Grading Missouri’s 43-29 loss to Georgia and looking ahead to South Carolina

Missouri dropped its first game of the season to No. 2 Georgia 43-29, in a game the Tigers hurt themselves on offense and wasted a strong effort by the defense. The Tigers are off next weekend before heading to South Carolina on Oct. 6.

Play of the game

Mecole Hardman’s 54-yard touchdown: He scored on the first play of the fourth quarter and made the score 40-22, essentially ending any chance Missouri had of tying the game.

Grades

Offense: C: Drew Lock had an awful game against the Bulldogs, with an interception, fumbles and no passing touchdowns. But after Georgia took Missouri’s receivers out of the equation, the tight ends and running backs kept the Tigers in it. But given Lock’s talent, many were expecting him to make plays to keep Missouri competitive instead of being part of the problem.

Defense: B+: After being all out of sorts against Purdue, Missouri’s defense came to play against Georgia. The Bulldogs went the entire first half without an offensive touchdown and senior Terry Beckner Jr. was active in the backfield. The Tigers tackling was improved, as was the pass rush. If Missouri can keep this up, the Tigers could flirt with double-digit wins.

Special Teams: C+: A blocked punt that led to a touchdown and a missed field goal (even though some dispute that) make it hard to forget that Missouri had strong punts by Corey Fatony, a converted two-point conversion and were fine the rest of the day on field goals.

Next up

As Missouri heads to South Carolina in two weeks here are two things to improve on:

Health: Barry Odom said the bye week comes at the perfect time because the Tigers are pretty banged up. Wideouts Jalen Knox, Emanuel Hall and Johnathon Johnson all battled injuries against Georgia and safety Cam Hilton played with a broken thumb. The Tigers now have two weeks to get off injured reserve and return to full strength.

Be creative with the wideouts: Many teams will likely watch Georgia’s film from Saturday to see how Kirby Smart eliminated the deep ball from the Missouri offense. Derek Dooley has to get creative with the receivers and find new ways to get them open. The Tigers offense can’t survive without Hall. The receiving corps is just too thin.

Alex Schiffer

Alex Schiffer covers University of Missouri athletics for The Star.

This story was originally published September 23, 2018 at 11:59 AM.