Missouri Football: 5 takeaways from painful loss to Georgia

It took all 60 minutes but heavily-favored Georgia Bulldogs found a way to slip past Missouri football, 26-22.

Playing in front of the largest crowd in three years at Faurot Field, the inspired Tigers led most of the way but couldn’t quite seal the victory.

Here are my five takeaways.

1. Georgia is every bit as good as advertised

The Georgia Bulldogs are not the defending national champions for no reason. They dominated every facet of the game in the second half. Offensively, the Bulldogs struggled in the first half versus the quickness of Missouri’s defense and blitz packages being dialed up. But in the second half, they used their size and strength advantage to wear down the Missouri defensive front.

Stetson Bennett found his offensive rhythm in the second half after being battered and pressured constantly in the first half. Bennett finished the game 24-for-42 with 312 yards.

Defensively, they allowed a total of 100 yards in the second half, making every critical stop needed down the stretch. After taking their first lead of the game late in the fourth quarter, the Georgia defense forced Missouri into a quick three-and-out. The Bulldogs picked up three first downs and ran out the clock to seal the victory.

2. Missouri is a pretty underrated defense

Defensive coordinator Blake Baker is in the process of completing a 180-degree job with a Missouri defense that was one of the worst in FBS last season. Baker’s attitude from the onset was that the Tigers are going to be aggressive on defense. The Tigers dialed up blitz after blitz after blitz, totally disrupting Georgia from finding any kind of rhythm on offense. The Bulldogs lost two fumbles and only managed two field goals in the first half.

Is there a way to clone Ty’Ron Hopper and play him at linebacker with Ty’Ron? Hopper was all over the field, racking up seven tackles and forcing a fumble that was recovered by Ennis Rakestraw.

3. Harrison Mevis bounces back in a big way

Harrison Mevis is still that guy. After much criticism following a missed 26-yard game winning field goal attempt at Auburn, Mevis put all of that to bed. On a night when the Tigers had trouble scoring touchdowns, Mevis connected on 5-of-5 field goals (41, 49, 22, 52, and 56.)

After drilling the 56-yard field goal in the fourth quarter that would have been good from 60, Mevis was sure to let everyone know that he is confident and unfazed about the Auburn loss.

So how did Mevis miss that 26-yard game winning field goal? It remains one of life’s greatest mysteries.

4. The Tigers are still searching for answers on the offensive line

Inconsistency and penalties have been an ongoing issue with the offensive line. No one expected Missouri’s offensive line to dominate Georgia’s defensive front. They didn’t. However, the offensive line held up in pass protection more often than not against Georgia’s swarming defense.

Unfortunately, a false start at the 1-yard line and a 15-yard penalty on a rare third-and-long conversion for the Tigers killed any momentum that the offense could have gained by keeping Georgia’s offense off of the field.

5. Eli Drinkwitz continues to make highly questionable decisions

Eli Drinkwitz should be commended for finally making a strong effort to get Luther Burden III, Dominic Lovett, and even Mookie Cooper more involved in the offense in multiple ways. Not sure what took so long for this to happen.

But then there’s the other side of the coin.

An offensive line that has been prone to penalties and missed assignments committed false start penalties on two separate occasions after long gains in an attempt to play with faster pace. They have not executed well in such situations all year. Why continue to press the issue of playing faster when the offensive line has not shown the ability to execute consistently?

Then the play selection in what would be the Tigers final possession of the game played right into the hands of the Georgia defense. Three straight incompletions by Brady Cook burned a total of 18 seconds off of the clock. Drinkwitz would later state that his thinking was to get a two-for-one possession if they were in the position to have to punt the ball away. This was yet another example of this year’s pattern of trying to find a way not to lose rather than finding a way to win.

When pressed on his performance as a play caller, Drinkwitz replied, “I didn’t get it done.”

The loss drops Missouri to 2-3 (0-2). Their next contest is on the road at Florida which will be looking to avenge last year’s overtime loss to the Tigers.