{"id":139755,"date":"2022-11-26T08:43:37","date_gmt":"2022-11-26T08:43:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/five-takeaways-from-mizzous-29-27-victory-against-arkansas\/"},"modified":"2022-11-26T08:43:37","modified_gmt":"2022-11-26T08:43:37","slug":"five-takeaways-from-mizzous-29-27-victory-against-arkansas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/five-takeaways-from-mizzous-29-27-victory-against-arkansas\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Takeaways from Mizzou’s 29-27 victory against Arkansas"},"content":{"rendered":"
Sometimes, football is fun. Other times, it’s exhausting. Today, it was both. We knew this game had the potential to include some fireworks. Arkansas’ defense is swiss cheese. Missouri’s offense has shown some real progress in recent weeks. The Tigers’ defense is all about creating havoc, at times at the expense of giving up explosive plays. Arkansas’ offense lives on explosives.<\/p>\n
It all set up for a fun game with the potential of a dramatic finish. This one lived up to the hype. Let’s get to the takeaways.<\/p>\n
Missouri’s offense is not constructed to put up 50 points against power five opponents. It’s not going to post 700-yard games. But it can be efficient, and it can score enough. <\/em>The Tigers finished this game with 468 total yards on 7.2 yards per play. It was the first time Missouri finished with at least seven yards per play in a conference game since 2020 (also against Arkansas). How did they do it? Well, Brady Cook played arguably his best game in a Missouri uniform.<\/p>\n Let’s give credit where it’s due. Cook has taken his game to another level over the past five weeks. In that stretch, he’s completed 90 of 138 passes (65 percent) for 1,081 yards (7.8 yards per attempt), seven touchdowns and zero interceptions. He’s also added 60 carries for 385 yards and four touchdowns. That’s an average of 293 total yards and two touchdowns per game. Not bad!<\/p>\n And he capped it off with his best performance yet, especially on the ground. He finished with 240 yards through the air and 140 yards on the ground. He’s the first Missouri player to accomplish that feat since Brad Smith did so in 2005. It wasn’t all Cook, of course. Dominic Lovett came up with some massive plays. Mekhi Miller once again came up big in the clutch. Luther Burden III found the end zone again, bringing his season touchdown total to eight. Cody Schrader did a heck of a job on the ground. And the offensive line had one of its better games on the season.<\/p>\n The whole unit seemed to really come together. Sure, it was against a leaky defense missing a couple starters. I do not care. They got the job done. It’s time to give credit where it’s due.<\/p>\n This one wasn’t hard to predict. Arkansas’ offense lives off big plays. Missouri’s defense is willing to trade big plays for havoc. That’s exactly what we saw in this game when Missouri’s defense was on the field. Arkansas had four pass plays of 15+ yards, and seven runs of at least 10 yards. The explosives were there. But so was the havoc. Missouri finished with 11 tackles for loss, two pass deflections and two forced fumbles. That’s good for a 26 percent havoc rate, which is above the threshold Missouri needs in order for this defense to work.<\/p>\n It’s impossible to know who will or will not play in the bowl game, but if this was our final opportunity to see Ty’Ron Hopper, Darius Robinson, Isaiah McGuire and Martez Manuel in a Missouri uniform, they ended on a high note. Those four players finished with a combined 25 tackles, five sacks and seven tackles for loss.<\/p>\n Eli Drinkwitz said Isaiah McGuire a separated AC joint in last week’s game against New Mexico State. He chose to play tonight anyway and had two of #Mizzou<\/a>‘s six sacks.<\/p>\n2) Styles make fights, and that was an entertaining fight for Missouri’s defense<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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