Diving into why Missouri football’s offense is stalling out in scoring position

Missouri football has had a couple close calls.

The Tigers had to come from behind to beat a ranked Boston College team Sept. 14, but probably could have had that one-score game finished earlier. Then, Mizzou went all the way to double-overtime before seeing off Vanderbilt last Saturday.

No. 11-ranked Missouri is surviving, but it isn’t quite thriving.

Busted coverages for touchdowns have played a part. Drive-busting penalties and kicking issues have reared. But there seems to be one clear recurring issue.

“I mean, that’s the unfortunate thing right now. We’re just not able, in the red zone, to finish drives,” Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz said after the Vanderbilt matchup. “And we’ve got take a really hard look at that on what we’re not able to do in the red zone and why we’re not able to get touchdowns in there. You know, the three field goal (misses)? At the end of the day, we’ve got to be scoring touchdowns.”

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With a third of Missouri’s regular season in the books, it’s not a far-flung assumption that a fair chunk of the playbook is on tape.

The Tigers don’t look particularly adventurous in the passing game. Their bread and butter has been short-yardage throws, a reliance on yards after the catch from their playmakers and a rushing attack that is clicking on all fronts. The deep ball hasn’t developed yet, and until proven otherwise doesn’t appear to be a big part of the plan.

The Tigers are sustaining drives with the eighth-best third-down completion rate (54.7%) in the FBS. Even against Vanderbilt and Boston College, that ratio is sitting at 50%. Most of what MU is trying to do is just about working.

Until it…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/diving-why-missouri-football-offense-080822948.html

Author : Columbia Daily Tribune

Publish date : 2024-09-25 08:08:22

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