Missouri’s passing game seeks rebound against Georgia
Missouri quarterback Maty Mauk started strong at South Carolina, completing five of his first eight passes for 48 yards.
The Tigers’ offense took advantage of a short field, which was set up by a fourth-down stop on defense, for an opening-drive touchdown and also got in position for a long field-goal try on the second drive.
The next 41 minutes and change were a disaster.
Mauk only completed four of his next 21 passes for 14 yards before connecting on a 41-yard bomb with senior wide receiver Bud Sasser midway through the fourth quarter, a completion that sparked Missouri to the largest fourth-quarter rally for a victory in the program’s 124-year history.
Nearly two weeks later, coach Gary Pinkel had little interest in dissecting the Missouri offense’s woes during a 21-20 win against the Gamecocks.
“I don’t want to talk about that game, because I told my players I don’t want to talk about that game,” Pinkel said. “That was a long time ago.”
Associate head coach/quarterbacks coach Andy Hill also brushed aside discussion of the passing game’s struggles.
“Did coach Pinkel mention that we’re not talking about South Carolina?” Hill said with a smile. “We’re worried about Georgia. We’re moving on.”
Offensive coordinator Josh Henson was a little more loose lipped and said it wasn’t any one thing.
No. 23 Missouri, 4-1, which reshuffled its offensive line after Anthony Gatti’s season-ending knee injury versus Indiana, actually protected Mauk better than it had for much of the season.
Those gains were offset by an inexperienced receiving corps that was missing two starters, seniors Darius White (groin) and Jimmie Hunt (knee infection).
“The responsibility goes all the way around,” Henson said. “Me included, because I need to put us in some better situation with better play calls so there’s guys open against certain coverages at times.”
As far as on the field, “It was a little bit of both,” he said. “Some of it was receivers and some of it was Maty. We’ve all got a responsibility and we’ve just got to work hard to make it right.”
Mauk spent most of the summer working with White, Hunt and Sasser.
He struggled to find the same rhythm he’d had during the first four games junior Wesley Leftwich and senior Gavin Otte joining Sasser in the starting lineup along with a heavy dose of redshirt freshman J’Mon Moore and true freshman Lawrence Lee in the rotation.
“All those receivers hardly played at all, except for one guy (Sasser),” Pinkel said. “I mean, all of them — very little experience. There’s no excuses, but if you’re Maty back there as a young quarterback and you know one guy really well and the others you have not been in the heat of battle with, that certainly had an effect on him.”
Fortunately for Missouri, which is 1-0 in the SEC and hosts No. 13 Georgia at 11 a.m. Saturday at Memorial Stadium, Mauk didn’t let the frustration overwhelm or completely fluster him.
“He just knew we had to pick it up,” Sasser said. “He wasn’t stressed out or anything. Of course, there was a little bit of frustration. He knew we needed to get going, but he wasn’t panicking or stressed out. He just realized we needed a spark as a whole group.”
The spark this week might come before the game if Hunt and White — who “have a greater than 50 percent chance of playing,” Pinkel said — are able to return.
Either way, Mauk said he’s willing to suffer through another 12-for-34 performance if it means another Tigers win.
“I don’t care how many completions I had,” Mauk said. “It doesn’t matter. If I throw four for 30, it could be four touchdowns, so it doesn’t matter about that. The main thing for us is we came out with a win. Yeah, we want to play better, but we got the win and that’s all that matters to me.”
To reach Tod Palmer, call 816-234-4389 or send email to tpalmer@kcstar.com. Follow him on Twitter at @todpalmer.
This story was originally published October 6, 2014 at 9:48 PM with the headline "Missouri’s passing game seeks rebound against Georgia."