Eli Drinkwitz wants Missouri to clean up defense in 2nd half vs. South Carolina

Despite holding a 24-3 lead over visiting South Carolina at the break, Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz wasn’t entirely pleased with how his team played. As far as he was concerned, the defense skated by in the first half.

Drinkwitz identified some self-inflicted wounds, such as penalties that led to first downs, that he doesn’t think his team can afford to keep up in the second half. He shared with sideline reporter Alyssa Lang that he thought his team was kind of lucky to hold the Gamecocks to just three points.

“Yeah I think we settled in. I’m disappointed right now in our third-down defense. We’re letting them convert on penalties that are self inflicted. They’re stupid and selfish and we gotta get that crap corrected, otherwise it could be a whole lot different right now,” Drinkwitz said.

As for the offense, though, Drinkwitz didn’t have too much to pick on. He’d like to run the ball a little bit more often and consistently, and he didn’t love settling for a field goal in the red zone with less than five minutes until the half.

But after out-gaining the visitors 294-73 in the first half, Drinkwitz isn’t going to need to do much tweaking to turn the steady stream of scoring into an onslaught.

“We gotta consistently run the ball. I think we’re been very efficient on third down and we gotta finish in the red zone right there,” Drinkwitz said.

The Tigers followed their coaches orders and secured a trophy

For the fourth straight season, Drinkwitz and Missouri were victorious in the annual Mayor’s Cup Rivalry against South Carolina. The Tigers were dominant all afternoon in an eventual 34-12 victory at home as Drinkwitz keeps a perfect record against the Gamecocks since taking over in 2020.

Missouri jumped out to a 14-0 lead by the end of the first quarter and did not allow a touchdown all game as the outcome was never in doubt. Drinkwitz joined Lang for a postgame interview, putting the praise on his team for executing the game plan.

“I’m really just proud of our team,” he said. “I think our defense did what we asked them to do, which was rattle (Spencer) Rattler. They got after it all game. We held them to field goals and then offensively started fast. It’s always good to win a trophy.”

The Tigers were extremely effective in getting pressure on Rattler as they finished the day with six sacks and eight tackles for loss. The Gamecocks quarterback didn’t have much time to make decisions, resulting in a 23-of-40 (57.5%) passing performance for 217 yards and an interception. Missouri also held South Carolina to just 69 yards rushing on 2.4 yards per carry.