Georgia’s Kirby Smart on Missouri: “They stop themselves. People don’t stop them.”

Leave it to an opposing coach to describe Mizzou’s offense in a pretty apt way:

While the Tigers plod into Athens, Ga., on a four-game losing streak, Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart is mindful of Mizzou’s firepower. Lock leads all Football Bowl Subdivision quarterbacks with eight pass plays of 50 yards or more. Moore leads the country with four 50-yard receptions. A year ago, Lock threw for 376 yards and three touchdowns in a one-point loss to Georgia.

Turnovers, Smart noted, were Mizzou’s trouble last season and again this fall.

“They were very hard to defend last year, and they are very hard to defend this year,” Smart said this week. “They stop themselves. People don’t stop them.”

Now, that’s a little bit of “Oh no, our next opponent is so good, I just don’t know how we’re going to compete” coach-spin (Kirby Smart did learn from Nick Saban, after all), but ... it’s not that far from the truth.

Mizzou has fumbled twice as many times as its opponents (though granted, the Tigers have still been drastically unlucky regarding the tiny percentage of those fumbles they have recovered), and they have had 22 passes defensed (intercepted or broken up) to their opponent’s nine. Mizzou’s turnovers luck has been dreadful this year, but the turnover opportunities are also drastically in opponents’ favor.

More Football Links

• Mizzou’s running backs were mostly awesome against Kentucky (Damarea Crockett’s fumble aside), but they got help from a pretty good line. Paul Adams and Kevin Pendleton both made PFF’s SEC offensive team of the week.

• Emanuel Hall is really good at going long, and Drew Lock is pretty good at throwing long.
• Mizzou is midway through a marathon or something.
• Josh Heupel says that whole “Alec Abeln at fullback” thing isn’t likely to remain a thing moving forward. I’m going to say he’s bluffing, if only because ... why the heck would you only do it like twice?
• PowerMizzou took a look back at the highest-rated members of Missouri’s 2013 recruiting class. They, uh, didn’t play like high-rated recruits.
• Recruiting is, uh, not going very well at the moment, but South Carolina defensive end Trajan Jeffcoat liked what he saw on a recent visit.
• Boom.

More Links:

• Soon-to-be Mizzou hall-of-famer Dennis Poppe got the profile treatment at MUtigers.com. “I always thought of Mizzou as a part of my family. And now they’re telling me ‘you did ok son’. It is pretty remarkable a small-town farm boy could make this journey. But I couldn’t have done it without my Mizzou family.”
• The Scherzers + Humane Rescue Alliance = lots and lots of pet adoptions.
• Jamie Kempfer: Tiger Tough.