Missouri's quarterback rotation worked well enough in Week 1 to continue it

No awkwardness in the QB rotation (yet)

The Trib: Lock makes room for new favorite memories

Then there was the moment after the game, when Lock was exchanging congratulations with fans in the student section and heard a familiar voice shout out "3," his jersey number. It was his father hustling down the stands.

First postgame hug.

"When I sit down tonight to take everything in, that will be my favorite moment," Lock said of the father-son embrace.

Lock’s debut was about on par with what he’s shown in preseason scrimmages, which is to say, quite impressive. He completed 6 of 10 passes for 138 yards, guiding the Tigers to 10 points on three drives. One of his incompletions was a dropped bubble screen by fellow true freshman Emanuel Hall, and two others were actually caught out of bounds. He did take one sack and forced a dangerous throw into double coverage on his last attempt, but it was a positive start.

Lock had a couple of iffy moments, which probably helped to tamp down what would have otherwise been runaway enthusiasm. But I figure his audition was more than good enough to keep the "one series in the first half (and maybe another one later)" rotation going. And he's different enough from Maty Mauk that it could result in a nice change of pace. It did on Saturday, anyway. (I have no idea what this means for 2016, but we'll worry about that later.

Plenty of awkwardness in the run game

MUtigers.com: Game Quotes

About the injured players, Russell Hansbrough and Evan Boehm:

"Their ankles, the middle of your offense; center, quarterback, tailback. Those are the spots that are obviously so critical to success and we have a shot with two of those guys. Hopefully we will get them back, we don't know when. Evan came in and played the first half and we got him out. But that is also the sense of urgency to get people ready to play."

Was that precautionary to get him out?

"Evan? He played the first half sore, he was limping around a little bit. We thought it would be wise to get him out. Russell, you saw all his running. That's a huge loss for us because I think Russell is a very high-level player. The things we have seen in practice… We are excited about getting him back and getting players ready to play."

On how the running game performed following Hansbrough:

"It was interesting because I believe in the 6 series we had the second half I think 4 of them were in the 10-yard line, which is very limited what you're going to do down there. Especially with how the score is and how your defense is planning to take off are things to take in to consideration. Two times we were inside the 20. So there are 6 times we were in very good field position, its kind of hard to evaluate that. At times we need to block better and times we need to run better. When Morgan (Stewart) was out there he did some really good things. Not back yet 100 percent"

The Trib: Rushing attack lacks burst after Hansbrough injures ankle
Post-Dispatch: Mizzou notes: Ankle injuries sideline Tigers' captains
PowerMizzou: The Replacements
Post-Dispatch: Matter's Mizzou Four & Out

After the game, Pinkel talked about the "urgency" of getting backup players to prepared for bigger roles. Pinkel mentioned that Ish Witter (33 yards on 13 carries) was banged up some after the game, while Hunt (5-20) was playing with a sore groin. We know Morgan Steward (5-14) isn’t quite 100 percent healed from his hip surgery. It doesn’t appear Chase Abbington will have an extensive role early in the season — he got one carry for 5 yards — but the juco transfer could be pressed into duty if Hansbrough’s injury lingers. Either way, the staff might want to invest in some bubble wrap for the senior tailback.

You do have to figure that there is quite a bit of read option in Missouri's future, especially if Hansbrough is out for this coming week. (My guess is that, when the depth chart is released, Hansbrough's name is atop the tailbacks list, but that he'll still end up being a go-no-go decision later in the week. They only take your name off the depth chart if you're definitely out.)

J'Mon playing hurt (all year)

The Trib: NOTES: Missouri 34, SEMO 3

Missouri wide receiver J’Mon Moore faced a decision a few weeks ago. He could have season-ending surgery on his left shoulder, or he could rehab his shoulder and play through any lingering pain.

Moore chose the latter, and Saturday he caught the first touchdown of MU’s season — a 27-yard pass from Maty Mauk that Moore jumped and caught over single coverage. [...]

Moore got hurt during an Aug. 17 practice, and he revealed after Saturday’s game that he has a separated AC joint in his shoulder. [...]

"A couple of days" in August, "I wasn’t too sure if I was going to play, but I started getting it rehabbed and I was able to move my arm much better," Moore said. "I did a lot of rehab within those two weeks, and next thing you know, I was here."

Had we heard that it was officially a separated shoulder? I wasn't recalling that. Regardless, I hope the decision pays off for him. Knowing how much playing time he was going to get this year had to factor into his decision, but as long as it doesn't end up worse...