COLUMBIA - Missouri walked into Saturday with the toughest assignment its defense had seen all season, and it left with one of its cleanest answers yet.
Florida’s Jadan Baugh arrived in Columbia as the nation’s second-leading rusher with 600 yards and the national leader in missed tackles forced with 34. Through four games, Missouri had not exactly built a reputation for wrapping up cleanly. But the Tigers flipped that script in a 45-17 win, smothering Baugh for 13 yards on 12 carries and turning the Gators’ ground game into a non-factor.
“Guys are allowed to improve,” Drinkwitz said. “Players, coaches, teams are allowed to improve, and a game doesn't define the season.
There's the thing called practice. We go back to practice if things aren't great.
You learn the lesson, you leave the event; and I think that's the key for our team.”
Baugh’s opening carry went for 12 yards, and it looked for a moment like Florida might be in for a long afternoon. Santana Banner stopped that run from becoming much more.
After that, Missouri tightened the screws and kept Baugh bottled up nearly every time he touched it. He had 12 yards on nine first-half carries and finished with just five runs that gained yardage, none longer than 3 yards.
He also had six carries for negative yards, with Kensley Louidor-Faustin leading the charge in the backfield. Louidor-Faustin finished with 3.5 tackles for loss as Missouri’s front controlled the line of scrimmage.
“The more that this coordinator is on tape, there's more tendencies that show up,” Drinkwitz said. “There were things that we could tell, ‘Hey, this is what's going to happen here.
This is what we like. Stack formations equal screens.’
There were things that we kind of had a beat on now that we could play. But bottom line is, we had to shed blocks, create penetration, set edges, and that's what we did.”
Louidor-Faustin said the response came after a rough week for the run defense.
“Last week, we didn't do a great job of stopping the run,” Louidor-Faustin said. “We went into this week emphasizing that we got to stop the run and just focus on us and setting hard edges like Coach Drink been preaching.
Tough team, stopped the run. We emphasized that in practice.
Missouri didn’t just slow Florida on the ground. It kept forcing the Gators into uncomfortable passing downs, and that made Baugh’s workload even lighter after halftime. He logged only three carries in the final two quarters as Missouri kept building its lead.
The Tigers separated late in the first half with a five-play, 75-yard drive that ended in a Caleb Goodie touchdown with 2:05 left before halftime. After the defense forced a Florida three-and-out, Missouri moved quickly again and set up Blake Craig for a 50-yard field goal. Craig knocked it through as time expired in the half, stretching the lead to 20-10 and giving Missouri a jolt before the break.
The third quarter started with more of the same. Missouri took the opening possession and marched 75 yards in six plays over 2:36, pushing the lead to 27-10. Goodie’s 36-yard catch got the Tigers deep into Florida territory, and he finished with a season-best two receptions for 67 yards and a touchdown.
“He's a strong fighter, he’s a trooper,” Simmons said of Goodie. “One thing about him, he knows how to handle adversity.
He and I talk a lot. Before a couple games ago, he and I had a long talk talking about, you know, always be ready for that opportunity.
Of course, he showed up today, and he took advantage of it, and he never looked back. So I'm really proud of him.”
Missouri also made life miserable for Florida quarterback Philo. Entering the day, he had been sacked only twice in SEC play, but Missouri got him down three times.
Jason Dowell had one on second-and-12, Donta Simpson added one on third-and-14, and Sterling Webb got in on the action on second-and-10. Webb played 28 snaps on the edge, a shift from his usual role inside.
“Very grateful for (edge coach Brian Early's) position he put me in to be successful this week, and I just wanted to be able to help the team as much as I could up there,” Webb said.
After handling one of the league’s most explosive offenses and completely shutting down Baugh, Missouri now turns to a schedule that still includes four currently-ranked opponents.
“We're a hungry team, trying to prove something to the whole nation,” Louidor-Faustin said.
Missouri next plays Texas A&M at 11:00 or 11:45 a.m. Saturday in Columbia.
In Other News...
Mizzou Just Delivered The Bounce-Back Tigers Fans Desperately Needed
For a program looking to reset the mood in a hurry, Saturday gave Mizzou exactly the kind of response it had been searching for. The No. 25 Tigers knocked off No. 8 Florida 45-10, a result that stood out not just for the margin but for what it meant in the bigger picture, as Mizzous first regular-season win over a Top 10 opponent since 2013. It was the sort of complete performance that can change the temperature around a team in a single afternoon.
Mizzou did it by controlling the game at the line of scrimmage and making Floridas offense look out of sync from the start. The defense held star running back Jadan Baugh to 13 yards on 12 carries, while Jamal Roberts powered the offense with more than 200 rushing yards and three touchdowns. The passing game spread the ball around, Blake Craig added key field goals, and the Tigers left no doubt that this was the bounce-back performance their fans had been waiting for. [Read more 🡒]
Eli Drinkwitz Just Changed The Conversation Around Missouri
Saturdays rout of Florida did more than add another win to Missouris record. By taking down the No. 8 Gators 45-17, the Tigers delivered the kind of performance that can reset the tone around a program, and they did it by controlling the game in every phase. Missouri held Florida to just 42 rushing yards and finished with a 560 to 325 edge in total yardage, the sort of numbers that tell you this was no fluke.
For Eli Drinkwitz, it also marked another notable line on a rsum that is starting to look different than it did when he arrived in Columbia. He now has two top-10 wins during his tenure, and this one carried extra weight because of how thoroughly Missouri handled the moment. For a program trying to move from occasional spoiler to something more durable, a result like this changes the conversation in a hurry. [Read more 🡒]
Alabamas Offense Is Becoming A Real Early Kalen DeBoer Statement
Missouris win over Florida in Week 5 did more than pad the Tigers rsum. It gave Eli Drinkwitz and his team a signature result against a ranked opponent, one built on a defense that shut down an offense that had been lighting people up and on a performance that started to shift how the national ranking conversation viewed Missouri.
Drinkwitz has spent a long stretch trying to break through in games like that, and this one carried the kind of weight that lingers beyond a single Saturday. For a program trying to build real staying power in the SEC, beating Florida in that fashion matters because it suggests Missouri can win with more than momentum, and the next challenge is proving it was not just one of those early-season statements that fades fast. [Read more 🡒]