Missouri Tigers football grades: Analysis from Mizzou’s win over Boston College
All good things must come to an end, and Mizzou’s shutout streak to begin the season was certainly part of that.
But the Tigers’ perfect season lives on nonetheless.
In their first true test of 2024, the Tigers rallied from down 11 in the first half to claim a ranked win over No. 24 Boston College at home, 27-21.
“It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t our best performance top to bottom,” head coach Eli Drinkwitz said postgame. “But we really responded. We hadn’t been challenged all year, and I was concerned with so many new faces what the response would be. And today, I think you saw a team that’s committed to each other, a team that responds, a team that’s never out of a fight.”
Here’s our grade card for the Tigers’ win, as well as our player of the game.
Mizzou offense
The Tigers’ offense has been getting the job done, and that’s all you can ask at this point. There are still some visible issues with connecting on deep passes, but being able to add on yards after the catch on Saturday made a notable difference. The Tigers racked up 264 passing yards.
Star receiver Luther Burden III alone accounted for 114 of those yards in his return to the field after being pulled during the Buffalo contest last week for illness, tacking on a touchdown. In all, the Tigers totaled 440 yards of offense.
The slower starts on offense are another habit the Tigers will have to break ahead of SEC play. But again, for their first true test of the season, the Tigers responded well.
Grade: B
Mizzou defense
This was a generally great showing by the defense yet again. Obviously, the idea of shutting out all of your opponents is unrealistic, but the Tigers’ defense handled its first Power Four opponent of 2024 rather nicely, despite an Eagles touchdown late in the fourth that brought them within a score. The two interceptions from the Mizzou defense certainly helped the cause this week.
Grade: B+
Mizzou special teams
I wrote last week that kicker Blake Craig was still getting comfortable as the Tigers’ starter, and I didn’t think that his field goal misses against Buffalo were cause for concern. After Craig’s performance today, Drinkwitz shared the same sentiment in his postgame news conference:
“I think there was a lot of questions about his field goals last week, and I said I wasn’t really concerned about it because I know he’s got the leg to hit that (56)-yarder at the end of half,” Drinkwitz said. “I think that gave the team a lot of confidence going into the half and he had an excellent game today.”
Dubbed the “difference in the game” by Drinkwitz, Craig went 4-for-4 on field-goal attempts and made his lone PAT attempt. Craig’s 56-yard field goal is the longest in his career thus far.
Grade: A
Area of improvement
Penalties were another issue for the Tigers this week. They tallied eight penalties for 91 yards, including a sequence of three consecutive offensive penalties that put the Tigers and 2nd-and-58 on their own 14-yard line late in the third quarter.
“I’ve never seen that many flags on a single offense in my time,” Drinkwitz said.
Player of the game
Honorable mentions to Burden and the transfer RB duo of Nate Noel (121 yards) and Marcus Carroll (57 yards), but today’s honor goes to safety Tre’Vez Johnson for swaying the momentum back to the Tigers.
The Eagles were working with a 14-6 lead with about five minutes left in the half when quarterback Thomas Castellanos launched a pass to receiver Reed Harris. But Johnson was there for the interception at Boston College’s 25-yard line, and the Tigers tied the score on the following drive.
