Welcome to “Triple Option,” a weekly series in which The Maneater’s three Missouri Tigers football beat reporters give their thoughts on what went well in the previous game and aspects that could be improved for the next.
In the first road test of the season, Missouri Tigers football downed Auburn 23-17 in a double overtime thriller. The Tigers are now 6-1 overall and 2-1 in the SEC and moved up one spot to No. 15 in this week’s AP Top 25 Poll.
The Tiger-on-Tiger matchup brought plenty of headaches to the offense, but in the end, Missouri proved to have the clutch gene to put Auburn away. Next up is another road test, this time in the form of No. 10 Vanderbilt. Here’s a look at some positives and negatives heading into the Oct. 25 matchup.
The Good
Defense creates problems in the backfield – Cameron Brown
The passing attack has been a low point for Auburn, as junior quarterback Jackson Arnold has had a tough season. Arnold ranks 91 in the nation in passing yards with 1,190 so far this season. Arnold’s struggles continued against Mizzou with only 207 passing yards, no passing touchdowns and an interception.
Senior cornerback Toriano Pride Jr. improved against Auburn as he picked up his first interception of the season which was also Arnold’s first interception thrown of the season on the second drive of the game.
Senior linebacker Khalil Jacobs had a positive impact too, breaking up Auburn’s passing attack. Jacobs deflected two passes in this game and logged 0.5 tackles for loss in overtime, which left Auburn’s offense scoreless and gave Mizzou the win.
Unlikely receivers stepping up – Colin Simmons
Missouri has come to expect senior wide receiver Kevin Coleman Jr., junior wide receiver Marquis Johnson and junior tight end Brett Norfleet to have big performances. While the trio did combine for 10 catches and 96 receiving yards, graduate quarterback Beau Pribula looked to two other options more often.
Freshman wide receiver Donovan Olugbode hauled in five catches for 69 yards and caught a 27-yard pass in the fourth quarter to set up sophomore running back Ahmad Hardy with a 3-yard touchdown run.
Junior wide receiver Joshua Manning also caught five passes, but for 63 yards. This was Manning’s highest reception and yardage totals of the season, while also recording a team-high eight targets.
Having a deep receiving rotation will make it harder for opposing defenses to develop a game plan, including Vanderbilt’s eighth best passing defense in the SEC next week.
Defensive line dominates – Tanner Coerr
One image from this game will live on forever in the minds of True Sons and Daughters nationwide. The game had droned on to tie at the end of regulation, with captains lining up on center field for the overtime coin toss
Edge rusher Zion Young stepped to midfield during the overtime coin toss, and shouted an expletive-laced tirade toward the Auburn captains as well as Jordan-Hare Stadium and anyone watching on ESPN. It boiled down to a simple point: you can’t stop us.
And it was true. Missouri finished with five sacks and nine tackles for loss, with Young, Damon Wilson II, Sterling Webb and others constantly in the face of Arnold.
For Young to scream “everybody knows what time it is,” and follow it up with a sack on the second play of overtime en route to a recognition as Southeastern Conference co-defensive lineman of the week, represents the Missouri front line’s continuous ascent as one of the country’s best units.
The Bad
Offense struggles to find a groove – Cameron Brown
While Mizzou put up more yards this week than it did last week against Alabama, it is safe to say that the Tigers didn’t fare well in the hostile Jordan-Hare Stadium. Mizzou has a total yards per game average of 486.6, yet in this game the Tigers had just 343 yards of offense, despite playing two extra periods of overtime.
A huge factor in the offensive struggles against Auburn was the lack of successful running lanes for the Tigers. Mizzou had 14 of its rush attempts stuffed, which accounts for 32% of the Tigers’ rush attempts in the game.
This was Mizzou’s first road matchup this season, and with a challenging opponent coming up in No. 10 Vanderbilt, there is time to answer some of these questions Mizzou is leaving.
Crowd noise got to Pribula – Colin Simmons
In some ways, the Penn State transfer is akin to a freshman. Pribula didn’t receive his first career start until he arrived at Missouri, and the Auburn matchup was his first collegiate start on the road.
“We talked all week about the game was played between the lines, and not to let the exterior factors of the noise and the stadium affect us,” head coach Eli Drinkwitz said. “And I just thought there was a refusal to lose.”
The atmosphere at Jordan-Hare Stadium seemed to affect Pribula, who ended the game with two interceptions, making that four interceptions in his past two games. While his second interception against Auburn was essentially an arm punt, the first was at the end of Missouri’s longest drive of the game, completely flipping momentum.
The Tigers have three more ranked opponents on the horizon, and one of those teams is bound to take advantage of Pribula’s recent miscues through the air.
Run game not set up to succeed – Tanner Coerr
While it is possible that Missouri football fans were premature in crowning sophomore running back Ahmad Hardy as the nation’s best, a simple eye test shows that he is not being given much to work with against high-level defenses.
Hardy carried 22 times for 138 yards on 6.3 yards per carry against South Carolina on Sept. 20, a data set starkly different from the 24 carries for 58 yards on 2.4 yards per carry Hardy produced against Auburn. Although he was still effective in premium positions, scoring two touchdowns, he has been met behind the line of scrimmage constantly. Against Alabama and Auburn, he had 110 total rushing yards — 119 of those came after contact.
Consistently being hit behind the line of scrimmage is not conducive to success for any running back. Missouri must figure out that issue soon, as running the football well is the root of its identity.
The Tigers travel to Nashville, Tennessee next for their College GameDay matchup against No. 15 Vanderbilt on Oct. 25.
