive with a few big plays. It’s part of why Drinkwitz and center Drake Heismeyer said on Tuesday that MSU was better than its 2-8 record.

“They’re a tempo-style offense,” Drinkwitz said. “If you get into a shootout, but you’re not able to control the line of scrimmage and run the football… I’ve been on those sides, and it’s not usually a good way to win.”

In response, Mizzou took things slow when it possessed the ball, proving that the best defense can simply be keeping the opposing offense off of the field for as long as possible.

“We went into (the game) knowing that, on offense, we had to control the line of scrimmage, and we did that today,” Drinkwitz said. “(I) felt very comfortable with us being able to just continually run the football.”

After the Bulldogs scored on an 11-yard passing touchdown from Michael Van Buren to Jordan Mosley, cutting Mizzou’s lead to 14-10, the grind began. None of MU’s ensuing drives came close to what Army pulled off against North Texas two weeks ago — a 21-play, 94-yard masterpiece of an offensive possession that took almost 14 minutes off the clock — but the Tigers put on their best Black Knight impersonation for the rest of their game on Saturday.

Not including the drive that was interrupted by halftime after 30 seconds, Mizzou took the ball six more times; each of its drives lasted at least four minutes, its first two ending in touchdowns. The biggest behemoth was a 15-play, 57-yard drive that took up a majority of the third quarter, lasting eight minutes and 46 seconds. The only negative for MU was that it settled for a field goal, and MSU needed just two plays and 43 seconds on the ensuing drive to cut Mizzou’s leads to 31-20 with just under six minutes left in the third quarter.

Although the Tigers would come up empty on their next possession — Blake Craig missed his sixth field goal of the season from between 40-49 yards — the defense forced a turnover on downs, and the offense capitalized with a 14-play, 83-yard drive that was capped off by a one-yard plunge by Carroll. After MSU turned it over on downs again with 4:28 left in regulation, the Bulldogs wouldn’t get the ball back.

While Cook and the passing offense were effective, the Tigers leaned on the ground game game heavily, especially in the second half. Mississippi State was a bottom-10 team in the country in rushing defense entering Saturday, and the road team knew it.

“That was kind of their weakness,” Drinkwitz said in reference to the Bulldogs’ run defense. “We wanted to be diligent in exploiting that.”

Mizzou ran the ball 56 times, its second-most in a game under Drinkwitz behind a 62-carry performance in a 20-10 loss to Kentucky four seasons ago. Noel racked up 95 rushing yards on 25 carries, and Carroll turned in a hat trick of rushing touchdowns of the season, marking Mizzou’s fifth straight season with a running back crossing the nine-TD threshold.

“Our o-line got out there today. They dominated the line of scrimmage,” Carroll said. “They really made it easy on us today. Big shoutout to those guys.”

What also helped MU sustain drives was generating success on every individual down. Only five of Mizzou’s 18 third-down attempts required it to gain more than six yards, which heavily contributed to it converting 11 of those attempts. In contrast, MSU drives consistently fizzled out in part due to the Bulldogs going 2/10 on third down.

Overall, Mizzou held the ball for 41 minutes and 51 seconds, or just under 70 percent of the game. Mississippi State ran eight offensive plays in the second half; Mizzou ran 42. The slow, yet efficient style of play is a part of the fabric that’s made up the 2024 Tigers. They’ve been more than content with grounding and pounding, especially when both facets of the offense are humming like they were on Saturday.

“We felt ourselves wearing the defense down,” Carroll said. “It was really amazing.”

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