Snap volume increased for Missouri's starters in the Tigers' second shutout victory of the young college football season, but the first-team was still dominant enough to get a fourth-quarter breather.Â
On offense, Mizzou got 26 players into the game while using 28 on the defensive side of the ball. That means there are plenty of individual performances to dissect through Pro Football Focus' grades and advanced stats.
Your usual weekly reminder of how these work: The grades come from PFF — not this writer. They're at times misaligned with what happened on the field, especially when there's a small sample size, like some players in this game. They're not worth getting worked up about.
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Offensive line
- LT Marcus Bryant, 81 snaps, 68.1
- LG Cayden Green, 81 snaps, 53.4
- C Connor Tollison, 81 snaps, 68.8
- RG Mitchell Walters, 81 snaps, 67.9
- RT Armand Membou, 81 snaps, 73.0
- RT Tristan Wilson, 14 snaps, 56.1
- LT Jayven Richardson, 10 snaps, 60.4
- LG Logan Reichert, 10 snaps, 59.9
- C Drake Heismeyer, 10 snaps, 58.9
- RG Curtis Peagler, 10 snaps, 58.6
Walters subbed in for usual starting right guard Cam'Ron Johnson just before the game after Johnson suffered an injury during Wednesday's practice that led him to dress out for Saturday's game — but as an emergency option. Walters has started before and that experienced showed — he had the Mizzou O-line's highest pass blocking grade and didn't allow a pressure.
Of the five quarterback pressures that the Tigers' blockers allowed, three were attributed to Bryant, one to Green and one to Membou.Â
There were also a handful of penalties distributed across the offensive line. Two went to Membou, one to Green, one to Tollison and one to Walters. After the game, coach Eli Drinkwitz seemed rather bemused by holding calls in particular, with his initial frustration directed more at the officials than his linemen.
Quarterbacks
- Brady Cook, 71 snaps, 83.4
- Drew Pyne, 20 snaps, 68.8
Cook's overall grade was the highest of any Mizzou offensive player, which feels like the sort of thing that many of you will have thoughts about.Â
He was stellar when the pocket was clean, which was the case on 27 of his 39 dropbacks. In those situations, Cook finished 24 for 25 (96% completion) for 232 yards.Â
Now for the math problem — Cook finished with 228 passing yards total. Odd, right?
The 12 dropbacks that resulted in Cook facing pressure led to 11 throws and just four completions, totaling -4 yards.Â
(PFF's definition of a pressure allowed by an offensive line and a quarterback facing pressure are obviously different, based on the numbers from these first two sections.)
Cook threw to targets 20 yards or farther downfield three times for one completion, one drop and one incompletion — a 90.3 deep passing grade in PFF's book.Â
His average time to throw was 2.3 seconds, slightly quicker than 2.41 against Murray State. That metric is one to watch as the season goes. He held the ball far longer against pressure, which led to the negative yardage total, so perhaps a correlation will develop.
Running backs
- Nate Noel, 53 snaps, 69.6
- Marcus Carroll, 27 snaps, 73.2
- Kewan Lacy, 8 snaps, 57.8
- Jamal Roberts, 4 snaps, 70.9
Noel continues to be the first option at tailback with Carroll as a regular change of pace. After getting some third-down work with the first-team offense in the opener, Roberts didn't seem to get the same usage this time. Tavorus Jones did not appear.
Though Carroll is branded as the more bruising tailback, Noel did well as a physical runner, averaging 3 yards after contact per attempt. He forced four missed tackles — but so did Lacy, with the latter doing so in just five carries.
With Noel in the gap, Mizzou favored zone runs to gap plays at a 2:1 clip. The Tigers were more balanced on Carroll's plays.Â
Excluding jet sweeps and end arounds, Missouri ran the ball to the left side more often than it did the right side — 20 times left to 13 times right. In terms of yards per attempt, the gap between Tollison and Walters (Heismeyer and Peagler when the second team was in) was the most efficient, yielding 8.8 yards per attempt.
Wide receivers/tight ends
- WR Mookie Cooper, 50 snaps, 55.3
- WR Mekhi Miller, 49 snaps, 50.9
- WR Marquis Johnson, 45 snaps, 67.8
- WR Theo Wease Jr., 45 snaps, 75.4
- WR Joshua Manning, 40 snaps, 63.5
- TE Tyler Stephens, 40 snaps, 45.4
- TE Jordon Harris, 39 snaps, 66.4
- WR Daniel Blood, 29 snaps, 59.6
- WR Luther Burden III, 21 snaps, 69.4
- WR Logan Muckey, 1 snap, 60.0
The wideout position in particular is difficult to evaluate since this spread of snaps doesn't seem like it'll be the case against higher-level competition later on, and Burden's illness cut his night quite short. Notably, from a participation standpoint, freshmen receivers Courtney Crutchfield and James Madison II did not enter the game even in blowout territory, which is perhaps confirmation of the assumption they'll be redshirting.
A career night for Wease in terms of both catches and yardage saw him manage an efficient 5.96 yards per route run. Of his 149 receiving yards, 73 came after the catch — he continues to show speed with the ball in his hands.
Despite seeing the field often, Miller was only targeted once.
Stephens and Harris, the two tight ends used with starter Brett Norfleet sidelined, saw just three total targets — a lack of usage that would seem abnormal and perhaps something related to Cook's play under pressure.
Defensive line
- DE Zion Young, 31 snaps, 67.1
- DE Johnny Walker Jr., 30 snaps, 80.8
- DT Kristian Williams, 26 snaps, 64.9
- DT Chris McCellan, 21 snaps, 60.9
- DT Marquis Gracial, 17 snaps, 58.7
- DE Eddie Kelly Jr., 16 snaps, 57.2
- DT Sterling Webb, 16 snaps, 27.9
- DE Jahkai Lang, 15 snaps, 74.0
- DE Joe Moore III, 12 snaps, 91.7
- DT Jalen Marshall, 10 snaps, 67.0
- DT Sam Williams, 7 snaps, 51.3
First, that Kelly played at all is notable following his mother's unexpected death on Wednesday — his teammates said they were playing for him and his family during the shutout.
Moore's impact was quite outsized compared to his snap count, with four quarterback pressures in just 10 pass rushes. Walker was not far behind with three pressures.
PFF's grade for Webb is wildly low, and it isn't clear what the algorithm didn't like.Â
While Buffalo quarterback CJ Ogbonna isn't much of a pocket passer, he faced pressure on 45.8% of his dropbacks. Missouri blitzed on 25% of Buffalo's passing plays.Â
Linebackers
- Triston Newson, 24 snaps, 64.2
- Khalil Jacobs, 23 snaps, 68.0
- Chuck Hicks, 21 snaps, 60.0
- Corey Flagg Jr., 19 snaps, 77.3
- Jeremiah Beasley, 5 snaps, 56.3
- Brayshawn Littlejohn, 5 snaps, 74.9
The top four at this position seem remarkably even. The PFF grades support this beat writer's wondering if Flagg and Jacobs, two offseason transfers, could wind up supplanting Newson and Hicks as starters before the season's end — but that's just a thought.
Flagg covers ground remarkably well when he's in the game, involving himself on six tackles in 19 snaps.Â
No Mizzou defender missed more than one tackle, which is a positive sign.Â
Defensive backs
- CB Toriano Pride Jr., 47 snaps, 62.8
- CB Dreyden Norwood, 44 snaps, 73.8
- STAR Sidney Williams Sr., 33 snaps, 67.7
- S Marvin Burks Jr., 32 snaps, 77.1
- S Tre'Vez Johnson, 30 snaps, 61.5
- S Joseph Charleston, 29 snaps, 74.2
- STAR Daylan Carnell, 25 snaps, 59.1
- CB Nicholas Deloach Jr., 15 snaps, 65.7
- S Caleb Flagg, 13 snaps, 66.5
- CB Marcus Clarke, 5 snaps, 69.7
- S Phillip Roche, 1 snap, 60.0
Missouri's secondary is another area where snap counts might not give the full picture of who will see the field in the season's biggest games. While it's clear Deloach will see the field as the third corner, it also seems clear through two games that he won't be beating out Pride for a starting role — the Clemson transfer and Norwood are the tandem.
Burks has, somehow, earned the exact same PFF grade through his first two games as a starter. That kind of consistency was helped by his first career interception on Saturday.
Mizzou's cornerbacks held up tremendously in coverage. Buffalo targeted Norwood five times and Pride four times, and each allowed only one catch. The reception that came against Norwood was for a four-yard loss.Â
The Tigers' secondary has yet to commit a coverage penalty – like holding or pass interference — through two games.Â