By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor
(MIZ)—Here’s how Nashville Tennessean Senior Columnist John Adams saw it Saturday evening: “Saturday’s 36-7 loss to Missouri is just as inexplicable {as last year’s 63-38 loss to a middle-rated South Carolina}. It wasn’t just a loss. It was an embarrassing loss…They played defense as though they were trying to make Cody Schrader a Heisman Trophy candidate and their offense was just as lacking.”
He got that right.
This was a statement game. Missouri deserves the Number 11 rating it has claimed in both major polls after pounding the Volunteers into submission.
It was a game of delicious statistics for Missouri fans, the kind of satisfaction-in-numbers that we haven’t seen for a long time. Tme of Possession: Missouri 39:56, Tennessee 20:04. Tennessee had only three plays in the first quarter.
Total Offense: Schrader 321 yards. Tennessed 350 yards.
The SEC was formed in 1951. Schrader of Missouri is the first SEC player to have 200 yards rushing and 100 yards receiving in a game. Nobody from Alabama has ever done it. Nobody from George has ever done it. Nor from Auburn. Nobody.
Brady Cook and Cory Schrader where the show on offense thanks to an offensive line that gave them time and openings to do their thing. The two combined for 47 rushing plays that produced 260 yards. Cook had an average day passing, going 18 for 24 for 275 yards, throwing to seven Missouri receivers and one Tennessee defensive back.
Those guys were the fireworks who overshadowed a defense that held Tennessee to its lowest point total in the three years under Josh Heupel. Twenty Tigers made the 56 tackles that kept Tennessee from gaining any traction other than a first half touchdown. Twenty-six of the tackles were solos, another indication that Tennessee just could not spring The Big One.
Schrader now leads the conference rushing statistics by almost 200 yards over Kentucky’s Ray Davis (1124-926). Cook is fourth in passing yards (2746), a category headed by LSU’s Jayden Daniels, who is about 400 yards ahead of him.
Next up is Florda, 5-5 overall, 3-4 in conference play. And then Arkansas, now 3-7 overall and 1-6 in the conference.
Missouri is 8-2, the 23rd time in program history the Tigers have won eight games. Don Faurot’s 1939 team (8-2) was the first. His 1941 and 42 teams also got to eight wins. It didn’t happen again until Dan Devine’s “undefeated” season of 11-0 in 1960. He had five years with at least eight wins. Al Onofrio had one year of eight wins. Warren Powers did it twice. Larry Smith’s 1998 team hit the eight mark once. GaryPinkel won eight or more games nine times including the Tigers’ 12-win seasons in 2007 and 2013, an eleven win season in 2014, and ten wins in 200 and 2010. Barry Odom had an eight win year in 2018.
The last double-figure win year for Missouri was 2014. This year’s squad has a chance to become only the 7th team in 134 seasons to finish with wins in double figures. (ZOU)
(TIGERS BASKETBALL)—These are the games in which a coach tries to sort out who will be the starters, who will be next off the bench and who will fill the last seats on the bench.
Last week’s game against Memphis State was part of that process. The Tigers led 33-26 at the half but only four players found the net in the whole second half. Missouri scored only 22 points in the last 20 minutes and shot only 19 percent from the field. Memphis enjoyed a 70-55 win. Sean East II had 14 points to lead Missouri in the first half. He did not attempt a shot in the second half.
A somewhat weaker opponent provided the Tigers with a chance to heal last night. Southern Illinois-Edwardsville couldn’t buy a bucket for 16 minutes of the second half, finally getting a three-pointer with 1:21 left, ending an 0 for 16 “streak.” Missouri walked away with a 68-50 win, with Sean East scoring 20.
A sterner test awaits Thursday night at Minnesota.
(CHIEFS)—-The Kansas City Chiefs emerged from the weekend as winners although they didn’t play. Lucas Strozinsky on Arrowheadaddict.com that the Chiefs went into the weekend tied for the best record in the AFC although holding a tiebreaker. Baltimore and the Chiefs were both 7-2. The Jaguars were in at 6-2 and the Dolphins 6-2.
If the Ravens beat Cleveland, Baltimore would be up to 8-2. The Jaguars and the Dolphins had a shot at joining Kansas City at 7-2.
Didn’t happen. The Ravens coughed up a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter and lost to Cleveland. The 49ers beat Jacksonville. Houston ended Cincinnati’s four-game winning streak. Miami also had a bye week. Strozinsky puts the AFC playoff standings this way:
Chiefs 7-2
Ravens 7-3
Jaguars, Dolphins, Steelers, Browns 6-3
The Chiefs don’t play again until next Monday night when they meet the Eagles, who are 8-1 and rank second in scoring in the NFL. But they are 20th in points-against.
Motoring along:
(MOTORSPORTS)—Big-time auto racing in the United States has wrapped up with teams from IndyCar and NASCAR retreating to their shops to prepare for next year and looking for bodies to fill seats being vacated for various reasons or negotiating new deals with returning drivers.
Formula 1 races in Las Vegas next weekend. The next race, in Abu Dhabi, will end racing for that series although the championship was decided weeks ago. The course includes almost a mile of The Strip, a situation that has upset many folks in Vegas.
The event is being billed as a spectacle—which turns off Max Verstappen, who locked up the championship last month and who says, “We are there more for the show than the race itself, looking at the layout of the circuit. I’m not actually much into that, I’m more: ‘I’ll go there, do mything, and be gone.”