Throughout portions of the contest, Mizzou’s defense had answers against Mississippi State in its 31-24 loss.
Yes, the Tigers surrendered nearly 500 total yards of offense, but forced a turnover, got MSU behind schedule, and collected numerous sacks.
But against the veer and shoot, an offense that doesn’t need much time to operate, one or two mistakes can erase everything.
“You can hold them all game, but if you give up two big ones, that’s the difference,” Eli Drinkwitz said.
Mizzou knew what the Bulldogs
would do and how they would attack this defense. MSU’s attack created isolation, making the margin of error thin in the box and on the perimeter. On Saturday night, that’s exactly what occurred.
How did Mizzou’s defense falter in those situations?
Mississippi State’s first score was similar to what Troy did a week ago, formation- and play-design-wise.
The Bulldogs lined up in a stack formation. Defensively, Mizzou lines up with a cornerback pressed up at the line of scrimmage, with Santana Banner playing eight yards off. The receivers at the line of scrimmage run routes into the field, holding up the free safety.
Sanfrisco McGee is left on the outside, drawing a one-on-one with Banner, the rover safety. It’s a mismatch, and Kamario Taylor drops it in the bucket for a score.
The secondary faces a different dilemma. Mississippi State comes out in a 3×1 formation. Anthony Evans III motions to the short side of the field towards the isolated receiver.In a man-to-man situation, Chris Graves Jr. is playing outside leverage, but Evans’ speed wins, and it’s a 48-yard completion down the sideline.
The go-ahead score is another example of conflict. The tight end releases vertically, occupying the area Trajen Greco is covering. It’s enough room to allow Taylor to connect with McGee for a 24-yard score.
Three explosive plays, created in different ways against the Tigers. But the similarity is getting those isolated matchups. It shows what Drinkwitz is saying: when you can defend it successfully for long stretches, but just a few lost battles prove costly.
The isolation issues weren’t limited to what was occurring on the perimeter.
Wrapping up is becoming a consistent issue
Fluff Bothwell had a night to remember against the Tigers, while Mizzou’s rush defense was inconsistent.
On the surface, Bothwell ran for 122 yards on 25 attempts. But digging deeper into the weeds, he tied a career-high with nine forced missed tackles per Pro Football Focus, while averaging 3.4 yards after contact. In all, Missouri missed 13 tackles, and they were spread across the entire defense:
- Santana Banner: 3
- Nicholas Rodriguez: 2
- Robert Woodyard Jr.: 2
- All tied with 1: Elijah Dotson, Dante McClellan, Langden Kitchen, Sione Laulea, Kensley Louidor-Faustin, Jalen Marshall.
On the play before Mississippi State’s first score, the Bulldogs came out in a twins formation, but the linebackers widened out as Mizzou showed a three-deep safety look. Against an extremely light box, Bothwell ran off the right tackle, Rodriguez couldn’t secure the tackle, and Bothwell got down the right sideline for an 18-yard gain. It was 7-0 right after that.
Twice in the second half, Mizzou got Mississippi State in third-down situations where the running backs just had to be wrapped up. On a 3rd-and-4, in the third quarter, a swing route got Robert Woodyard Jr. isolated on Kolin Wilson. Woodyard didn’t have the speed or a great angle to make the tackle on the change-of-pace running back, and Wilson picked up 18 yards, converting the drive and eventually leading to tying the game at 17.
On the Bulldogs’ game-tying drive in the fourth, the Tigers got the Bulldogs in a 3rd and 9. Bothwell ran a short route out of the backfield; the issue is no one was in the box but Trajen Greco. The 196-pound safety alone couldn’t bring Bothwell down, and he was dragged to the sticks for a first down.
Tackling was one of the most important keys to this game, as with the wide alignments, that is a crucial way to stop this offense. Yet, it became a legitimate concern for Drinkwitz, and was exposed again in the SEC opener.
Mizzou found its answers, but couldn’t stack them
When Mizzou won against Mississippi State, it was beautiful, as the combination of the pass rush and coverage worked in unison. Oftentimes, the Tigers took away Taylor’s initial read, forcing him to hold the football.
That’s where you got an awesome end-of-the-half sack by Daeden Hopkins. Mizzou has every eligible receiver accounted for, perfectly, specifically, Laulea blanketing Ragins. Meanwhile, Hopkins beats the left tackle, defeats the running backs chip and secures the sack.
And how about a third time where the linebackers are sitting in the passing lanes, while Hopkins beats the left tackle.
As for Greco, his interception was caused by what’s not going to show up on the stat sheet. On the deep post by Marquis Johnson, Banner, playing closer in the box, doesn’t bite on the play-action fake. He uses his 6-foot-3 height by jumping in the air, forcing Taylor to throw it higher than he wanted to. The bad pass travels over everyone and lands in the hands of Greco. Mizzou cut the lead to four two plays later.
But those wins couldn’t be stacked throughout the game. On Mississippi State’s second-half scoring drives, the Tigers got the Bulldogs in 2nd-and-long or 3rd-and-long 10 different times within three drives.
For example, on Woodyard’s missed tackle, that came after a tackle for loss by Jadan Jones, making it 2nd-and-14. MSU gained 10 yards before converting on third down. On Mississippi State’s game-tying field goal drive, it was backed to a 2nd and 20, but a long completion, followed with a dump-off pass to Bothwell for the first.
While Mizzou won the defensive snaps, Mississippi State won sequences.
The Tigers have exciting pieces on the defensive side of the ball.
But against Troy, some noticeable things showed up, and were worth monitoring heading into Week 4. They were exploited at Mississippi State, and as the SEC schedule gets tougher with the level of skill and running backs like Jadan Baugh, Nate Frazier and Kewan Lacey, giving up explosive plays and missing tackles aren’t going to be sustainable enough.
Florida comes to town next week, and Baugh himself has forced 34 missed tackles and averages 4.3 yards after contact.
