Mizzou Football: Defense highly underrated through first five games
Mizzou football hosts the Ole Miss Rebels on Saturday for what should be a fun game in Columbia. The defense has been underrated to this point and will hopefully continue to lead the way on Saturday afternoon.
When it comes to college football, most people fixate on the incredible offenses in each conference. It makes sense too, as teams can’t win games without their offense putting up points. For Mizzou football, they’ve had the best of both worlds through five games so far, but their defense has been absolutely crushing it!
According to NCAA.com, the Missouri Tigers rank SECOND in the country in total defense. That’s insane to think about, but when you watch MU play, their defense looks like the real deal.
Considering in their first game of the season, we saw Wyoming run all over the Tigers, it appeared like it might be another long season defensively for Missouri, but Barry Odom got his guys turned around quickly. Since that blemish on MU’s schedule in the first week of the season, the Tigers have allowed no more than 14 points.
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Now, it’s worth noting that Missouri hasn’t played anyone all that menacing through those four games, with only one of those opponents being a Power-5 program (South Carolina), but it’s still impressive nonetheless.
Defense will have to continue to be key for Mizzou as their schedule gets tougher. Ole Miss might not strike a lot of fear into fans, but Scottie Phillips has rushed for five touchdowns and could cause some problems if the Tigers don’t take him seriously.
Further down the line, Missouri will face both Georgia and Florida, who are currently both ranked inside the top ten. While Florida has never been an intimidating team to MU, the Georgia Bulldogs certainly have been. That’ll be the toughest opponent on the schedule and while Missouri’s defense is great, Georgia has the intangibles to beat up on them.
Another key element for Missouri’s defense moving forward is that Cale Garrett has been lost for the season and that’s a huge blow to what’s been a dominant unit. Garrett led the team in both tackles and interceptions while also finding the end zone three times (yes, on defense), so to say this is crushing news for the Tigers would be an understatement.
Even without Garrett, fans have confidence in this defensive unit and believe that they could pave the way for a special season for Missouri. Now we just need that bowl ban to be lifted…