The Three Most Important Quotes from Eli Drinkwitz's Tuesday Press Conference

Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz spoke to the media on Tuesday and looked back on the 27-17 victory over Troy and previewed a top-25 matchup against Mississippi State on Saturday. Here's the three most important things Drinkwitz said, followed by everything else said.

On offensive pros and cons against Troy

Missouri football scored 27 points and just three in the second half on Saturday. Running back Jamal Roberts excelled with a team-high 141 all-purpose yards, while Austin Simmons threw for a season-low 91 yards in the contest. Drinkwitz gave his thoughts on what led to the succesful run game and inefficient pass play.

"The offensive line played really well, they really did. I thought our run game improved. The protection was great, tremendous all night," Drinkwitz said. "Just uncharacteristic play in the pass game, specifically on third downs, we were not good enough to get any sort of rhythm. When you're two-for-11, it's hard to do anything consistently enough. But I was proud of them, we scored after both turnovers, which is important for us. And we didn't turn the ball over, which in a game like that, although we were frustrated, we didn't allow those frustrations to lead into bad decision making, which I think is important."

On Mississippi State's offense

Mississippi State has scored 38 points or more in every contest this season, including two games against Power Four opponents. Last week, the Bulldogs scored 41 against South Carolina on the road, led by four passing touchdowns from Kamario Taylor to four different receivers and Fluff Bothwell's 115 rushing yards. Drinkwitz spoke on all phases of the Bulldogs' offensive system Tuesday.

"Coach (Jeff) Lebby is doing an outstanding job. I think he's got his team. You can tell the foundations of his culture and the foundation of his schemes are in place, they are truly an excellent football team," Drinkwitz said. "On the offensive side of the ball, explosive, one of the best offenses in the country, led by a tremendous quarterback who's got excellent arm talent, tremendous escapability, is throwing the ball at a really, really high level. He's got three tremendous wide receivers. I think their running back Fluff (Bothwell) is doing an excellent job. I think he was the guy that kind of got their engine started last week and they played a really pretty good game once they shook off the cobwebs of the road, so tremendous challenge on the offensive side of the ball."

More on Lebby and Kamario Taylor

Drinkwitz was impressed by Taylor's evolution under Lebby during the press conference, complementing the coach for waiting to make the coveted quarterback a full-time starter until his sophomore year. In a deep offense, the head coach and standout quarterback stick out to Drinkwitz.

"What Coach Lebby did last year is pretty ingenious as far as how do you bring along a quarterback and make sure that you give confidence and allow him success instead of just throwing him out to the wolves and shaking the quarterback's confidence, which I think showed up for them big time in last week's game where (Taylor) throws an interception, but he bounces back because he understands and has confidence in who he is as a player," Drinkwitz said. "It takes a really strong coach and a coach who believes in the system and believes in who he is and what he's doing in order to not give in to the crowd and what the demands and everybody else wants, but sticks to a plan. And I think that's why, quite honestly, Mississippi State looks so successful right now because you can tell that Coach Lebby has stuck to his plan. He had a plan, how he wanted to flip this thing around. He's got it going right now, so kudos to him and kudos to him for sticking to it."

Opening statement

Drinkwitz's quote on the Tigers' offense against Troy and an overview of the Bulldogs' offense was originally in the statement.

"Looking back at the Troy, I thought our special teams looked really outstanding. I thought the Da'Marion Fowlkes really played well, not just on the punt return and making great decisions on the catches, but he was our gunner on our punt team and forced four fair catches. They tried to double him twice and neither time were they effective, so it was really really good on the punt return for a touchdown. You know, Nick Deloach, Jackson Hancock, CJ Bass III, Sione (Laulea), all those guys did an excellent job trusting their fundamentals and technique and obviously leads to an explosive play, which was really good. Defensively, two takeaways, back-to-back plays, two weeks in a row, huge for us. Really there was only three explosive plays in the game: two passes for touchdowns and then one quarterback scramble. Both of those are learning (opportunities). The first one, the defender tried to strike at the ball instead of securing the tackle first, we got to do better there. The last one before half, that's on me as a coach. I've got to have us in a better call. You cannot give up a touchdown at the end of half. 14 seconds left. We're really not trying to get the ball back at that point anyway. We just need to be in a better call there. So that's on me. Thought our defensive front played really well, stuffed the run, pressured the quarterback. I thought the line of scrimmage played well with the TFLs. We just didn't have enough knockback tackles. We missed more tackles in this game than we did the previous games. So we got to go back and make sure we're doing those things individual and in practice and have a faster start. Obviously, them possessing the ball for the first two for the first quarter was really not not conducive for success offensively." "With all of that, you know that that was last week. We're focused on this week, and we've got a really, really tremendous challenge ahead of us."

"Defensively, hired Zach Arnett, the defensive coordinator. He's got a unique scheme. It's very multiple, but they play physical and tough, which has always been the hallmark of a Zach Arnett defense. Their defensive end, Amaree Williams, obviously played tremendous at the defensive end position, both physical and off the ball, which makes that a tremendous challenge. You get Kelley Jones, who's one of the best defenders in the league, at the corner position. I think Isaac Smith at their hawk position or dog position lets them do a lot of different things schematically. So, really a tremendous challenge for everybody. It's going to be a tough place to play. Anticipate it being sold out and (they're) trying to set the record for cowbells, they have a tremendous fan base. So, got a lot of challenges in our hands. Ton of respect for them. As far as injury report, we're into the SEC protocol, so I'll update that tomorrow night."

On Taylor and the challenges Mississippi State's offense offers

"Defense is all about 11 guys acting as one, the dilemma is if you try to add extra people to the rush, you're leaving your secondary exposed to one-on-one coverage, which with those guys is a tremendous challenge because of the speed that those wide receivers possess and the route running ability. If you play deep and they can hand the ball off to Fluff and really churn up the yardage and the quarterback can sit there. And I think one of the most impressive things about (Taylor's) game is when he's scrambling, he has his eyes up. The touchdown to Marquis Johnson was really a forced scramble, slide to the left, eyes downfield, which is really tough on a quarterback. But he's seen it really well, so I think all of everybody's got stress this week."

On the lack of success passing the ball against Troy

"I just think our timing was off. Our timing was off, so it wasn't really pocket issues. It was more like you know the first shot play of the game where Jordon (Harris) gets the holding call. That play we really got to push up in the pocket. We get condensed from the edge, and he really didn't push up in the pocket. I think instead he just got the ball out too quick, and we weren't open, and we forced our tight end to hold there. So I think it's just learning, but I didn't think it was a lack of trust and the protection or anything like that. I just think it was, for whatever reason, our timing was off."

On lapses in the secondary

"There's two big plays that occur. We have a leverage issue on play number two. We have a free safety that's got a tactical ball. We have a man-to-man defender who tries to strike the ball, so get it on the ground. So, you know, that one's one you can take off the tape, or hopefully take off the tape. We're going to put in wide stacks again. That's what Mississippi State's offense does and RPO, so we'll have that challenge again and figure out if we fixed it. The second one was we got to get our head around and we got to be in a better call. I think we had seven (pass break ups) in the game. We were playing the ball coverage and thought we did pretty good at it, we just had two plays that went for touchdowns. You got to get those on the ground, that's why we got to be in a better call if you want to be in man there you need to be in two man (or) be in a deeper free safety ability so we can make sure that tackle gets to the ground."

On the rushing improvement week-to-week

"All that stuff is to be determined this week and see this is a different animal this week. It's a totally different challenge. We're going to have to have more rotation at the running back position. We're going to have to be more consistent, not creating negative yardage plays with our other running backs. I think one of the things that Jamal does really well is very few TFLs because he understands the outside zone is getting wider. You got to stick your foot in the ground, make it a zero yardage play instead of it being a minus three or a minus eight and that's something that young backs just take a little time to learn, but we got to get that rotation going. And for me, the biggest thing in running the ball is you cannot have negative yardage plays. You can't put the team behind the chains. Anything second long is a is a bad deal for us."

On how to set up achievable third downs

"There's just things that we got to consistently do better. Play to our strengths. Make sure that as a team, we are seeing what plays off of plays or need to occur instead of just going from this play to that play. Learning everybody in that room together, making sure that when we put a plan together, it all fits and it's not segmented. So I think we'll be better this week."

On how Simmons' can avoid turning the ball over

"You just have to have really good decision making and then the quarterback has to see the underneath coverage. I think traditionally man-to-man teams don't have nearly as many interceptions... those guys did an excellent job of being in underneath coverage and lifting at a really high rate. So Austin's going to have to see underneath coverage and not try to force balls. We had really two forced throws, one on a third-and-18 that we really need to be hitting checkdown and try to get into billable range. So that's a learning opportunity for a quarterback. But biggest thing is try not to force the ball into bad windows. Make sure you get lift to second throws."

On 10 personnel system the Tigers have utilized

"We've done it in the past. I mean, it's just four wide and you know sometimes you can get speed matchups. They're not going to match it with nine personnel and you feel like you can get some some different route running abilities on safeties or nickels or wheel linebackers. So it shows up. The trade-off is you're not as physical in the run game, or not as at the point of attack. So you have to have some different run stuff in there. But it's just matchup driven, third down driven, two minute driven."

On how special teams improved against Troy

"We sured up the C and D gap without allowing a lot of penetration there. Everybody since that UAPB game has tried to rush six to the left side or to the field side, which is good coaching. So we're having to figure out ways to make sure that that protection is sound and we didn't have any issues with that. So that was positive. I think obviously we're not playing very good in that game and that first field goal come out there it's a lot of at least I was a little bit nervous, not only protection, but just wanting that thing to go in, just so we could stymie the momentum. And I thought Blake coming in there and nailing that kind of gave everybody like a sigh of relief. Now it's back to a one-score game. Obviously, the next series would be the takeaway without a score. Next series, another takeaway without a score. So, was able to allow us to snowball. So I thought really Brunno (Reus') punt to the one yard line, defense pulled them, shank punt. We go out there, we don't score, but we can kick the field goal, take away touchdown, take away touchdown was really the difference. Actually, I think the punt return then takeaway, takeaway."

On starting strong against Mississippi State

"It's really just in general as an entire team, we need to start better than we did this past week and better than we did against Kansas. Both those games did not start the way we needed to. In Kansas offense or special teams, defensively this past game, second play of the game goes for touchdowns. So I think the whole group's got to understand that we have to to start faster and play steadier. And if you allow momentum to to snowball on your game like that, it can give them a difficult hurdle."

On Fowlkes role offensively, not just special teams

"I envision him being a playmaker for us. He's always made plays. Y'all referenced the 10 personnel between him and Shaun (Terry), he rotates in. He can play multiple positions. If the ball finds him, I think that's one of Austin's strengths is he's able to distribute the ball to multiple players. So, absolutely, I think he can. I do think that we, as an offense, need to continue to find plays and packages to get him the football, it's just playmaker touches, he's a guy that the ball is in his hand good things happen."

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