Missouri’s offense had to be perfect against Georgia but was merely good instead

Both Rock M’s Tramel Raggs and Tashan Reed were on hand in Athens this weekend, and they teamed up nicely — Tashan wrote the post-game piece, and Tramel did the Facebook Live session and took video.

Meanwhile, here are a few videos from (the former) Mizzou Network:

One of the primary topics of conversation for Barry Odom afterward: how to mask a dreadfully unready secondary.

“First and second down defense was better at times,” Odom said optimistically.

The formula for beating Georgia coming in was to force its offense to go to the air, and Missouri did that. But the unit wasn’t good enough to stop the Bulldogs through the air. Fromm slowed down eventually, but the measures that Missouri had to take to stop the pass crippled its run defense. Georgia finished with 370 rushing yards on 51 attempts.

First and second downs were indeed pretty good for a while! And that doesn’t matter at all if Jake Fromm has 45 seconds to find an open receiver on third-and-11. It all ties together.

The Tigers were younger in the secondary but not much better as Georgia pillaged the Mizzou defense for 696 yards in the 53-28 victory. The Tigers managed one takeaway and only one sack.

“In our man-to-man coverage we weren’t very good,” Odom said. “We went to a zone concept and didn’t get enough rush in time to be able to cover up all the zones. … I was hoping we could get a little more pressure early on and it didn’t happen.”

Basically, the secondary’s troubles forced the offense to be perfect against a really, really good Georgia defense. It was merely good.

The search for answers will continue, and as it pertains to the morale in the locker room, everyone is saying the right things. That’s good because there are a lot of wins remaining on Missouri’s schedule for a decent, competent team. There are neither any sure wins or sure losses. (We’ll be diving more into this soon.) Can Mizzou reach “decent, competent” stage?

More Links:

• Time for a history lesson! Catch up on what you don’t know about Homecoming at Ol’ Mizzou.
• Mizzou Hoops had a pro day over the weekend ... before the season even started. I guess I didn’t realize that was actually a thing. Meanwhile, Jordan Barnett remembers Tyshawn Taylor’s missed free throws, so all is right with the world.
• Mizzou Volleyball’s win streak is over. The Tigers were upset in four sets at Tennessee to fall to 5-2 in conference play and 12-8 overall. As hot as they’ve been, they can’t afford too many upsets like that if they want to reach the NCAA Tournament — a 7-6 non-conference gives you minimal margin for error.

• Mizzou golfer Hayden Buckley won the Bank of Tennessee Intercollegiate over the weekend, but the top-10 Tigers finished only fourth overall, behind Penn State, Kent State, and Louisville.
• Wait ... Karissa Schweizer lost a race??? Burn this entire athletic department to the ground and start over. Everything is broken.
• Mizzou Swimming and Diving had a mixed weekend — the men beat South Carolina on the very last race of a dual, while the women lost semi-close battles with Arkansas and South Carolina.

(This weekend kinda stunk overall, honestly.)

• For the second straight year, Mizzou students will have the chance to see what goes into #TigerStyle up close: Mizzou Wrestling will have an open practice at the Missouri Student Center on Thursday.
• New PAPN! In which I dream of a playoff that features Oklahoma State vs. Penn State and Miami vs. Georgia.