Missouri football narrowly avoided an upset loss to Vanderbilt, defeating the Commodores 30-27 at home in double-overtime. Although they performed well enough to take home the victory, the nail-biter against the Commodores showed that there are several things for the Tigers to work on if they want to compete for a national championship.

Brady Cook must perform better

Part of what has been missing from the Tigers so far is the ability to threaten their opponents with the deep passing game. Although Missouri possesses an armada of high-level receivers, they have not unlocked that third dimension of their passing game, and as a result, their game plan is easier to defend. 

“I’m a little disappointed in how I performed,” Cook said in a press conference. “As far as adversity [goes], being in those tense situations is going to take us a long way, but at the same time, we just have a lot to get better at.”

More notable than any errors in the deep-ball game was the red zone offense’s ineffectiveness. On three separate occasions, including in overtime, the Tigers could not punch it in for a touchdown despite being as close as the Commodores’ 6-yard line.

“When we get down there, we need to score touchdowns,” Cook said. “There’s no reason we should be kicking so many field goals after we get down in the red zone…it starts with me.”

Missouri is a well-rounded team, but at the end of the day, college football programs only go as far as their quarterback. Cook showed last season that he can lead this Missouri team, but if he does not get back to his junior season form, the Tigers will have a long way to go to reach their ceiling.

Special teams struggles

Just a week after receiving the SEC Special Teams Player of the Week recognition, freshman kicker Blake Craig had a poor performance. Craig went three-for-six, missing a chip shot from 24 yards out and two others from 40 and 46 yards, which had been relatively automatic range up to that point.

“The bottom line is they have to go through the uprights,” head coach Eli Drinkwitz said in a press conference. 

On top of Craig’s struggles, there were some flaws in the kick return game. Most notably, a misplayed return by safety Marvin Burks Jr. on a Vanderbilt kickoff nearly cost the Tigers a safety and they were forced to start their drive from their own 2-yard line. 

Special teams is a relatively straightforward part of football, and Missouri must prevent mistakes on that side of the football to maximize their chances of winning. If Craig’s field goals had gone through the uprights in the first place, the Tigers would not have been in a double-overtime situation.

Clock management must improve

The Tigers have had some issues in managing the clock properly throughout the year. In the season opener against Murray State, they nearly missed out on a touchdown at the end of the first half before scrambling into the end zone with a single second on the clock. 

Against the Commodores, it nearly cost them much more. At the end of the first half, facing a fourth-and-3 from their own 42-yard line, Cook and Drinkwitz elected to go for it, resulting in Cook getting sacked and turning the ball over with eight seconds left in the half. Vanderbilt escaped with an extra field goal that they should never have had a chance to kick, taking a 13-10 lead.

“Totally my fault,” Drinkwitz said. “That was a really haphazard decision by me and the team bailed me out, bottom line. I’ve got to be much better. Should have never done that.”

Near the end of regulation, the Tigers chose to punt it away on fourth down, but they wasted a timeout before doing it. If they saved that timeout and gone into the defensive drive with all three timeouts, the Tigers could have forced Vanderbilt to punt from deep in their own territory. Instead the Commodores were able to salt the clock away and play for overtime. Simple mistakes like that can kill a season, and Missouri must be better the rest of the way.

Missouri faces a bye week next, with their next game at Texas A&M on Saturday, Oct. 5 at 11:00 a.m.

Edited by Michael Stamps | mstamps@themaneater.com

Copy edited by Emma Short | eshort@themaneater.com

Edited by Emily Skidmore | eskidmore@themaneater.com