I was looking forward to the Taxslayer Gator Bowl, if you can believe it. Maybe it was a month of watching Missouri basketball that got me excited about switching up the viewing to something else. After
all, it’s been a rough month (really, two) of Mizzou Basketball, and the last time we saw the Tigers take the gridiron they easily dispatched of the Arkansas Razorbacks.
All season long Missouri has been in imperfect team. But the defense was good, and the offensive running game was quality. Ahmad Hardy is a special runner, he’s complimented by Jamal Roberts explosiveness.
The problem is the offense is really pretty pedestrian. If they’re not able to establish the run game, there’s little hope of sustained drives through the air. And I’ve always been hesitant to put the onus on the now departed Kirby Moore as the problem. I don’t think it’s as simple as the play calling all year long.
With the now-portaled Beau Pribula no longer taking snaps for the Tigers, Eli Drinkwitz turned again to freshman Matt Zollers. We’ve seen enough from both Zollers, and Pribula this season to know neither is going to solve Mizzou’s passing woes. At least Zollers offers some amount of help for the future, with a big arm and tantalizing talent. But it wasn’t going to matter who was calling the plays, it mattered who was blocking and throwing, and catching. And from all those angles, Missouri just wasn’t good enough this season.
Zollers is talented, but he still had completed just 35 passes for 402 yards for a measly 6.1 yards per attempt. So you knew the running game would have to carry the day against Virginia.
And Virginia, while not being world beaters, are a quality football team. Something Missouri has struggled with this year.
We like SP+ around here, where going into the game the Tigers were ranked 20th in the country. Their best win this season was over #27 Auburn, and if you remember how that game went, you should’ve guessed that a game against #30 Virginia wasn’t going to be a walk in the park. The rest of the wins were against #48 South Carolina, #52 Arkansas, #54 Mississippi State, #57 Kansas… you get the idea. When it came to playing good teams, Mizzou struggled. And it was mostly because of the offense.
They averaged around 14 points per game in losses, and both Pribula and Zollers had their hand in those losses.
So it really didn’t matter whether it was Pribula or Zollers, what mattered is the offense Drinkwitz designed and whether the passing concepts were good enough to give Hardy and Roberts the balance to open running lanes.
You had to feel heartened when the Tigers went 74 yards in 7 plays to score a touchdown right off the bat. Things looked okay after they managed 40 yards on their next drive, even if it took 8 plays. Then another 8 play drive of just 32 yards was a little concerning, but nothing crazy. The problem is they did nothing after that. There were zero 1st downs until Ahmad Hardy gained 12 yards on his first carry of the 4th quarter with 4 and a half minutes to go in the game. It didn’t help that the defense was struggling to get off the field on 3rd down, allowing Virginia to complete basically every 3rd down. They were 7-11 on 3rd in the 1st half, and perfect on a touchdown drive in the 3rd quarter on 4th downs.
Virginia converted 3rd and 12, 4th and 2, 4th and 3, 3rd and 2, and another 3rd and 2 on one drive. In the 1st quarter they converted a 3rd and 8, and a 3rd and 13, plus another 3rd and 6. In the 2nd quarter there was a 3rd & 10 and a 3rd and 7. Maybe if Missouri’s defense was able to get off the field quicker it would have set the offense up for better success? But then Virginia muffed a punt, gifted the Tigers the ball on the 24 yard line and Mizzou promptly gained one yard on three plays and missed a field goal. So it’s hard to complain much about the defense when they held an 11 win team to 13 points and just 3.9 yards per play.
This year has been a lot of things.
There’s been a fair amount of disappointment thanks to injuries at Quarterback and, let’s not forget, Blake Craig the kicker.
Maybe the Tigers are able to squeeze out another win or two if their kicking game was more reliable.
But the ceiling on the program will sit there as long as Drinkwitz struggles to solve the passing game.
In the end, this is an exhibition game. You want to win just for the propaganda, but the overall impact of a win is lessened when there are opt outs, transfers, and injuries to key players (on both sides!). I don’t think we’re going to extract some grand experiment solutions watching the Taxslayer Gator Bowl on a random Saturday night in late December.
But what we saw was a bit of a microcosm of the season as a whole. An almost, not quite, just short, of a season hampered by a team with an All American Running Back, saddled with a passing game so poor they left that All American on the sideline for a 4th and 2 with the game on the line. Maybe it makes sense to you, but it doesn’t to me. But then so much of this season has been weird from the jump.
Anyway, Merry Christmas everyone and let’s have a Happy New Year!
