How 'Poor Coaching' Decisions Led to Mizzou's Loss to Texas A&M

COLUMBIA, Mo. — A few key moments in the No. 22 Missouri Tigers' loss to the No. 3 Texas A&M Aggies stand out as turning points in the game. Starting with the touchdown the Tigers allowed at the very end of the first half to put them down two scores, to the fake punt they allowed in the third quarter, Missouri faltered in a few moments that led to its 38-17 loss.

According to head coach Eli Drinkwitz, those key moments were at the fault of no one but himself.

"Poor coaching by me to put us in a position to give up the fumble before half. That should be a 7-0 game," Drinkwitz told the media following the loss. "And then, to cut it to 14, have a chance right there and give up a fake punt... Again, on me. I gotta be better there."

At the end of the first half, the Tigers trailed by only seven points. They had the ball in their own territory and were going to start the second half on offense.

After getting one first down, Drinkwitz believed they could get points out of the drive.

"I mean, we were trying just to make sure, they had three timeouts, so we wanted to get the first down," Drinkwitz said. "Then once we got the first down, we tried to see if we could get points, when it got the third-and-9 right there."

Drinkwitz, offensive coordinator Kirby Moore and the rest of the offense opted to run a flood play, with crossers in the middle of the field. That ended up not paying off, given the blitz that the Aggies threw at freshman quarterback Matt Zollers.

Daymion Sanford ran untouched through the Missouri offensive line, putting immediate pressure on Zollers. There is certainly some regret on the play call there, especially in hindsight, with what the Aggies ran on defense.

"So that's my fault, poor scheme, I gave the okay to try to get the first down there," Drinkwitz said. "I should have said to throw a screen instead."

READ: Crushing Texas A&M Loss Shows How Wide the Gap is for Mizzou

Another massive twist in this game came in the third quarter, when a punt on fourth-and-3 was snapped directly to Texas A&M safety Dalton Brooks. This was something the Tigers were seemingly not ready for.

The call on the punt return coverage was to go into max protect, allowing the return man to have blockers and get out in space. The consequence of that was a lack of any sort of coverage around the line of scrimmage, allowing Brooks to take off and run.

Drinkwitz was ultimately the final person to sign off on the decision to go into maximum protection.

"Third quarter, we're up 14, balls somewhere in the middle of the field, right momentum kind of switched in our favor," Drinkwitz said. "We had max return called because we thought we were going to be able to generate some space for Kevin (Coleman Jr.). When you have max return called, you're not really in a great position to defend the fake. We had one guy over there, but that wasn't going to be enough. And so ultimately, that's on me."

In hindsight, getting the ball back in that moment may have allowed Missouri to get the game within a score. Instead, the Aggies extended that lead to 17 points.

The play of Zollers at the quarterback spot in his first career start was likely not what people were hoping for. Ultimately, the situation Zollers was in was undesirable for any quarterback starting in his first career game, especially against a team of the caliber of Texas A&M.

Zollers finished the night 7-for-22, showing some inaccuracies and questionable decision-making along the way. Zollers was also pressured multiple times and sacked twice.

The offensive line as a whole was not good enough for Zollers to find success. Whether he was making the right choices or not, there were multiple instances where he didn't have the time to do so.

"It’s not like he was throwing the ball up for jeopardy and putting us in terrible spots," Drinkwitz said. "We let him down as coaches tonight with the protection plan.”

Those who were responsible for protecting Zollers, including left tackle Cayden Green, are aware of what happened. That'll be a point of emphasis moving forward as the Tigers aim to make Zollers more comfortable in the pocket.

"He got thrown in a really tough situation," Green said. "That's a really good defense. He did as well as he could and we got to help him out some more."

Missouri is back to a normal turnaround in Week 12, facing the Mississippi State Bulldogs at 6:45 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 15 in its final home game of the season.

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