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Drew Lock has a solid game, but can’t pull a W in his first start of 2020

Mizzou Links for Tuesday, September 15

By Josh Matejka

Lock’s first start of 2020: Fine, but could’ve been better

If there’s one GIF I could use to summarize my Twitter feed heading into the Broncos-Titans Monday Night Football matchup on Monday, it’s this.

It’s actually sort of embarrassing the amount of times that video popped up in my feed through the hours of 9 to 10 Eastern Time. Like, come on, y’all, you can’t even pull up the time Drew drank a random water bottle thrown from the stands? Y’all are not playing this game correctly.

Anyway, to the game...

It was a good start for Lock, who found tight end Noah Fans in the first quarter for his first touchdown pass of the season. And, y’all — it was a beaut.

That’s everything you love about Lock — the confidence melding perfectly with the cannon arm and the pinpoint accuracy on the move. If Lock ends up having a long career in the NFL, expect to see a lot more throws like that end up in highlight reels.

If you turn strictly to the box score, the totality of Lock’s game wasn’t all that impressive — 22/33, 216 yards, 1 touchdown — but numbers don’t tell the whole story. Lock led the Broncos to the goal line later in the first half, but Denver couldn’t come away with any points after being stuffed on a questionably-called fourth down pitch. And while rookie receiver Jerry Jeudy ended up having a nice game in his own right, he dropped two passes that hit him in stride, both of which would’ve turned into 20+ yard gains. That’s another 40 yards — and more potential points — that were lost. Of course, Lock wasn’t perfect either. He missed an easy dump off to one of his tight ends near the goal line and overthrew a receiver on a crucial drive in the fourth quarter.

It was those mistakes — and the bone-headed coaching of Vic Fangio — that hurt him in the end. After a solid game of its own, Denver’s defense bent but didn’t break, letting Tennessee drive deep into the red zone. After some other-worldly bad clock management by Vic Fangio, Stephen Gostowski was able to finally hit his first field goal of the night (after 3 misses!), putting Denver on its own 25 with 17 seconds left. Lock completed a long pass, but couldn’t land a last second Hail Mary, dropping Denver to 0-1.

If you’re looking on the bright side, it was a decent performance for a second-year QB who was missing one of his weapons out of the back field (Phillip Lindsay left the game with an injury) and was hurt by some brutal drops by his rookie wideout. Lock wasn’t perfect, but he was far from bad. It’s certainly not the worst building block for his first full season as an NFL starter — even if he’d probably tell you the win was more important than anything.

Yesterday at Rock M

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This could be a pretty nice get for the Tigers, as Smith averaged a double-double in her lone college year in Australia.

  • Another Mizzou Football target in the 2021 class is making up his mind in the next month.

Walker is a 3-star defensive line recruit, in case Drink wanted to really stack up what is already a fantastic cycle for the D-Line.

  • Mizzou could very well grab their first commitment of the 2022 class in the coming weeks, as a top TE target announced his commitment date

Whisner hails from the Kansas City area of the state.

  • Speaking of TE recruits, here’s some recent tape to get you excited about Ryan Hoerstkamp, the 2021 commit out of Washington, MO (who is still being pursued by Alabama)
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