This wasn’t a blowout. It wasn’t a surprise white knuckler that inexplicably came down to the last play. It wasn’t full of dumb mistakes. It didn’t feature a lot of big, explosive plays. It did have a fun, quirky record get broken and your big name player added another notch in the belt for benchmark performance. But there were a few mistakes and a number of interesting happenings…and then, mostly, a whole lot of nothing.
So if the win over UMass didn’t inspire you, that’s fine. Not every game has
to do that, the point of the exercise is to win, full stop. And this team expects to be elite and views themselves harshly and some of that culture has leaked into the fanbase as well, myself certainly included. An SP+ Top 15 team didn’t beat the literal worst SP+ team by 50: why? You can’t help it! But, also, the team won handily and it was never really in doubt. That should count a lot more than the nits we can pick at execution and entertainment.
Plus, entertaining games are rarely guaranteed wins. Keep that in mind.
Here’s the advanced box score:
It wasn’t reflected in the final score as much as we would prefer but this was yet another dominant performance by your Missouri Tigers. It was the third 100% post-game win expectancy out of five total on the year, which is the same number that last year’s squad achieved over a 13-game span. I’ll take it.
When Missouri Has the Ball
Beau logged yet another 80% completion game, Kevin Coleman caught every ball that was thrown at him, all of Brett Norfleet’s targets ended with hands on the ball (because the one miss was an interception), and Mizzou provided a surprisingly balanced attack with 290 non-sack rushing yards and 250 non-sack passing yards.
UMass stinks and Missouri doesn’t. That’s the big takeaway here.
Don’t Get Injured
Goal: Zero injuries as a result of this game.
Actual: One minor Ahmad Hardy scare and Drey Norwood sat out to prevent further injury.
Winner: Missouri
Let The Backups Play
Goal: See Matt Zollers and his backup friends by the 3rd Quarter
Actual: Backups entered with 20 seconds left in the 3rd Quarter
Winner: Missouri
Finish your dang drives (with a field goal)
Goal: Three field goals attempted in this game.
Actual: Zero field goals attempted in this game.
Winner: Missouri, because while the goal wasn’t reached it’s not really their fault that they could only score touchdowns.
When Massachusetts Has The Ball
At the end of the 3rd quarter UMass had a net total of 76 yards. Yeesh.
Limit the Explosive Plays
Goal: 5 or fewer explosive plays allowed.
Actual: One explosive pass allowed. Wouldn’t have even gotten five if they hit on all the dropped passes.
Winner: Missouri
Stop their dang drives
Goal: 4 scoring opportunities allowed with 3 points or fewer allowed per trip (12 points).
Actual: They had one scoring opportunity off a 60-yard returned interception and then missed the extra point after the touchdown.
Winner: Missouri
The Little Things
/me, lifting my head up from the microscope, tiredly rubbing my eyes while slowly shaking my head and forlornly looking at the camera
//long exasperated sigh, smash cut to the family of UMass, huddled together, bracing for the news
ME: I’m so sorry. I’m looking at the sample right now. And. Well…your loved one got that ass beat.
Extra Points
It took a little longer than the other two 100% post-game win expectancy games, but this matchup was over with 1:27 left in the 3rd Quarter when Mizzou went up 35-6. Love that “0% success in the 3rd quarter” there. Good texture, nice finish.
Missouri continues to generate incredible chunks of yardage on 1st and 2nd downs, helping their 3rd-down efforts be much simpler.
Their opponents, on the other hand? Not so much!
Incredibly consistent play across three quarters here. Through these first five games the Kirby Moore script seems to be “bludgeon them in the 1st Quarter to soften them up, see what else you can do in Q2 and Q3, then run them over in Q4”. That won’t be the case for…well…really any game for the rest of the year but it’s certainly worked against the competition so far!
Hardy and Coleman: when you absolutely, positively HAVE to get a 1st down, call on the dynamic team of Hardy and Coleman to move the chains and
KEEP
/clap
YOU
/point
MOVING!
/finger guns
Conclusion
No more cupcakes for the rest of the season. It’s all conference opponents that are either highly ranked or on the road from here on out. Enjoy the Bye week, gear up for Bama!
