Mizzou 51, Vanderbilt 28: Grading the defense

Defensive Coordinator

Dave Steckel: 7.28 (season average: 6.44)

Comments:

A little more "break" than we'd like to see, but hard to know if it was scheme, lack of effort, or giving backups more PT. Did what they needed to do in 2nd half.

Beat Georgia

Best start for the defense all year

Better every week.

Better than last week

First half fantastic, second half a little too bendy, but it was irrelevant in the end

Great 1st Half; please no nap the 2nd half...thanks fans

Great job... but... Can't take your foot off the gas against SEC teams.

Great schemes. Hard to stop folks like Matthews, but did wonders across the board.

Helped by the early lead, I feel the D let off a little. Solid performance, but not overwhelming. Need to step it up for Jawja.

Impressive, pressure with 3 man fronts, shutout in 1st quarter, hold down Matthews for the first half, best game of the season so far

Looked good overall, secondary still a question mark but I'm not sure that's a coaching issue

Love the 3 man front. Back in the day, Hank Stram used to call that the "Triple Stack"

Making good calls, but the D still gives up points and yards, so I guess that is kind of him

Masterful 1st half, horrible 2nd

Mostly shut them down till it was all but over. -Mac6

Much better week than Ark St

not quite so much 'prevent' please!

Only 7 points in the 1st half and still the only SEC defensee that hasn't allowed more than 30 points in a game this season. Pretty impressive if you ask me

stuck with the plan and it worked pretty well - tommysaundershair

The first half was great.

We gave up 28 points to Vandy? They suck.

When you shut down the conference's best receiver and force the first 3 drives to end in 9 plays and 9 yards you get (SURPRISE) a 9.

Yeah, like I'm going to say something.

Defensive End

Michael Sam: 8.74 (season average: 7.10)
Markus Golden: 7.72 (6.83)
Kony Ealy: 7.68 (6.69)
Shane Ray: 6.73 (6.28)
Brayden Burnett: 6.39 (5.77)

Another DL of the week for Sam?? -Mac6

Awesome.

Beast. Mode. Engage.

BEASTS!

Beat Georgia

BEST perfomance of the year. Ealy seemed energetic, Golden made plays and Sam, well, we're gonna miss him next year.

golden and Sam were great. Ealy looks better every week

Good

Love the pressure on the QB with a 3 man front.

Mammoth?

Markus Golden is legitimately everywhere. In fact, he's right behind you.

Mizzou owns SEC D-lineman of the week

Our DEs are hungry. Keep it up.

Ray/Ealy were borderline unblockable all game..and Golden has some electic stretches

Sam and Kony were stellar

Sam is the face of this squad, Ealy is the talent (I think?) and Golden is the hard working motor.

SAM, SAM, twice the MAN!

Stable, as in horses

Still remember Sam's quote after interception in 2011 on what Steck would have been yelling "Get ya ass down Michael Sam"

These DE's are Mammoth

They are becoming monsters

Unit scoring. Sure accolades already given... Ditto!

Very good performance, Sam awesome again, 2 consecutive SECDLotW. Solid performance by the group.

Why can't I rank Michael Sams, he had such a good game. But seriously, these guys are crazy good.

Defensive Tackle

Lucas Vincent: 7.00 (season average: 6.12)
Harold Brantley: 6.81 (6.29)
Matt Hoch: 6.80 (6.01)
Josh Augusta: 6.53 (5.97)
Marvin Foster: 6.40 (5.64)

Beat Georgia

Brantley and Augusta are playing lights out. Hoch had some good plays. Vincent, seeing less of him with good play of Brantley and Augusta.

DE's getting the numbers, but DT's doing work too

Defensive success starts with the big boys in the middle.

DEs will get the glory but the DTs had good pressure up front, especially when we switched to the 3 man front.

Good job collapsing the middle of the line

great game from Vincent, he's getting a LOT of push

Josh Augusta is for real. Remember his name.

No stats, but they freed up everyone else to clean up. -Mac6

Our DTs allowed the DEs to eat all night

Pretty solid push up the middle all game

Solid performance. Got good push and disrupted offensive flow.

The DT's didn't get a chance to shine, I fell the were HELD back.

The Ends are so flashy the tackles are easy to overlook.

The work they do inside helps the edge rush do its thing.

They are constantly getting a good push and getting their hands up

They arn't getting nearly the glory as the DE's but if they weren't doing their job and doing it pretty well the DE's wouldn't look nearly as good.

They did well.

Unit scoring again.

Without them getting push up the middle, the DEs might not look as good.

Linebacker

Kentrell Brothers: 7.80 (season average: 6.33)
Andrew Wilson: 7.41 (6.67)
Donovan Bonner: 7.08 (6.12)
Darvin Ruise: 6.53 (5.97)

35 and counting.

A few big plays from the backers this week.

Beat Georgia

Best game by the LB unit yet. -Mac6

Best overall game by our LB this season. Very positive going Georgia game.

Better tackling than last week by the non-Wilson LBs. I think Brothers is getting better by the week.

Brother's gets the 9 for keeping the streak alive, LB's strong overall

Good game by the lb core

Making tackles and getting INTs, can't really say anything negative

Making tackles!! Brothers and Bonner, maybe their best games of the season.

Not the best tacklers?

people keep talking about Sam but it's Wilson who is shining brightest right now

please look for that crossing pattern and destory someone

So you all were also really impressive. Was really glad to see each of you step up in pass coverage this week.

Solid

The LBs did a really good job.

These guys didn't get the pub the DEs got but this was an outstanding effort as well

These guys were cleaning up everywhere. Brothers stands out with the INT but the whole LB corps did a great job smothering the Vandy O.

Unit performed well.

Very solid performance, INT by Brothers gets him highest rating for the group.

Why are LB's 25 yards deep? The underneath routes are a glaring weakness Georgia will try to exploit

WIlson is a tackling machine. Brothers was a revelation - his best game by far

Wilson is everywhere. I think I saw him make a tackle at the DMV this afternoon.

Wrap up boys!

Cornerback

E.J. Gaines: 7.64 (season average: 7.55)
Randy Ponder: 6.81 (5.96)
Aarion Penton: 6.49 (6.20)
David Johnson: 6.28 (5.77)
John Gibson: 6.23 (5.87)

ANother solid, but not spectacular performance. No complaints.

Beat Georgia

Congrats on holding Matthews down in the first half.

didn't notice any of these guys except gaines. Shut down the passing game in the first half though. Seems like Ponder is a significant upgrade over our backups

Dominated in the first half

Gaines in the 1st half was sensational that 2nd half never happened

Gaines is the best player on the team IMHO

Great showing here. Gaines was outstanding. Ponder didn't blow any big plays... he's coming around.

have to keep improving if we want to keep winning

I'm almost embarrassed to say that, other than E.J. Gaines, I have no idea what these other guys did.

Keep your eye on Gains. I think he's gonna be pretty good.

Like GP said, Matthews would get his yards but the 1st half effort allowed those yards not to be so meaningful

Love how EJ tackles

Mathews went off but he will do that to everyone, the CBs were pretty solid against the other WRs

Need to put a full game together, but great tackling.

Ponder had a solid game. EJ got worked a couple of times. -Mac6

So really the only thing I really remember about the Corners is EJ getting taken out on the screen touchdown play. They all must have had a pretty decent game since thats the only game where a single play stands out for this group

They shut down the passing game for a half, which is nice.

You get a 9, and you get a 9... Oprahfied!!

Safety

Braylon Webb: 6.87 (season average: 6.38)
Ian Simon: 6.33 (6.12)
Matt White: 6.22 (5.71)
Duron Singleton: 5.76 (5.66)

Beat Georgia

Everyone wants to know why Webb and White are still the starters. I can tell you why cause they don't look nearly as lost on passing plays yea they arn't the fastest guys but more often than not it stays in front of them. I still like this group but they just have to keep working.

Find the ball in the air...Please

I fear for their well being

I really wish for his sake, Matt White could have held on to the interception.

I thought it was Webb's best all around game. A quiet game from the other safetys which isn't a bad thing.

Matt catch the ball!!!!!!

Matt White's dropped interception was a bold display of incompetence or point shaving. Maybe both!

No complaints. Singleton beaten once, but have to consider by whom.

Not as good a game as I would have liked.

Not too bad.

Plenty of talent here, just need to get it straightened out. Preferably before this Saturday

Probably our weakest position

Singleton had a big hit that forced a fumble that wasn't recovered but also gave up a TD pass way too easily. Needs to work on coverage.

Singleton had a Matt White kind of day.

Singleton is not ready yet for SEC play. -Mac6

Singleton looked lost on a few plays.

Singleton's got a little bit to work on.

This is where we need help. Singleton made a big play forcing the fumble on Matthews, but then gave up the big play.

We'll need a better effort this week.

Webb is on and off, White didn't suck

Webb unleashed a vicious hit on Matthews

worried about Singleton, needs to start putting it all together

You tried your best and failed. The lesson here is, never try.

Special Teams

Andrew Baggett (kickoffs): 8.45 (season average: 8.06)
Andrew Baggett (place-kicking): 8.27 (5.95)
Jake Hurrell (long snapping): 7.74 (7.26)
Braylon Webb (holding): 7.73 (7.19)
Christian Brinser: 7.38 (6.46)

3/3 of FG's and every kick off was pretty means you get high grades Baggett. Brinser your one punt of 42 yards was pretty solid. Webb and Hurrell get high marks because when nothing goes wrong that means it was probably a good day for them

A near perfect effort - 9's all around

all is well here

Andrew "Wolfert" BAGGETT!!!!

Baggett looked great, and our kickoffs are outstanding. -Mac6

BAGGETT!

Baggs was great on FGs, the KOs and he had a tackle. When your punter is bored, that's fantastic.

Beat Georgia

Best Kicking game of the year by FAR

BEST. GAME. YEST. Thank you Baggett for being intimidated by the fan that kicked the 30 yarder last week.

Brinser was amazing can't praise him enough,

Brinser, if you want your rating to go up, you need to punt more, c'mon man. Get with it. :) Bagget did good, but have to rate Brinser average.

Brisner gets a 9 for showing up and doing his job right once

Getting field goals feels good!!

Great game all around. I'll take perfect FG Baggett with 1 or 2 returns over a couple misses and all touchbacks. Thanks for the punt Briz

Great game for special teams ! Keep it up.

I was incredibly relieved to find out, when our kickoffs don't go out of the endzone, our special teams still know how to tackle.

Kicks all good, holds all good, snaps all good, sounds good

Surprised they attempted returns at all. Nearly forgot we had a punter. Let's quietly enjoy snaps and holds that don't make headlines.

Thank you Andrew. More of that please

Thats the Bagget I've been waiting to see. The fieldgoals weren't beautiful, but they went in and it has to build his confidence going into the gauntlet

The kicks look a little better, but our long snapping is off the chain!

They certainly were