Missouri, Eli Drinkwitz will muck it up against Kentucky

Missouri is a stubborn football team. Eli Drinkwitz’s 2022 Tigers do not overwhelm opponents with talent. They are a relentless, hard-nosed team that knows how to keep games close. If an opponent makes too many mistakes — a common theme for these Kentucky Wildcats — the Tigers will pounce.

Missouri Close Calls

Before I praise them too much, let me be clear, this is not a great Missouri football team. They have turned losing close games into an art form that would make Matt Campbell envious. However, as Mark Stoops said Monday, they could easily be 5-3 or better.

The Tigers lost three straight games to Auburn, Georgia and Florida by a combined 14 points. In their first game ever at Auburn, Missouri’s formerly All-SEC kicker missed a chip shot for the win in regulation. Nathaniel Peat was a few feet away from securing the game-winning score in overtime when the Missouri running back fumbled a win to Auburn. The Auburn boosters and fanbase were ready to fire Bryan Harsin, but Mizzou bought him a few more weeks with the painfully embarrassing loss.

Tigers Regroup

Despite the devastating loss, one week later Missouri was five minutes away from knocking off No. 1 Georgia. A false start by the Tigers on the goal line took away a potential dagger touchdown, then the top-ranked team in the country got a few friendly whistles to punch in the go-ahead score in the final minutes of the fourth quarter.

“I give Coach Drink a lot of credit, because they had a brutal loss a few games back, with the Auburn game, where they were essentially an inch from winning the game. The team could’ve went any which way, and they turn around and play an incredible game, play Georgia as good as anybody has played them and had a tough loss, and go to Florida and play incredibly well. You could take a few plays out of that one and they can win,” Stoops said Monday.

“Then they beat Vandy and beat South Carolina. They are playing extremely hard. He got those guys regrouped, and they could very easily be 5-3 just like us, and right in the middle of the pack with the rest of the SEC, so this is obviously a big game for us to not let one (loss) turn into two.”

Watch the latest Mark Stoops press conference on the KSR YouTube Channel.

This could get UGLY

The last time Kentucky went to CoMo, Missouri mucked it up for 60 minutes. The Tigers weren’t great on offense, but Drinkwitz kept the chains moving for Mizzou, combining to convert 14-of-25 third and fourth downs. The story could be similar for this upcoming game.

Neither team has played good offensive football in 2022. You don’t have to be an expert in advanced stats to know the blue boxes are good and the red are bad. Each defense decisively holds the upper hand to its foe.

Missouri has proven it can keep games close by playing in the mud. It’s time for the Wildcats to regroup or Saturday could be an ugly early morning affair in CoMo.

“I think they’re playing extremely hard. Coach (Drinkwitz) has done a really good job of getting that team playing at a high level, and doing some really good things,” said Stoops. “Much like us, after a tough loss or bad beats, you can go either way, and they’ve responded the right way and I expect our team to do the same.”