Missouri football gets crushed by Tennessee. Here are 3 takeaways from the loss
KNOXVILLE, TENN - The Volunteers were just too much. Missouri football showed some fight on Saturday against Tennessee, but in the end, the Tigers lost to a more talented team.
Missouri fell to 4-6 overall, and 2-6 in the SEC heading into next Saturday’s matchup with New Mexico State.
Here are three takeaways from Saturday’s 66-24 loss.
Getting it started
MU's early offense has been a major struggle throughout the 2022 season. Given Tennessee’s ability to absolutely bludgeon opponents with quick starts, it was going to be important to remedy the problems on Saturday.
On the Tigers’ opening drive, it was business as usual. Missouri avoided negative plays on first and second down, with runs by Dominic Lovett and Cody Schrader gaining a total of four yards.
Then, quarterback Brady Cook looked for Lovett, but the pass was incomplete. Jack Stonehouse punted, and the Volunteers marched 91 yards down the field to take the early lead.
On their second drive, it was another Missouri three and out. However, after the defense came through with a fourth down sack by DJ Coleman deep in Tiger territory, it finally made a move.
Missouri went on a nine-play 68-yard drive in its last drive of the first quarter. After a third down play came up short, Harrison Mevis made a field goal, but the Volunteers lined up over the long snapper, giving MU a first down on the four-yard line.
On first down, Cook hit Luther Burden, who made a move and found his way into the end zone to tie the game up. After being so thoroughly demolished early in last season’s game against UT, the Tigers ended the first quarter of Saturday’s game with the score tied at seven.
Four-down territory
Former Missouri offensive coordinator Josh Heupel, now Tennessee’s head coach, loves to go for it on fourth down. On Saturday, he was back to his old tricks, to mixed results early on.
After taking a 7-0 lead, without much trouble, Tennessee drove down the field a second time in the first quarter. Facing a fourth and 4 from MU’s 27, Heupel elected to keep his offense on the field.
Missouri’s defense stood strong on that one, with its line collapsing the pocked around Hooker before Coleman took down the Volunteer signal-caller. The Tigers turned the next drive into a score.
On the very next offensive possession, Heupel and UT went for it again. This time, Hooker threw a dart down the middle to Jalin Hyatt for the conversion and the Volunteers scored on the next play.
Hooker was later stopped by Chad Bailey while trying to run for a four-down conversion. The Tigers took the ensuing drive for a field goal to end the half.
Drinkwitz also tried to keep the chains moving on fourth downs in the first half. He started by trying to draw the Volunteers using Tyler Macon under center as a decoy. Just like every other time he has tried the move this season, it didn’t work and MU instead punted.
The next time, Cook dropped back and found Tauskie Dove downfield. Dove made a tough catch, then escaped the defense for a 43-yard Tiger touchdown.
Late in the game, the Tigers actually snapped the ball and ran a play with Macon under center on fourth down. It went extremely poorly, with Elijah Young dropping a pitch and Tennessee picking up the fumble.
Outgunned
When it came down to it, Tennessee was simply better than Missouri. The Tigers had their chances, but in the end, the Volunteer attack was just too much.
Missouri needed to play a nearly perfect game. Instead, the offense continued to sputter.
Perhaps most bafflingly, at the end of the first half, after a short Cook run had time winding down, Eli Drinkwitz didn’t use his final timeout and try to score a touchdown. Instead, the clock ran to five seconds, before Harrison Mevis came on for a field goal.
Still, it might not have mattered that much. Tennessee’s offense had trouble blocking Missouri at times, but Hooker and company were still explosive enough when it counted. MU consistently had trouble stopping the Tennessee wideouts, and the running game provided enough of a counter to keep the Tigers honest.
Missouri drove all the way down the field for a touchdown to bring the score within four points in the second half. Then, in an encapsulation of most of the game, Tennessee ran two plays and Jaylin Hyatt scored a 68-yard touchdown to expand the lead back.
After a MU punt, Tennessee scored again.
Saturday’s game was a much-improved performance compared to MU’s 63-24 embarrassment in Columbia last year. It could be seen as a sign of progress, in part due to how much better Tennessee also is this season.
Still, Missouri looked to be fairly far off from actually being able to win a game like Saturday in Knoxville.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Mizzou football: Tennessee beats Tigers in SEC game
