It was an up and down day for Missouri in Nashville, but the Tigers were able to come away with a victory by riding Tyler Badie to the win. Badie by himself created so many yards out of nothing, but this specific sequence below was a team effort.

Part One

To set the scene, after a QB sweep on third down the previous drive, Tyler Macon assumes the QB position for the remainder of the game. Everyone knows Missouri needs to get a couple of first downs to kill this game, but it’s how they got it done that’s impressive.

In this first frame, you see here that they called an outside zone run. It’s a play that Missouri runs often, and had been extremely successful with throughout the game. As the line takes a bucket step to the left, I want to focus on Missouri’s tight end to the left side, #80 Messiah Swinson.

Swinson takes his initial step to the left and looks to be matched up with a Vanderbilt corner, who he does a great job of getting him out of the play without holding. He completely kicks him out, and that opens up the hole that Badie eventually ran through. Excellent job there.

Part Two

In the first frame, you saw Messiah Swinson help open up a beautiful hole for Badie to run through. In that same frame, you’ll see DPJ line up as an offset fullback, and be the lead blocker for Badie.

Parker Jr. sprints through the hole and helps #76 Javon Foster get a combo block on the Vandy defensive lineman. They both take him far enough until Parker Jr. is able to peel off and continue downfield looking for more people to block. Another excellent block, given the situation.

Badie does a great job of walking the tightrope, and staying in bounds to keep gaining yards before he was eventually ran out near the goal line. This play, though, was just a little bit of everybody doing their job and creating space for Badie to run. Credit to both of the tight ends for taking the blocking part of their job seriously, because it has been springing runs all season.

And then...

The play that will surely inspire tons of reasonable discourse this week...

Badie was ripping the Commodore defense to shreds, so it wasn’t surprising to see them overcommit to stopping him the way they did, and from there it was an easy decision for Macon to keep the ball and trot in for 6.

This wasn’t always the prettiest game, but Missouri had the best player on the field, and when they needed him to make a play, he usually did. In this sequence, he got plenty of help from his blockers and was able to ice this game because of the long run. The touchdown that followed was good for everyone’s blood pressure and made it a two score game.

I know it was a close win against Vandy, but cherish this win. Weeks when your favorite team wins aren’t ever guaranteed, and this sure as hell beats the discussion we would be having if they had lost.

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