Grades from Missouri football’s loss to Georgia and looking ahead to South Carolina
The Missouri Tigers fell to 4-5 on the season with a 43-6 loss to No. 1 Georgia on Saturday.
Here are grades for all three Mizzou units, the best highlight of the game and a look ahead to next weekend’s contest against South Carolina.
PLAY OF THE GAME
To be completely honest, I’m not sure if there was a play of the game for Mizzou in this one. At least not in a good way. So let’s go with the best play of the game gone wrong instead. If there can’t be good football, at least there’s weird football?
Head coach Eliah Drinkwitz elected to go for an onside kick to start the second half with the Tigers down 26-3. The rare move seemed to pay off as Missouri appeared to have recovered it, but the team was then called for an illegal touching penalty and had to re-kick the ball. The ball was then kicked out of bounds, so Georgia got the ball on its own 40. The Bulldogs scored less than three minutes later.
GRADES
Offense: D-. For the first time this season, the offense didn’t record a touchdown and Mizzou’s 273 total yards marked its lowest all season. Though it was against a dominant Georgia defense, backup quarterbacks Tyler Macon and Brady Cook struggled to get the passing game going, combining to go 20 of 32 for 152 yards. The 3.5 yards the Tigers gained per rush is better than the average the Bulldogs have allowed this season, but it still isn’t great.
Defense: D. The defense allowed Georgia to score 43 points and record 505 total yards. Though the run game defense showed some improvement, giving up 168 yards on the ground, the pass defense faltered as the Bulldogs had 337 yards through the air. Georgia averaged 8.0 yards per play and went 6-for-6 in the red zone as well.
Special teams: C-. For the first time this season, kicker Harrison Mevis missed a field goal. His 48 yard attempt in the third quarter hit the uprights, breaking his streak of 19 consecutive makes. And then there was also the onside kick described above. Still, special teams produced the only points of the day from Mevis’ two makes of 36 and 42 yards.
LOOKING AHEAD
Missouri is back home at Faurot Field to take on South Carolina on Saturday, Nov. 13. The game will kick-off at 3 p.m. and air on the SEC Network.
