Mizzou football snapshots: Snap counts, PFF grades from Tigers' loss at South Carolina
Nothing calls for a look at cool, calm numbers like a late, season ceiling-capping defeat, right?
Win or lose, contender or not, Pro Football Focus grades out Missouri's games, and we take a weekly look at what its snap count and advanced stat data has to say. In the case of the Tigers' 34-30 loss at South Carolina, the numbers show roughly what the eye test did: A few individuals played well, the defense largely didn't — and uff da, the missed tackles.
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. Want to assign different labels to those number ranges? Go for it. Nobody will know.
Offensive line
From a participation standpoint: Walters replaced Green for roughly a series at left guard, as he has in past games. But that has been for performance and injury reasons at different times, so it's not immediately clear why it happened in this contest.
Membou graded out as Mizzou's best offensive player in PFF's eyes, and that tracks with both the eye test and pressure stats: He and Johnson allowed one quarterback pressure each, which isn't bad against a pass rush that had produced the third-most sacks in the nation heading into the game.
Heismeyer held up well for someone making his first start. He allowed four pressures but no sacks.
Bryant wasn't tabbed as responsible for any pressures.
At this point in the season, Cook's grading scale has functionally changed. It's not out of 100 points or even pass-fail — it's available-unavailable, and by being able to play despite feeling far from 100 percent, he deserves good marks.
PFF's adjusted completion percentage — which takes plays like drops into account — for Cook was 73.3%. He took an average of 2.77 seconds to throw (around his season-long mark) and targeted receivers 8.7 yards downfield, on average (slightly shorter than normal).
Cook's completion percentage was actually higher when he was under pressure than when he had a clean pocket — 72.7% compared to 65.0%. Relatedly, he also completed passes at a higher clip when the Gamecocks blitzed.
Cook went four for six on passes thrown 20 or more yards downfield, earning a 94.5 passing grade for that subcategory of throw.
Play action worked well for Mizzou, with nine such plays producing 103 yards.
Running backs
Noel returned to a fuller workload in a big way, posting 150 yards on the ground — and 5.6 per carry. As normal, he feasted on zone plays, running 19 of those to just eight gap plays.
The rest of the snap distribution is interesting. Despite holding the second spot on the depth chart, Carroll hardly played at all. Lacy, a true freshman who burned his redshirt by appearing in this game, seemed to take Carroll's role as the game wore on. Consider the hierarchy here something the Post-Dispatch will ask MU coach Eli Drinkwitz about this week.
Of the Tigers' 32 running plays, 12 went to the left while 20 went to the right. Eleven went to the gaps on either side of Heismeyer, which would seemingly be a vote of confidence in his ability to step in on the offensive line.
Wide receivers/tight ends
It takes both a quarterback and a receiver for a catch to happen, and the Cook-Burden tandem was in a special kind of sync: Burden caught all eight of his targets, including two considered contested by South Carolina defenders.
It was Wease who really flashed his signature contested catch ability, though, making three such plays. Johnson's deep reception was also graded as contested — the defender was actually flagged for pass interference, which must count.
Defensive line
The stat that counts is how we'll lead off every defensive position group: missed tackles. On the D-line, Walker missed two, Kristian Williams missed one.
Walker did manage to pressure South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers eight times, though only one of those led to a sack. McClellan and Williams were the only other linemen with multiple pressures.
On the missed tackle meter: Flagg missed two, Newson and Hicks each missed one.
Flagg and Newson, the clear top two at this position, combined for 14 other tackles. Newson, as usual, was the most frequent blitzer, rushing the passer six times.
Interestingly, Rodriguez rushed the passer on all five of his snaps.
Defensive backs
Oof. Not a banner day as the grades go. Deloach missed three tackles, Burks missed two, then Flagg, Charleston and Carnell each missed one.
Deloach was targeted heavily, allowing five catches and 121 yards on six targets. Burks was deemed responsible for a coverage bust leading to the Gamecocks' first touchdown.
Mizzou athletics beat writer
