Grades from Missouri’s loss to Texas A&M as Tigers head into bye week
The season of struggle continued for Missouri football Saturday as the Tigers suffered a 35-14 defeat to No. 21 Texas A&M that wasn’t nearly as close as what the score suggests.
Here are grades for all three Mizzou units, the best highlight of the game and a look ahead to the bye week.
PLAY OF THE GAME
Tyler Badie once again was one of the few bright spots for this struggling Mizzou team. The star running back had a 32-yard rushing touchdown in the second quarter that showed a lot of toughness. He made some great cuts and fought off a very pesky defender to get into the end zone to give the Tigers their first score of the day and make it a 21-7 game.
Obvious tweet of the day: Tyler Badie (@showtimeshine5) can run the football for #Mizzou pic.twitter.com/hniR81mAlz
— Nathalie Jones (@NathalieABC17) October 16, 2021
GRADES
Offense: D-. It says a lot about how bad your offense is doing when a head coach would rather run out the clock with well over a minute left until halftime than try to score. The Tigers scored their fewest points all season and quarterback Connor Bazelak struggled throughout the afternoon with two interceptions and no touchdowns. Going 6-for-17 on third downs isn’t great either.
Defense: D. Maybe this should be lower, but we’ll give the unit a little bit of credit for stopping the bleeding and not letting the game get completely out of hand after allowing the Aggies to jump out to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter. I don’t think there is a running back in the country that would struggle to score against the Tigers; they simply let opponents go untouched through massive gaps into the end zone over and over again. The unit allowed 431 yards, including 283 on the ground. Explosive plays were a big issue too.
Special teams: D. Usually special teams has been solid for Mizzou, but the return game was terrible against the Aggies. There wasn’t much more to judge here: there were only two extra points due to the lack of scoring and no field goal attempts. Punting was not as good as usual, but not terrible, at 39.2 yards per punt.
LOOKING AHEAD
Missouri has a bye week ahead, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be plenty to obsess over. Five-star wide receiver Luther Burden will be announcing his commitment on Tuesday in St. Louis. If he chooses the Tigers over Georgia and Alabama, he would be the No. 2 all-time recruit in program history.
