Missouri DE Trajan Jeffcoat and Tigers Ready to Prove Naysayers Wrong
While the Missouri Tigers have suffered some gut-wrenching losses over the last few weeks, one bright spot of the season has been the surprisingly capable play of their defense. Every week Mizzou's defense seems to go toe-to-toe with the opposing offense.
Even against No. 1 Georgia, the Tigers got the best of the Bulldogs on that side of the ball for a large part of the game. Still, those defensive performances haven't amounted to many wins yet.
Defensive lineman Trajan Jeffcoat, who's a key part of that standout unit, says that the Tigers know they've got what it takes to succeed.
"We're just ready to show the world what we can do," said Jeffcoat after practice this week. "There's a lot of naysayers, but as a team, we're just moving forward...everybody's on the same mindset."
Jeffcoat's been one of the leaders on this defense so far, and he's one of the reasons they've held their last three opponents to only two touchdowns each. The Tigers are hoping to put forth another stout defensive performance against Vanderbilt this weekend, and they'll have to if they want to earn their first conference win.
Right now, Missouri's got the 18th-best passing defense in the country according to efficiency, a better ranking than Alabama. In fact, the Tigers have a better pass defense by that metric than all but two SEC teams (Georgia and Kentucky).
The pressure that Jeffcoat and his fellow pass rushers create has been a big part of that production this year. They've totaled 12 sacks so far, and their QB pressures have allowed the Mizzou secondary to pick off five passes as well.
There's no doubt that the Tigers will lean on their defense to keep them in games for the rest of the season. If Missouri can add just a little more offense to the recipe, though, they might just turn out to be a problem for some other SEC teams later in the fall.
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