What stood out from Missouri’s win vs. Mississippi State: Defense, ground game & more

No. 23 Missouri secured its first victory over Mississippi State since joining the Southeastern Conference on Saturday, handing the Bulldogs a 39-20 loss and securing just its second road win of the season.

It didn’t seem like a surefire victory at the start for the Tigers. Mississippi State jumped out to an early 3-0 advantage and looked poised to add on midway through the first half with strong starting field position.

But on second-and-8 at Missouri’s 30-yard line, defensive tackle Kristian Williams strip-sacked Bulldogs quarterback Michael Van Buren Jr., and Mizzou safety Daylan Carnell was there waiting.

Carnell recovered the fumble and took it 68 yards into the end zone, a game-changing play that flipped the momentum in favor of Missouri (8-3, 4-3 Southeastern Conference) with 6:33 to go in the opening quarter. It was Carnell’s third career touchdown; the redshirt junior has scored one in each of his three full seasons.

“It’s just an exciting feeling that you get every time that you get one on defense,” Carnell said. “I feel like we started slow on both sides of the ball, (on) defense as well ... so I feel like that just provided a spark. And after that, we just got rolling as a team.”

The play was courtesy of the Bolton Drill, which is a practice drill that Mizzou coach Eli Drinkwitz credited for defensive end Zion Young’s scoop-and-score TD that secured a 30-23 win against Oklahoma on Nov. 9.

“It goes back for us to: Practice execution equals game-day reality,” Drinkwitz said. “It’s another scoop-and-score Bolton Drill that we work all the time, and Daylan Carnell did it exactly right.”

The fumble recovery revived Missouri from a rough start at Davis Wade Stadium.

“I thought our defense really flipped the script in the game with the fumble recovery for a touchdown,” Drinkwitz said. “That allowed our offense to find themselves, because we were struggling early and kind of settled into the game.”

Missouri’s offense totaled minus-3 yards on its first two offensive possessions. However, after the defensive TD, the Tigers scored touchdowns on their ensuing three drives, taking a 28-13 advantage into halftime.

Ground game dominates

An efficient running game sparked Mizzou’s offense, as running back Marcus Carroll finished with three rushing touchdowns. The first was a 2-yard plunge into the end zone with just under three minutes left in the first quarter, marking Missouri’s first offensive score.

His second was a 19-yard rush, during which Carroll cruised into the end zone untouched to make it 28-13 with 4:32 left in the first half. The score led to a serenade of “M-I-Z” chants clashing against the symphony of cowbells throughout the stands.

Carroll rounded out the night by finding the end zone from 1 yard out, capping off his performance with a two-point conversion with 5:40 remaining in the contest.

“It’s awesome to be the goal-line back,” Drinkwitz said of Carroll. “I’m sure Nate (Noel)’s pretty ticked off. He does most of the work between the 5s, and then we let Marcus finish it off. But they both have their strengths, and we try to really play to those strengths.”

The Georgia State transfer ended the night with 14 carries for 61 rushing yards, topped only by Noel, who had 25 rushes for 95 rushing yards.

Mizzou totaled 204 rushing yards as a team.

“We kind of went into the game with the mentality (to) take control of the game,” Carroll said. “We’re gonna have to run the ball, control the line of scrimmage, I think it started with that mentality. As a whole running back group, man, we did a good job at getting downhill, getting where we can. And we felt ourselves wearing (MSU’s) defense down.”

Quarterback Brady Cook cruises

Behind the early defensive score and the Tigers’ success on the ground, Mizzou quarterback Brady Cook had an opportunity to settle in after a slow start. Cook went 15-for-20 passing for 268 yards and one touchdown.

That lone TD headlined the Tigers’ first-half success, as it featured yet another impressive connection between Cook and wide receiver Luther Burden III.

On a third-and-9 with nearly 10 minutes remaining in the first half, Cook rolled out to his right and fired a 28-yard TD pass to Burden, who caught the pass with a last-minute shift that separated him from a defender draped all over him. The score made Burden and Cook the third Mizzou quarterback-wide receiver combination to amass 20 touchdown passes in program history.

“I think we’re just clicking,” Drinkwitz said. “We’re getting the right looks. We’re calling the right plays. The deep ball to Luther was just Luther and Brady I would imagine. They’re in a pretty good rhythm right now together.”

Room to improve?

Despite the dominant effort, there remained some self-inflicted mistakes for the Tigers.

With just over a minute left in the first quarter, a 5-yard completion from Van Buren to Mississippi State wideout Kelly Akharaiyi ended in a heated exchange on the Bulldogs’ sideline. Linebacker Corey Flagg Jr. laid a late hit on the wideout well after the whistle. Veteran linebacker Chuck Hicks joined in on the scrum, looking to have thrown a punch at an opposing player.

The pair each received a personal foul penalty, ultimately gifting the Bulldogs an extra 30 yards and a first down that put them in prime position at Missouri’s 16-yard line.

The field position led to the Bulldogs’ first touchdown of the day, an 11-yard completion from Van Buren to wideout Jordan Mosley just two plays later. The Bulldogs’ only other TD came from an explosive play: a 43-yard rush from running back Davon Booth with 5:31 remaining in the third quarter.

After suffering losses in all three prior conference road games — against Texas A&M, Alabama and South Carolina — Drinkwitz said he was worried about heading into Starkville. But the team rebounded to with a dominant win in Stark Vegas to end its regular season with two wins on the road.

“I was really nervous, because I felt like these last two games have been just emotionally draining on our team,” Drinkwitz said. “I was really nervous about how much resolve and energy we would be able to have on the road. And it was kind of like exactly what I was thinking (in) the first quarter with the offense, but when the defense made the (scoop-and-score) play, man, it just kind of lifted everybody, and we were rolling again.”

The Tigers return home to close the regular season against Arkansas in the Battle Line Rivalry at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Memorial Stadium.

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