The Missouri Tigers won 27-17 on Saturday night, but not without some hiccups. A 73-yard touchdown on the first drive and a field goal from Troy had the Tigers in a 10-0 hole quickly.
Missouri’s head coach Eli Drinkwitz spoke on both the positives and negatives from the Tigers’ win Saturday night with one repeated phrase: “lots of things to work on.” Missouri heads to Starkville next week to open SEC play with the 3-0 Mississippi State Bulldogs.
Eli Drinkwitz On The Defense
The Tigers’ defense was split into two 30-minute chapters. In the first half, there were two chunk-play touchdowns, a long, grueling drive leading to a field goal.
Missouri allowed a 10:32 drive that bled most of the first quarter of the clock, but after that, the Tigers forced a pair of turnovers.
“It’s awful,” Drinkwitz said about the first touchdown by the Trojans. Both of the touchdowns by Troy on Saturday were via the pass, and both were attributed to a lack of safety help by the Missouri head coach.
On the positive side, Drinkwitz praised the defense’s ability to lock down the Troy offense in the second half, not allowing a single point. Troy attempted a field goal that was hooked and missed to the left.
Missouri’s defensive pressure was consistent, including the continued breakout from Daeden Hopkins, who was the SEC Co-Defensive Lineman of the Week following the win against Kansas.
Mizzou’s Offensive Struggles
Drinkwitz noted that the offense was unable to get in a rhythm against Troy. Last week’s SEC Offensive Player of the Week, Austin Simmons, only threw for 91 passing yards.
“There were receivers falling down, receivers running routes too deep, quarterback throwing the ball too early, offensive holding, getting behind the sticks, inefficient runs on first down, inability to utilize play action to create separation in the second level of the defense,” Drinkwitz said postgame. “A lot of things to fix.”
Missouri’s offense was 2 for 11 on third down in Saturday’s contest. Drinkwitz covered the contributing factors but would also say that they were unable to find a rhythm on offense and get Simmons comfortable, although he was not sacked yet again.
After two masterful performances, Simmons and the Tigers offense had their first truly disappointing outing of the season. Drinkwitz referred back to the Tigers’ win over Middle Tennessee in 2023, the season they won the Cotton Bowl. The Mizzou head coach mentioned that while that one was ugly, they came out the next week and did what they needed to beat Kansas State.
Missouri’s Road Only Gets Tougher
Mizzou begins conference play against Mississippi State next week, and the road doesn’t get easier from there. November is especially tough, but entering week three of the season, five ranked opponents rest in the Tigers’ way. This includes four top-10 teams and the AP Poll No. 1 Texas and No. 2 Georgia.
Drinkwitz wanted to be sure that everyone knew that, while he was going to enjoy the win, he was not satisfied with how his team performed on Saturday night.
‘A Lot Of Things To Work On’ Mizzou’s Eli Drinkwitz Says After Win