Everything Eli Drinkwitz Said After Mizzou's Loss to Alabama

COLUMBIA, Mo. — No. 14 Missouri fell to No. 8 Alabama 27-24 on Saturday in Columbia. It was the Tigers' first loss of the year.

After falling into a 17-7 hole, the Tigers tied the game up early in the third. They couldn't reclaim the lead, though they gave themselves several chances to.

Here is everything head coach Eli Drinkwitz said after the game.

Opening Statement:

"Just appreciate the fans and people for making this an incredible atmosphere and sticking with us through the ups and downs of the game.

Disappointing because we had an opportunity. Proud of the way our defense fought, proud of the way our offense fought, but ultimately, we just had too many critical mistakes in critical situations to win.

Third downs in the first half on defense, third down in the whole game on offense, and then fourth-down conversions — they were three-for-three, and we missed our fake punt there. Those are gonna stick with us for a while, gonna hurt. They're hurting in that locker room right now because they believed we could do it. Just came up short. So, we're gonna bounce back. We're gonna have to bounce back this week."

On the fake punt decision:

"It was my decision. We had the look. They matched our personnel. They put their fake, or they put their punt return defense, out there. We thought we could get 4 yards out there, snapped it to one of the best running backs in the country, and ended up just getting a yard short.

But, we hadn't been able to sustain drives. Defensive time of possession tilted, and I just felt like that was the time. I also felt like if we could get a stop right there, we'd be no worse than a one-possession game. And again, we get a sack first down, we get second-down screen stop, we give up a chunk yardage on third down and then fourth-and-8, they convert. Then, down there on the goal line, fourth down, they convert."

On the offensive play calling:

"They got a good football team. We just didn't get it done today. Not going to assign blame to anybody other than the head football coach. It's my responsibility to get our team ready to go. We had ourselves a chance at the end of the game, so it's my responsibility."

On Beau Pribula's performance:

"He gave us an opportunity. The two interceptions were on seam balls. Sure, we're gonna wish we got them back, but he did a nice job of escaping a lot of pressure.

Never really got him into a rhythm, throwing the ball. We got to do a better job of developing a rhythm throwing the ball. We ended up with 200 yards passing. But, I think going into that, down 10 we had like 68, so the stats are misleading, and we're going to have to be willing to throw the ball on first down."

On the final offensive drive:

"1:10 in college football is an eternity. The timeouts weren't a factor. You gotta keep getting completions. We weren't able to keep getting completions. And, he saw the right look that those receivers didn't have our eyes back in time and missed it."

On what Alabama did to take the run game away:

"I don't know. I have to watch it. It's a legit question, I just don't know."

His reaction to where the team stands after the loss:

"Heartbreak and disappointment. We didn't come here to play them close. We came here to win. I'm not good with playing them close. Bull crap. We came here to win. We didn't get it done.

We're going to be disappointed. We're going to learn our lessons and leave the event. We're not going to sit here and pout, make it more than it was. Learn the lesson. Leave the event. We're disappointed. We had a good enough football team. Turned the ball over twice. We didn't get the ball to get off the field on fourth downs, and didn't stay on the field on third downs. You're gonna lose the game. So, that's on me as a head football coach to get that stuff corrected. It's gotta get corrected in practice. It's gotta be executed better on Saturdays. There's no feeling sorry for ourselves. No, man, we tried hard. That's a given."

On Donovan Olgubode's performance:

"He's a good football player, he's a good football player."

On Pribula's interception:

"We were feeling the seam. Once we clear, we got to get our eyes around. But, I'm not sure that's where the ball has to be put. Bottom line, it wasn't executed the way we wanted to execute it, whether that's the wide receiver, the quarterback. At the end of the day, we can't turn the ball over."

On the difficulties with third down:

"We knew they were going to play cover 2. They played cover 2. We didn't get it done."

On the targeting call on Jalen Catalon:

"I've got no comments about officials, reviews, any of that stuff. None of it."

On the onside kick late in the game:

"Give yourself another opportunity to recover the ball. There's no guarantees you're going to stop them, even with the three timeouts. So, you're kicking yourself on why you didn't at least give yourself a chance to recover it. It's a three-point game, and you have to stop them. So whether you stop them at the 45 or whether you stop them at 20, it was really insignificant, because with three timeouts, you're gonna get the ball back with about 1:20. Again, you need about a second for the yards that you're trying to travel."

On how to improve the connection between Pribula and the receivers:

"More reps, more reps, more reps, more reps, better execution, more time on third downs, and get on the same page. We lost, but all is not lost. That's the realities of college football. We lost today, toe to toe with them. A lot of things we can get better at. Didn't have our A-game today. Gotta go back and find it."

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