PFF Insights: Wake Forest at Mizzou

Another season of college football means another season of Rivals teaming up with PFF College to do a deep dive on player analytics. After every Missouri football game, we will use PFF College‘s numbers to break down the Tigers’ performance as a unit and as individuals. Here is a breakdown of how the team performed in week two as well as how they did individually. For those unfamiliar with how PFF calculates its grades, an explanation can be found here.

Overall grades

Pro Football Focus grades offenses based on five categories: passing, rushing, receiving, pass blocking and run blocking. It grades defenses based on four: run defense, tackling, pass rush and coverage. Here’s how Missouri fared in each category Friday.

Takeaways: Across the board numbers were down for the Tigers. They never seemed to have any real rhythm that lasted consecutive drives and despite scoring on three of their first six drives, they stalled out on their final five possessions with three turnovers on downs and two punts. Quarterback Brady Cook completed 60% of his passes, but his performance waned as time went on.

The rushing score is inflated by Cook’s 38 yards, 36 of which came on a scramble. Cody Schrader and Nathaniel Peat combined for 18 carries and 79 yards with Schrader’s longest carry going for 16 yards and Peat’s longest going for 11. Subtract those two carries and the running backs combined for 16 carries for 52 yards (three yards per carry).

The receiving group is credited with two drops, but otherwise had a good day despite being down Dominic Lovett. The group couldn’t cause any separation from a 95th -ranked pass defense without one of its starting cornerbacks, but the Tigers wideouts were able to do a lot of their damage with yards after the catch. The group had 211 of the team’s 215 receiving yards and 117 of those yards were after the catch.

Takeaways: The defense didn’t play up to its lofty standards, but it played well considering the circumstances. Missouri was without four starting-level players on defense in safety Martez Manuel and defensive ends DJ Coleman, Isaiah McGuire and Trajan Jeffcoat.

The run defense was pretty good with the defense getting four tackles for loss and holding Wake Forest to 106 yards on 35 carries (3.02 yards per carry). The tackling was much better than it was in week 13 when the defense had a season-low grade of 40.2. This week the tackling grade was 75.7 after the Tiger recorded 48 tackles and missed just seven tackles versus Wake Forest.

The pass rush was non-existent for most of the game which was to be expected to a degree without the team’s best pass rushers on the field. Wake Forest quarterback Sam Hartman did a lot of damage from the pocket and didn’t have to worry about rushing his throws or getting outside the pocket to make something happen.

The team’s secondary is arguably its best position group and it struggled big time against Wake Forest’s wide receivers. AT Perry was finding the soft spots in the zones and was just setting up shop in those soft spots on his way to 11 receptions for 116 yards. Taylor Morin had three receptions for 30 yards and two touchdowns including a 48-yard touchdown with no defender within 15 yards of him once he caught the ball.

Part of their performance was because of the lack of pass rush, but at the same time, Wake Forest ran the same or very similar drag, curl and out-route plays and the secondary wasn’t stopping.

Other notables: Javon Foster, like most games this season, was the team’s best offensive tackle. His 84.3 pass-blocking grade and 81.0 run-blocking grade paced the team.

Again, Peat’s 11-yard rush to end the first half when Wake Forest was playing prevent defense makes his stat line look better than what the product on the field showed. Without that carry, he has four carries for 14 yards.

Barrett Banister had seven receptions on nine targets for 49 yards in his final collegiate game. This was the third straight game he finished with seven receptions which also happens to be his career-high in catches.

Peanut Houston had nearly four times the amount of snaps (46) he had versus New Mexico State (12) which was his precious season-high in snaps and he made the most of the opportunity finishing with six receptions on eight targets for 37 yards and his first touchdown on the season.

Mookie Cooper had a drop, but besides that, he had his best game of the season with six receptions on eight targets and a team-high 57 receiving yards.

Luther Burden III had seven receptions on 12 targets for 46 yards and had one of the team’s two drops. Burden finished with a total offensive grade of 58.8. He had a really good first quarter, but things went south after he muffed a dying punt he had no business trying to scoop up midway through the second quarter.

Cook finished the game having completed 29 of 48 passes for 215 yards and a touchdown. His 29 completions did tie a Gasparilla Bowl game record.

In the first half, the game appeared to have slowed down for Cook, but things began to unravel in the second half for him and the rest of the offense. Some of that had to do with injuries to two of his starting offensive linemen, a lack of a running game and some of the shots Cook to throughout the game.

Cook was 22 of 28 for 137 yards and a touchdown on short passes 10 yards or fewer. This has been Cook’s sweet spot all season and when he’s throwing in this range he’s more than a competent Power 5 quarterback.

However, Cook’s struggles on passes 10 yards or more was evident once more versus Wake Forest. He completed 6 of 11 passes for 93 yards including being 0 of 5 on deep passes (20 or more yards) for an offensive grade of 42.5.

Cook was at his best when he was being blitzed completing 4 of 5 passes for 35 yards and a touchdown for an offensive grade of 88.0.

He also had success when he was kept clean completing 23 of 35 passes for 198 yards for an offensive grade of 72.8.

Cook was at his worst when he was under duress which was about half of the time. He completed 5 of 13 passes for 32 yards and a touchdown for an offensive grade of 42.3.

Chad Bailey was without question the Tigers’ best player on Friday. He tied with Jaylon Carlies and Ty’Ron Hopper in tackles with nine to go along with 2.5 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks. Bailey also graded out as the Tigers’ best run defender (80.5), pass rusher (75.9) and coverage man (73.9).

Josh Landry had the best game of any Mizzou defensive lineman with three tackles, 0.5 sacks and 0.5 tackles for loss in what was a season-high for him in snaps. He finishes the season with four total defensive grades above 66. This game was also his best in run defense (74.1) and tackling (73.4).

Joseph Charleston recorded only one tackle, but he graded out in the top five in coverage (second, 68.9) and tackling (third, 78.8).

Daylan Carnell had two tackles, two pass deflections and a quarterback hit in what was a season-high in snaps.

Realus George had four tackles and a tackle for loss. After having a season-low tackling grade of 25.9 versus Arkansas George finished with a tackling grade of 73.6. He’s had a tackling grade north of 70 in all but the aforementioned Arkansas game.

Carlies had nine tackles and an interception meaning he finishes with three on the season. He finished with the second-best run defensive grade at 76.5.

Darius Robinson saw snaps at both defensive tackle and defensive end and drew a lot of praise from Mizzou head coach Eli Drinkwitz for his efforts of manning both roles. He finished the game with four tackles and had the seventh-best total defensive grade at 63.1. He finished in the top six in run defense (fourth, 72.3) and tackling (sixth, 76.5).