Mizzou Football: Three things to watch in Week 2 vs West Virginia

The Trenches

Against the Cowboys, the Tigers offensive and defensive lines both performed poorly. On defense, the Tigers were gashed by the Cowboys rushing attack to the tune of 297 yards, 7.1 yards per carry and three rushing touchdowns.

Quarterback Sean Chambers, who passed for just 92 yards, led the way with 120 rushing yards on 12 attempts, including a 75-yard touchdown run. Running back Xazavian Valladay added another 118 yards on 15 attempts, including a 61-yard touchdown run.

To boot, Mizzou’s defense had zero sacks and zero quarterback hurries in Chambers’ 16 passing attempts, and the team collected only two tackles for loss. This group, led by Jordan Elliott, needs to do more for the Tigers to succeed.

In West Virginia’s 20-13 win over James Madison, the Mountaineers only ran the ball 24 times for–get this–34 yards. That’s an abysmal 1.4 yards per carry. The team’s longest rush of the day was for five–five!–yards. The line did OK protecting quarterback Austin Kendall, who was sacked once and hurried twice. But the Mountaineers did give up eight tackles for loss.

Back to Mizzou: on offense, the Tigers rushing attack simply did not click. Between running backs Larry Rountree III and Tyler Badie and quarterback Kelly Bryant, the Tigers ran the ball 42 times. They rushed for just 114 yards–a 2.7 yards per carry average. That simply doesn’t get it done, and on Saturday, it didn’t for the Tigers. What’s worse, both Bryant and Rountree lost fumbles.

On the bright side, the offensive line kept Bryant relatively clean as he suffered just two sacks in 48 passing attempts.

West Virginia faced 48 rushing attempts by James Madison, giving up 3.6 yards per carry and one touchdown. The Mountaineers defense collected four sacks while picking up six tackles for loss.

Based on comparing those numbers, both Mizzou and West Virginia didn’t play well in the trenches in Week One. For the Tigers to have a chance against the Mountaineers, they need to continue protecting Bryant while establishing the run game and sustaining it. Rountree cannot be losing fumbles.

And on defense, a pass rush needs to be created. The fact that one didn’t exist against Wyoming is rather concerning.