Wrights and Wrongs: Takeaways from Mizzou's 27-17 Win Over Troy

COLUMBIA — In what should have been Missouri football's "put-it-all-together" and "hit-our-stride" game before a nine-game Southeastern-Conference schedule begins, the Tigers sputtered and trudged to a 27-17 win over the Troy Trojans on Saturday night, underwhelming just about everybody at Memorial Stadium, including themselves.

"I don't want anybody to think we're sitting here, satisfied, in the locker room," Head coach Eli Drinkwitz said postgame. “We're all disappointed. We know that we can play better.”

The time to play better is rapidly approaching. After handling Arkansas-Pine Bluff of the FCS by 40 points, the Tigers trailed early and won in unimpressive manners against the lowly Kansas Jayhawks of the Big 12 and the Troy Trojans of the Sun Belt Conference. Each of the last two games revealed glaring areas of concern for the Tigers, and while there are positives from each game, the win over Troy on is largely highlighted by negatives.

Here’s what went right and wrong for Missouri against Troy.

Wrong: Passing Defense

Against Kansas, Missouri’s secondary was consistently letting Jayhawk receivers break free in all areas of the field. Luckily for the lapsing Tigers, KU quarterback Isaiah Marshall was just as consistently missing the open target. Drinkwitz knew that wouldn’t be the case with Troy quarterback Goose Crowder, stating Tuesday that Crowder was going to “dial up our seams” if the Tigers didn’t correct mistakes.

Missouri didn’t correct those mistakes, and Crowder dialed up the seams. Crowder found speedy wideout TK Keyes for a 76-yard touchdown on the second play of the game, hit receiver Howard Fincher for a 55-yard touchdown down the sideline seconds before halftime and nearly converted a 30-plus yard Kinchen again in the fourth quarter.

“It's awful,” Drinkwitz said of the first-drive touchdown. “Bottom line, that's awful defense.”

Sep 19, 2026; Columbia, Missouri, USA; Missouri Tigers head coach Eli Drinkwitz reacts to a call against the Troy Trojans during the first half of the game at Faurot Field at Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Missouri’s secondary is relatively inexperienced. Of the six starters at corner, safety and nickel, only two were starters in 2025 — Banner and cornerback Chris Graves Jr. That inexperience seems to be catching up to the Tigers early on.

Missouri has to correct these mistakes fast, as it’ll travel to take on a high-octane Mississippi State offense Saturday, featuring breakout quarterback Kamario Taylor and dangerous wideout Anthony Evans III.

“We're going to turn over the page, ride this one the night, and then wake up tomorrow and fix this,” cornerback Sione Laulea said.

Wright: Special Teams

Calling Missouri’s special teams being a positive — let alone the biggest positive — in its win over Troy anything less than shocking would be dishonest. The Tigers’ special teams unit hit an all-time low against Kansas, allowing two field goals to be blocked in the first half and exiting the week with the lowest PFF special teams grade in all of FBS.

Drinkwitz said Tuesday that Missouri was going to fix the problem, and it did: Blake Craig went 2-for-2 on field goals and 3-for-3 on extra points. The field-goal unit was stable, but two other special-teamers played pivotal parts in Missouri’s win.

Sophomore wideout DaMarion Fowlkes earned the first punt-return touchdown of his collegiate career, making a 68-yard house call early in the second quarter to tie the game at 10 apiece.

“Punt return was huge for us,” Drinkwitz said. … “For the special teams to bounce back and be a real liability last week but really be the difference in us winning the game this week.”

Additionally, Florida State transfer kicker / punter Bruno Reus had the best game of his collegiate career, too. Reus averaged 46.3 yards on his seven punts, pinning Troy inside the 20-yard line three times and at the 5-yard line once.

“He was booting those,” Santana Banner said. “Pinning them in the 15, 20, in that range so they’re backed up. Just helps the defense out.”

Wrong: Passing Offense

Of all the aspects that went wrong tonight, the lackluster passing offense feels the most likely to correct itself. Starting quarterback Austin Simmons started the season set ablaze, throwing for 544 yards, seven touchdowns and no interceptions through two games, completing throws to all areas of the field. Wideouts Cayden Lee and Donovan Olugbode emerged as perhaps the best duo in the SEC, and the pass-blocking kept Simmons squeaky clean in both contests.

The pass game, which had looked like Missouri’s biggest strength through the first two games, was undeniably poor against Troy. Simmons completed just 10 of his 19 passes for a total of 91 yards and one touchdown despite the Trojans allowing 335 yards to Sam Houston quarterback Landyn Locke in Week 1.

Just about everything went wrong to lead to Simmons’ final line.

Sep 19, 2026; Columbia, Missouri, USA; Missouri Tigers quarterback Austin Simmons (13) throws a pass against the Troy Trojans during the first half of the game at Faurot Field at Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

"There was receivers falling down, receivers running routes too deep, quarterback throwing the ball too early, offensive holding,” Drinkwitz said, “getting behind the sticks, inefficient runs on first down, inability to utilize play-action to create separation in the second level of the defense. So, a lot of things to fix."

Almost inexplicably, Simmons was missing throws that looked previously routine for him against the Jayhawks and Golden Lions. It’s hard to imagine that after seeing his performance in the first two weeks that what he displayed on the field against Troy should be expected going forward — the impressiveness of the first two games certainly outweigh the concern of the most recent.

Wright: Daeden Hopkins

There needs to be serious conversations about how good Daeden Hopkins actually is. He had high expectations from many entering the season, being labeled as a “breakout” candidate by edge coach Brian Early and referred to as Drinkwitz as an eventual “first-round pick.”

Hopkins logged 1.5 sacks and a forced fumble for the second consecutive game, putting up the same stat line as he did against the Jayhawks. Hopkins also added seven tackles and two pressures against the Trojans.

He would’ve had a second sack if not for a facemask penalty.

Hopkins now leads Missouri in sacks, forced fumbles and pressures, leading the defense as a true sophomore.

Wrong: Penalties

Missouri racked up nine penalties for 90 yards against the seemingly inferior Trojans, shooting itself in the foot and giving Troy opportunity after opportunity to capitalize off Tiger mistakes. Many of those penalties were preventable and self-inflected.

“I think penalties are divided up in between like controllables and un-controllables,” Drinkwitz said. “We don't want to have three facemasks, but that's going to happen… The one on Daeden Hopkins on the third-down sack is just part of the game. The ones that are inexcusable: we had another personal foul, special teams on a no-return play, which is just ego, and then we had a (pass interference) where we got to get our head back turned around. Offensively, you know, we had a false start again on (Naeshaun Montgomery)... We had a holding on a big run that led to a punt, I think. So yeah, self-inflicted wounds. Those are things that we have to do better at.”

Sep 6, 2025; Columbia, Missouri, USA; Missouri Tigers offensive lineman Dominick Giudice takes the field ahead of the renewed Border Showdown between the Tigers and Kansas Jayhawks at Faurot Field at Memorial Stadium. | Amber Winkler/MissouriOnSI

Starting center Dominick Giudice has a penalty in each of his first three games this season. Fifth-year guard and second-year starter Curtis Peagler picked up his first penalty of the season while fifth-year tight end Jordon Harris picked up a holding penalty of his own.

Penalties of such nature — veterans making preventable mistakes — are inexcusable. The Tigers also had five penalties against UAPB and 10 against Kansas, bringing their season total to 24 penalties for 201 yards.

As is the case with the woes of the passing defense, it’ll be much harder to come back from high-penalty games against the giants of the SEC.

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