How many more ways can we describe an Eli Drinkwitz going on the road and/or going against a Top 10 team and losing a close one? It’s getting pretty repetitive, eh?
And how many more ways can we describe any Missouri football team travelling to Norman, Oklahoma and getting beat? It’s the 20th-straight time we can say it. Also getting pretty repetitive.
But, to be clear, I don’t really care. I know I’m in the minority with this opinion – and I certainly would have enjoyed watching Mizzou beat Oklahoma
in Norman – but this was always going to be a bridge year given the amount of turnover on offense, and so the wins and losses stopped bothering me after the Vanderbilt loss and the overall scheme and development took a front seat.
I railed against THOSE particular issues in the BTBS for Texas A&M (you can revisit it here if you’d like) and I still have some issues about those items after this loss as well.
Most of those complaints I house in an article from yesterday breaking down the first drive and why it worked (link here). Read that if you want a second visit on play calling complaints.
Here’s the advanced box score:
I can’t quite figure out if Oklahoma’s offense put the kid gloves on in the second half because Mizzou’s offense couldn’t do anything and the Sooners didn’t want to screw it up, or if the Tiger defense was simply have an excellent day (minus that one play). Regardless, the outcome of this game hinged on the 87-yard touchdown pass, the blocked field goal, and the turnover advantage that Oklahoma had. Oh, and Missouri not being able to finish their drives. Everything else was pretty much equally butt for both sides.
When Missouri Has the Ball
I can’t believe Beau Pribula defied modern medicine limitations to come back for this. Credit for him doing so but this defense was just light years ahead of anything that Pribula could muster. A million thank you’s for Pribula going out there anyway and getting sacrificed at the alter of Sooner defense so wee baby Matt Zollers didn’t have to.
Create Explosive Plays on The Ground
Goal: At least 8 explosive rushes.
Actual: 1 explosive rush.
Winner: Oklahoma
Target the DBs
Goal: Less than 3 sacks on the day and fewer than 10 run stuffs.
Actual: 4 sacks, 7 run stuffs.
Winner: Oklahoma
Finish Your Dang Drives
Goal: At least 5 scoring opportunities created and at least 4.8 points per scoring opportunity (24 points)
Actual: 5 scoring opportunities created, 1.2 points per scoring opportunity (6 points)
Winner: Oklahoma
When Oklahoma Has the Ball
I can’t decide which if losing to an elite offense or an elite defense is worse.
See, the thing about getting destroyed by an elite offensive team with a terrible defense, is that your defense just gets shredded over and over to the point where you feel like, “damn, there is just no way we can beat this team”. It feels hopeless. It sucks.
But losing to an elite defensive team with a terrible offense, you are constantly feeling like “dude, just ONE touchdown and we can take this thing!”. And in either case there is no way you’re winning, but at least getting bombed over and over squashes any hope and allows you to move on. Losing a low-scoring game to an elite defense seemingly makes you SO MUCH more mad at the coaching staff because it constantly feels like the win is right there, even when there’s just no way it’s going to happen.
Or maybe that’s just me. Anyway.
Limit the Quarterback Runs
Goal: Limit Mateer’s rushing success rate to under 40%.
Actual: 33.3% rushing rate for John Mateer.
Winner: Missouri
Win on 3rd Down
Goal: Hold Oklahoma to a sub-35% success rate on 3rd-down..
Actual: 37.% 3rd-down success rate.
Winner: Oklahoma
The Little Things
I’d rank the issues here as 1. points per scoring opportunity, 2. average starting field position, and 3. turnovers.
From a demerit standpoint, the passing game wasn’t any good until Oklahoma started backing off and also there were four drops. That’s tough.
Also…Deion Burks had a terrible day. Maybe his worst day ever. 8 targets, 2 catches for -3 yards and a drop. That sucks for you, guy.
Extra Points
I can’t recall many instances of two teams each having a 0% success rate in a given quarter in the same game. But here we are!
Would have loved to see more passes on 1st down before Moore completely abandoned the run in the 4th quarter. Also, the fact that Missouri mustered 19 total yards on 3rd down while Oklahoma produced 135 in 3rd downs is another one of those stats you point to and go “oooohhhhhhhh so that’s how they won”.
Oklahoma had 6 plays for -7 yards in the 1st quarter and won. And 116 of Missouri’s 219 passing yards came in the 4th quarter.
Only 15 1st downs generated! Unless you’re playing Mississippi State, that probably means Missouri lost. And they did!
Conclusion
It wasn’t pretty, it didn’t really inspire any amount of hope, it perpetuated the trope of “Drink can’t win the big won”, and it inspired a cavalcade of sarcastic social media posts of “something something AT LEAST HE’S NOT TAKING ANOTHER JOB NOW”. Just a bad day all around.
The good news is that Arkansas’ defense is the polar opposite of Oklahoma’s defense. Hopefully Mizzou can finish conference play on a positive note.
