Instant Takeaways from Missouri’s Routing Win Past Buffalo

COLUMBIA, Mo. — The Missouri Tigers didn’t go out and score 51 tonight, but they didn’t let Buffalo have any more room to breathe than it allowed Murray State in Week 1.

It took a quarter for Missouri’s offense to thrive after a slow first 15 minutes, but its three rushing touchdowns in the second quarter were all it really needed to leave Faurot Field with another win. It had a stifling defensive performance, along with a strong run game throughout the contest.

The Tigers made quick work of their opponents once again, regardless of the significant disparity in talent between the two rosters. Here’s three takeaways from the shutout win:

Although Missouri’s rushing duo of Nate Noel and Marcus Carroll is leading the backfield, it found other ways to attack Buffalo in the run game.

Quarterback Brady Cook’s 28-of-36 pass completion and 228 passing yards were nothing to look past, but he found much of his success was found in the run game. He rushed for 62 yards on five attempts and two touchdowns on the night, the first of which coming on a 3-yard drive up the middle and the latter from a 31-yard scramble that ended with a flip into the end zone at the 1:51 minute mark in the second quarter.

The Tigers also opted to use receiver Luther Burden III as a rusher on two occasions in the first half before he exited from injury. It started with an 18-yard rush to the right at the 14:47 minute mark of the second quarter, followed up by a 3-yard jet sweep to score a touchdown at the end of the drive.

The depth in Missouri’s backfield is deep as-is, but using Cook and Burden in the run game helped throw different looks at the Bulls and resulted in three separate scores. Cook’s trend as a dual-threat quarterback seems to be continuing from last season, and Burden getting more looks as a rusher could be something to look for in the coming weeks.

In back-to-back weeks, the Tiger defense has decimated its opponents.

Once again Missouri held its opponents to a shutout, forcing Buffalo to just 168 total yards and 1-of-12 on 3rd down conversions. The Bulls struggled immensely to get any form of a strong offense building, even when the Tigers started to ease the foot off the gas pedal in the back half of the game.

Safety Marving Burks Jr. had himself a night, intercepting a pass into no man’s land off Buffalo quarterback C.J. Ogbonna at the 9:38 minute mark of the first quarter and taking it down the field for 15 yards — the first time of his career. As easy of a snag as it was, the quick read on the play helped start a wave of momentum for Missouri.

The Tiger defensive line recorded three sacks throughout the the game, led by freshman Jahkai Lang’s 1.5 sacks. Johnny Walker Jr. and Chris McClellan recorded the remaining sack and .5 sack respectively.

Missouri’s defensive performance was encouraging yet again, and it’ll enter next week’s matchup against Boston College without a single point allowed. It’s the only team in college football to currently hold that status.

Although the Tigers won without much of a fight from Buffalo, field goal opportunities were missed multiple times throughout the contest.

Kicker Blake Craig’s night started with a 51-yard field goal that gave Missouri its first three points of the game at the 10:47 minute mark of the first quarter, but he went on to miss two consecutive attempts after the make.

The freshman missed wide left on a 49-yard attempt at the 6:52 mark of the first quarter, and fell short and right at the end of second quarter from 52 yards out.

Being a first-year player, its not surprising to see Craig deal with struggles early on in the season. He made the distance on the first miss, but the second miss was ugly and his accuracy was off on both attempts. He showed the ability to make short and middle kicks against Murray State in a 3-for-3 outing, but he’ll need to build confidence to drill kicks from further back.