Mizzou-Tennessee thoughts

I know it is Wednesday and we are all thinking about Kentucky and what lies ahead, but I re-watched the game last night and had a few thoughts to share.

Mizzou did a great job of taking 2nd and long situations and either converting them or making it 3rd and short. I counted about 15 times we were in 2nd and long, but we ended up with only 5-7 3rd and long situations. Optimally, fewer 2nd and long situations are better, but making positive yards so frequently is a testament to how good our offensive line is playing.

The defense didn't get a ton of pressure on the Tennessee quarterback, but when they did get pressure they made it count by forcing turnovers and incompletions. Also, the defense held in 2nd and long situations, forcing over 3/4 of their 2nd and long plays into 3rd and long.

I continue to be amazed at how well our running back by committee approach is working. We are deep at the position, and I could see this working for years to come. It requires backs that don’t mind not being featured, and allows for the hot hand to get the ball. It would seem that is also makes us more difficult to game plan against, since all backs do all things: running, blocking, and receiving.

We didn't have as many dropped passes as I thought, but if we catch all of the balls that are catchable, Mauk is at 56% completion rate for the game, which is acceptable considering he is a freshman starting his 3rd game.

Mauk’s improvement was noticeable. He did a great job of running up the middle as the pocket collapsed rather than feeling pressure and trying to roll to the side. He only got flushed from the pocket a few times to the outside and was able to make modest gains or throw it away on those. His pocket presence appears to be improved from the South Carolina game.

Tennessee made costly mistakes at key points in the game. They had penalties and turnovers kill drives and lead directly to easy points for Mizzou. Had this not been the case, the field position game could have been an issue. They did a great job of pinning us in our end of the field, and had much better starting position throughout the game. They did a great job playing for field position, especially in the second half. Unfortunately for Tennessee, they could not move the ball or get into any sort of rhythm on offense. I counted one trip inside the 30. On this one trip, they turned it over on downs after 2 penalties and honestly the game was already decided at that point. We held them to 9 yards in Mizzou territory for much of the first 3 quarters and had it not been for a 51 yard field goal we would have shut them out.

This was about as complete a game as we have played with Mauk as quarterback, and should speak to what we can expect as the regular season comes to a close and hopefully next year as Mauk matures.