Mizzou Football: Five Takeaways from the 29-20 win over South Carolina

It doesn’t always have to be pretty. Sometimes you have to fight through tough stretches and inconsistent play. All that matters is that you have more points than the other team at the end of four quarters.

And at the end of four quarters on Saturday night, Mizzou had 29 and South Carolina had 20. As my high school baseball coach used to say: THAT’LL DO IT!

Here are your five takeaways.

1. Let the Hardy Heisman campaign begin

Ahmad Hardy has been the talk of the town this season, and for good reason. The transfer from Louisiana-Monroe has had a better start to his Mizzou career than any running back in recent program history — you have to go all the way back to 1969 for the last time a Mizzou running back started a season this well.

But it’s one thing to run up 450 yards on Central Arkansas, kansas, and Louisiana. It’s another thing to hang 138 and 6 yards per carry on a top 25 defense. And folks, Ahmad Hardy can do it all.

Mizzou’s starting running back officially broke onto the national stage in this nationally televised game as easily as he breaks tackles. The sophomore was a menace for South Carolina’s defenders, uncorking explosive plays all throughout the game. And in a game when Beau Pribula didn’t always look his sharpest, Hardy needed to set the tone for the offense… and, of course, he did.

We’re starting to run out of superlatives for the outdoorsman masquerading as a star running back. Maybe we should just start running the Heisman ads? At least we can do some brainstorming.

2. HAVOC IS BACK!!

How do you unsettle quarterbacks — especially quarterbacks just coming back from a head injury?

HAVOC, BABYYYYY.

Mizzou’s front seven was excellent at keeping LaNorris Sellers off balance all night, getting home for five sacks and keeping him on the move throughout the game. At no point did Sellers look comfortable in the pocket, which made a big difference as he probably played his best game of the season. Damon Wilson II had his best game as a Tiger, Zion Young was a power rushing threat as always, Darris Smith pitched in on the outside, and a host of other Tigers took advantage of the porous offensive line. It all worked out to 16 percent HAVOC Rate, good for an 85th percentile performance according to Game on Paper.

Again, Sellers looked very good and was able to find receivers deep down the field. But not everyone has the vision and arm that Sellers does, especially under pressure. If the Tigers keep breaking pockets down at this pace, not many QBs will be able to put numbers on the board against this defense.

3. Robert Meyer’s big moment

Robert Meyer has taken a lot of stick from Mizzou fans after Blake Craig’s injury, and Saturday night din’t start the way he’d have liked. After missing his first PAT attempt, it looked like Mizzou would have avoid kicking situations as much as possible. Luckily, Eli Drinkwitz seems to have a thing about finding clutch kickers.

After doinking his first kick off the right upright, Meyer (editor’s note: Karen’s former student) was perfect. He hit his remaining three kicks on the night, none bigger than a 40-yarder to put the game out of reach late in the fourth quarter. That’s big time for a true freshman, especially one struggling for confidence. Major props to the young man. Hopefully, it gives him a boost for the rest of the year.

4. A new problem emerges

If there’s one issue we’ve focused on for the Tigers this year, it’s been the offensive line. But a new problem reared its head against South Carolina, one that will quickly become the foremost concern for everyone who loves the Tigers.

I don’t want to be too hyperbolic here. LaNorris Sellers is a very, very good quarterback, and he played well tonight. When he gets drafted next spring, some of throws he made tonight will be on his college highlight reel. But it’s hard for me to remember a game memory in which a Mizzou secondary looked worse than tonight.

For much of the evening, Mizzou’s corners and safeties looked a little lost. And when they didn’t, they were getting torched by the Gamecocks’ receivers. There were blown coverages all over the place, capped by a 3-and-37 that Cocky nearly converted late in the third quarter.

Maybe this is a “burn the tape and move on” type of game, but something tells me the corners and safeties will want to dig into what went wrong. Mizzou’s front seven has been dynamic and has been getting better game by game. But the secondary needs to hold up their end of the bargain for Mizzou to reach its ceiling this season. There’s enough talent to make you think it won’t be long until they figure it out… but maybe let’s not wait too much longer?

5. First test: Passed

All disrespect to kansas: This was the first game on the schedule that many of us circled. It’s the type of game — against a conference rival — that tells you where a team is headed. And while South Carolina doesn’t look like the Top 15 team many pegged them to be early in the year, they’re still a good team with a great quarterback. And even while playing an imperfect game, Mizzou still handled the Gamecocks.

Eli Drinkwitz won’t be fully happy with the execution tonight. The passing game was a bit inconsistent, the secondary looked… yeah, and the special teams play wasn’t all that great. But you would much rather be fixing mistakes after a win than a loss. And for the fourth week in a row, that’s what they’ll be doing.

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