WELCOME TO MIZZOU FOOTBALL SATURDAY
We’re into the latter half of Missouri football’s four-game home stretch to begin the 2017 season, and it’s up against one of college football’s most-improved squads two weeks in, the Purdue Boilermakers.
After going a dreadful 9-39 overall (3-30 in B1G play) combined in the past four seasons under Darrell Hazell, former Western Kentucky head coach Jeff Brohm has taken the reigns. The results have been pleasantly surprising thus far.
The Boilermakers had a lead in the fourth quarter in Indianapolis vs. AP #16 Louisville in their season-opener, before a late Lamar Jackson touchdown pass put the Cardinals ahead up for good. Purdue then responded the next week by amassing 558 yards and a 24-0 first-half run en route to a dominant 44-21 home victory against Ohio.
While Purdue was running wild in West Lafayette, Mizzou suffered a demoralizing loss at the hands of South Carolina in Columbia Saturday. The firing of defensive coordinator DeMontie Cross a day later hasn’t helped things. Put simply, momentum is the Boilermakers’ best friend right now, and the Tigers’ worst enemy.
Of course, the game is very winnable for Mizzou, and they are comfortable favorites right now with the game in Memorial Stadium at -7.5. All hope isn’t lost because Mizzou football has had a rough week. Mizzou fans in particular (myself included) tend to overinflate the impacts of the bad stuff.
Still, this game is hard to predict. Drew Lock could zing passes left and right like he did against Missouri State, but also could fold under pressure like he did so often against South Carolina. Damarea Crockett has been a beast, but this team held the defending Heisman Trophy winner under his 2016 average for rushing yards per game. Crockett should be effective; it’s only a measure of how effective.
The defense - maybe looking to prove a point after Cross’s firing - could be solid once again after last week’s performance. The possibility still remains, however, that coverage issues could spell doom for the Tigers against Boiler QBs David Blough and Elijah Sindelar, both of which are in a competition for the starting job (Blough has thrown five TDs to Sindelar’s three.)
All this uncertainty adds to the fun of it all!
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Right? M-I-Z...
WHO ARE WE PLAYING?: Purdue (1-1)
WHEN’S KICKOFF?: 3:00 p.m. CT
WHERE’S IT AT?: Faurot Field (71,186)
WHAT DOES VEGAS SAY?: Missouri -7.5
WHAT DOES S&P+ SAY?: Missouri by 12
WHERE TO WATCH/LISTEN:
TV: SEC Network (Dave Neal, Matt Stinchcomb, Dawn Davenport)
RADIO: Tiger Network (Mike Kelly, Howard Richards, Chris Gervino)
Television: ESPN2 - Channel Finder
Radio: Tiger Radio Network // Sirius/XM -119/199
Twitter: @MizzouFootball
Facebook: Mizzou Football
STATS: MizzouStats