Running Back Devon Achane runs the ball in for a touchdown at Faurot Field on Saturday, Oct. 16, 2021. The Aggies went on to win the game 35-14.
Missouri football fell to the Texas A&M Aggies 35-14 at Faurot Field Saturday afternoon. The loss dropped the Tigers to 3-4 on the season and 0-3 in conference play. Here are four numbers that help explain the Tiger’s loss.
2 Turnovers
Missouri turned the football over twice against the Aggies. On the Tigers’ first offensive possession, redshirt sophomore quarterback Connor Bazelak threw a ball right into the hands of Texas A&M sophomore defensive back Jaylon Jones, who zig-zagged his way to the Tigers 22-yard line.
Four plays later, redshirt sophomore quarterback Zach Calzada found junior wide receiver Ainias Smith in the end zone to give the Aggies an early 7-0 lead.
This wasn’t the only mistake Bazelak made. Toward the end of the first quarter, sophomore defensive back Antonio Johnson picked off Bazelak.
In the last three losses, Bazelak has thrown multiple interceptions.
“I just told him to keep his head up,” senior running back Tyler Badie said. “Like I said, there are going to be lessons, there are going to be failures and there are going to be successes — that’s football. At the end of the day, he is our quarterback.”
Despite the turnovers, Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz publicly committed to Bazelak being QB1 moving forward.
“Connor’s our quarterback,” Drinkwitz said. “He gives us the best chance to win. It’s not always going to be perfect, he’s going to get a lot of blame. There’s a lot of things that have to improve and he knows he’s going to have to improve.”
15 Big Plays
On third and 17, Missouri seemed close to getting the Aggies off the field. But, Calzada connected with Smith for a big gain of 21 yards and a first down.
“The number one indicator in my opinion in wins and losses is actually not turnovers, it’s explosive plays,” Drinkwitz said during Monday’s press conference. “Whoever wins the explosive-play battle wins the game — usually in the upper 70’s, low 80% depending on what analytical statistics you use.”
Big plays are described as passing plays that gain 15 plus yards and running plays that gain 10 plus yards. The Aggies recorded a total of 15 of these plays against Missouri. Thirteen came on the ground, while two came in the air.
In comparison, the Tigers made just seven big plays on offense. Only two came in the first half, with a 22-yard run by redshirt freshman running back Michael Cox and a 32-yard touchdown run by senior running back Tyler Badie.
6.7
Like most teams against the Tigers, Texas A&M ran the ball all over Missouri for 283 yards on 42 carries, averaging 6.7 yards per carry.
Junior running back Isaiah Spiller gained 168 yards on 20 carries, while sophomore running back Devon Achane rushed for 124 yards on 16 carries. Speaking of explosive plays, Spiller ran for a 48-yard touchdown and Achane added another from 20 yards out in the first quarter.
This game was the fifth game where the Tigers gave up five-plus yards per carry against an opponent. The defense gave up 6.4 yard per carry against Kentucky, 8.2 against SEMO, 5.6 to Boston College and 7.8 to Tennessee.
Last week, Missouri allowed just 3.8 yards per attempt against North Texas. North Texas and Texas A&M are different levels of competition, but it was still a step back from the progress the Tigers defense made last weekend.
13
The yellow penalty flags made plenty of appearances on Saturday as the Tigers were penalized 13 times, which accounted for 106 yards.
“If we’re gonna win a championship we are going to have to keep from beating ourselves,” Drinkwitz said. “We weren’t able to do that today”
With 1:28 remaining before halftime, sophomore defensive back Jaylon Carlies picked off Calzada in the end zone and returned it to the Tigers 28-yard line. A block in the back penalty moved the ball back to the Tigers 18-yard line, altering Drinkwitz’s play-calling.
“We had the interception and I thought we were going to be out with some good field position, but we weren’t because of a penalty,” Drinkwitz said.
This wasn’t the only play that hurt the Tigers in the game. In the second quarter, the Tigers reached their own 47-yard line down 14 points, but a first down holding penalty pushed them back 10 yards, effectively killing the drive.
Later in the quarter, a Tigers pass interference penalty on third-and-6 kept the Aggies offensive drive alive. This resulted in a passing touchdown by Calzada four plays later that extended the Aggies lead to 28-7.
“You have big plays or you had third-down stops and had pass interference calls, and big plays had holding penalties,” Drinkwitz said. “[You] can’t do it, [you] got to fix it.”
Going into the bye week, Missouri knows there is a lot of work to do. The Tigers are a below .500 team and with a tough schedule, they know that they are going to have to use a week off to get better.
“That’s what bye weeks are good for,” Drinkwtiz said. “To go back and figure out what are the issues, how do you fix them, where you develop.”
Edited by Kyle Pinnell & Mason Arneson | kpinnell@themaneater.com &marneson@themaneater.com