Grading Missouri’s 50-17 win over Tennessee and looking ahead to Arkansas

Missouri football won its third straight game with a 50-17 win at Tennessee on Saturday. The Tigers now head into a short game week with a chance to exceed last season’s win total and get in position to possibly get a New Year’s Day bowl game.

Play of the game

DeMarkus Acy’s first interception: Is there any other nominee? Takeaways haven’t been associated with the Odom era that much, but Missouri had three on Saturday. Acy’s pick took the momentum away from Tennessee and gave MU the chance to go into halftime up 16 points. Acy added another pick in the fourth quarter.

Grades

Offense — A+: Derek Dooley got his justice, as the offense accounted for 43 of MU’s 50 points. Tyler Badie and Larry Rountree made some big plays, while Drew Lock threw two touchdowns and passes to 10 different players. Not much to complain about.

Defense — A: Three takeaways, one of which was a game-changing interception and another was a fumble recovery returned for a touchdown? That’s a good day at the office. MU held the Volunteers to just 17 points and the unit had a season-high three sacks.

Special teams — A-: Tucker McCann had an extra point blocked, but it turned out to be irrelevant. Corey Fatony wasn’t needed that much and MU had a few strong returns.

Next up

As Missouri plays Arkansas, here are two things the Tigers need:

Play the whole roster: The Hogs aren’t very good, and this game should be a blowout. While it is Senior Day, backups like Ronnell Perkins and Jarvis Ware have had strong showings lately and should be rewarded for it. Depth is something Missouri has been strong with as the injuries have piled up. Why stop flexing the muscles of the depth chart.

Get something, anything out of punt return: Missouri ranks towards the bottom of the nation in punt return and Odom has said before that the team is getting nothing out of the unit. This is the Tigers’ last chance to show some sort of improvement before its bowl game. Any sign of improvement would be promising going into bowl practices.

Alex Schiffer

Alex Schiffer covers University of Missouri athletics for The Star.

This story was originally published November 18, 2018 at 5:30 AM.