Game Day Takeaways From Last Week’s Missouri Tigers Victory Over Vanderbilt Commodores
Mizzou gave fans a glimpse into the future in last Saturday’s victory over the Commodores.
In a season filled with more lows than highs, the Missouri Tigers held on to beat a solid Vanderbilt team last Saturday. As the final seconds ticked off, the player’s faces were filled with elation. Faurot Field felt different as the faithful fans in attendance were treated to a glimpse into the future of Mizzou football. A potent offense and a dominating defense. In short: an SEC caliber team, definitely a team on the rise.
Freshman running back Damarea Crockett carried the ball 20 times for 154 yards. Averaging over seven yards a carry is impressive on any day, but even more so considering the Commodores possess a staunch defense featuring star linebacker Zach Cunningham. Football, though, is a team sport, and the Tigers’ defense came to play, most notably DE Charles Harris, who was named the SEC defensive lineman of the week. Fittingly, Missouri’s whole team effort gave coach Barry Odom his first Southeastern Conference win.
Although the win wasn’t pretty and Mizzou let Vanderbilt creep back into the game after jumping out to a 19 point lead, they “gutted” out the victory, which is the hallmark of good teams–winning the close ones. Saturday, the Tigers proved that sometimes grit is enough. Too many times during the season, Missouri has come up short, and for a moment late in the game, it seemed as though defeat was a real possibility.
While the 2016 campaign has been arduous, the Tigers are giving fans plenty of reason to look towards the future. Damarea Crockett is a bon afide star and is only going to improve with each passing season.
Quarterback Drew Lock took care of the football, looked comfortable in the pocket, and showed great poise. Although, he’s not ready to carry the team quite yet; there’s little doubt it’s only a matter of time before he will.
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Add in a young developing receiving corps featuring Dimetrios Mason, the oft-overlooked Johnathon Johnson, and J’Mon Moore, and this is a formidable offense that will be explosive in the very near future.