Mizzou football grades: Analysis from Missouri Tigers’ SEC win over South Carolina

Missouri football continues to assert itself atop the SEC East.

A solid outing against visiting South Carolina on Saturday gives MU three wins over SEC East teams with Georgia, Tennessee and Florida remaining.

Here are our grades from Missouri’s win over South Carolina.

Missouri’s offense

The Tigers scored on four of their five first-half drives and led 24-3 at halftime.

Brady Cook was efficient as a passer and made plays with his legs. Cody Schrader had a great game with over 100 yards rushing and a score.

MU’s receivers were covered well but still found ways to make plays. Luther Burden and Theo Wease combined for 100-plus receiving yards. Burden’s 42-yard touchdown came on a ball thrown into double-coverage: He went up between two defenders, snagged the pass and bullied the ball into the end zone.

In the second half, Kirby Moore’s offense struggled a bit. The Tigers couldn’t find the end zone to essentially ice the game.

MU’s play-calls didn’t have much time to develop. South Carolina’s pass rushes and blitzes were keeping the Tigers’ offense off-balance.

MU tried delays and quarterback draws on third and long when South Carolina was showing blitz or pressure. That seemed to pick up eight yards consistently. Unfortunately, that would be a yard or two short of prolonging the drive.

The Tigers were finally able to put the game away with a drive for a touchdown after an interception, but not before giving South Carolina ample chances to get back into it.

Luckily, the Missouri defense had a heck of a day.

Grade: B

Missouri’s defense

Any day you hold an SEC opponent to three points at halftime and 12 points total is a good day.

South Carolina’s offense was capable of putting up gaudy numbers, but didn’t happen against Missouri’s defense.

Spencer Rattler is an eventual NFL Draft pick and had just 81 passing yards at halftime. The MU pass rush was suffocating. There were no running lanes and few opportunities to score. The Gamecocks had just 13 rushing yards entering the fourth quarter.

The second fully sustained South Carolina drive came late in the first half. The Gamecocks reached MU territory before stalling with 30 seconds left. The visitors settled for a 50-yard field goal.

Missouri can live with that. Especially when its offense is scoring on most of its drives.

The only reason this grade isn’t a solid A is because of the four penalties that MU committed on defense. Three of those penalties gave South Carolina first downs on third-and-long situations, keeping the defense on the field.

There was also a play in which Rattler’s pass popped up in the air like a fly ball. It was ruled a fumble by the referees, and MU’s players didn’t pounce on the ball — which would’ve ended the drive.

Those sorts of miscues didn’t hurt Mizzou too much Saturday. But Georgia won’t be so forgiving.

The MU pass rush finished with six sacks and Jaylon Carlies helped put this one away with a leaping interception.

Grade: A-

Missouri special teams

A week after Luke Bauer was a hero at Kentucky, he had an up-and-down day against South Carolina.

Bauer fumbled a punt snap, leading to great field position for the Gamecocks. Missouri’s defense held, but that could have been a costly mistake.

Bauer made up for it later with a booming 52-yard punt to the South Carolina 19. Marquis Johnson finished that play with a textbook special teams tackle. Bauer had another punt that went 64 yards and was downed at the South Carolina 2-yard line.

Harrison Mevis was his consistent self, hitting a 53-yard field goal in the second half to give MU some breathing room. The Tigers’ special teams found a way to average out their bad moments with field-flipping plays.

Grade: C

Mookie Cooper

Whenever Missouri needed a chunk of yards on Saturday, the Tigers turned to Mookie Cooper.

MU’s No. 3 receiver behind Burden and Wease was as consistent as they come, catching six passes for 57 yards on seven targets.

Cooper also led the Tigers in yards after the catch Saturday, which is usually Burden’s job. Burden and Wease were covered well, and Mooke made plays when he needed to.

Grade: A

The Star has partnered with the Columbia Daily Tribune for coverage of Missouri Tigers athletics.

This story was originally published October 21, 2023 at 6:18 PM with the headline "Mizzou football grades: Analysis from Missouri Tigers’ SEC win over South Carolina."