Mizzou football snapshots: Snap counts, PFF grades from Tigers' win over Oklahoma
Whew.
Missouri won another football game — another close football game — and did so with some second-half heroics and a bit of fourth-quarter chaos. You can learn about the war movie that the Tigers watched the night before the game, what that meant for their confidence in quarterback Drew Pyne, and how the final 200 seconds of the game unfolded here .
Now, it's time for the numbers: Pro Football Focus' collection of grades and advanced stats from the latest Mizzou game.
In case you haven't read this weekly feature before: These grades come from PFF, not this writer. They're at times misaligned with what happened on the field, and certainly not as important of a metric as the final score.
PFF bases all of its grades, including college ones, on NFL standard: 90-100 is elite, 85-89 is Pro Bowl caliber, 70-84 is starting level, 60-69 means backup and anything between 0-59 is replaceable.
Offensive line
Two injuries shook up Missouri's offensive line down the stretch. Tollison was helped off the field after blocking on Theo Wease Jr.'s screen play touchdown. Green limped off not long after — and he'd been on the injury report early in the week with a leg injury that dates back to him getting rolled up on in the Alabama game.
Walters has spent time at left guard already this season, so his ability to fill in there was fairly established. Heismeyer's performance was critical.
The Mizzou O-line allowed seven pressures, three of which came from Bryant. Because he blocks the quarterback's blind side, those three pressures coming through the left tackle led to a sack and two hits.
Johnson and Membou, as the right side of the offensive line, allowed just one pressure apiece.
Look. His first half was ugly, with 23 passing yards. Pyne had negative passing yards at the end of the first quarter. But in the final 30 minutes, Pyne threw for 120 yards and three touchdowns, also finishing with 23 rushing yards. That's worth something.
His completion percentage finished at 51.9%, but PFF's adjusted version of that stat, which gives the quarterback credit for on-target throws that were dropped, rose to 72.7%. Pyne had no turnover-worthy throws in the algorithm's eyes.
Pyne, as would be expected, performed better in a clean pocket, completing passes at twice the clip when well-protected as when under pressure. Oklahoma blitzed on 22.6% of Pyne's dropbacks but he was under pressure on 48.4% of passing plays, which shows Missouri's blocking wasn't doing him all the favors it could have.
Pyne was efficient in getting the ball out in 2.37 seconds, on average, against the blitz.
He excelled in "intermediate" range throws, defined by PFF as between 10-19 yards downfield. Pyne was six for seven on those throws, and three or four on intermediate throws to the middle of the field.
Pyne's average depth of target was 8.6 yards downfield, which wasn't far off Brady Cook's season-long ADOT of 9.6.
Running back
It seems the depth chart flipped upside down within the running back room. Noel, the primary tailback, has been dealing with a foot injury that kept him out of the Tigers' game against Alabama, perhaps explaining his limited participation in Saturday's matchup — though with 12 snaps, he still had 10 carries and a target.
Roberts, whose role is growing from third-down pass protection back to something more versatile, averaged 3.9 yards per carry, with 2.75 of those coming after contact. He never ran the ball more than eight yards on a single go, relying on churn and consistency.
But here's where PFF's grades get wonky: Roberts had the highest ball security grade of any MU running back, despite fumbling in the closing minutes of the game.
Mizzou still leaned on zone rushing plays, running 24 of those to just 10 gap runs. The Tigers ran to the right side 21 times and the left side 16 times.
Wide receivers/tight ends
Two receiving touchdowns against his former team made Wease the highest-graded offensive player for Missouri. PFF didn't consider his second receiving touchdown, caught along the boundary of the end zone with a defender in front of him, to be contested — another strange call by the computer. Wease forced three missed tackles.
Wease, Burden and Norfleet were the only MU players targeted multiple times by Pyne.
Defensive line
Man, what else does Young have to do to earn a decent PFF grade? He pressured OU quarterback Jackson Arnold a team-high five times, sacking him once and batting down a pass. Oh, and Young scored the game-winning touchdown by recovering a fumble and taking it to the house.
Williams and Walker had the second most pressures, with three apiece.
The rotation at this position dropped down to three players, with Rodriguez, a true freshman, kept largely on the sidelines. Flagg and Newson were atop the tackles leaderboard with eight and seven, respectively. They allowed a combined eight yards in pass coverage.
Defensive backs
Mizzou rotated a lot less in its secondary that usual — notice how the starters (Burks and above) in that list are a clear tier in snap count? The Tigers emphasized keeping their best defenders on the field more than their freshest, and it worked well, given that OU's biggest plays were a fake punt and a fumble return.
Carnell was Mizzou's highest-graded player overall, recording five tackles and a pass breakup. The Sooners targeted him six times — the only MU player thrown at more than twice. He allowed four catches for 30 yards.
Mizzou beat writer
