Missouri vs. Tennessee: Game Grades, Analysis for Tigers and Vols

The Missouri Tigers rode their defensive line and a big second half by Maty Mauk to a 29-21 road win over the Tennessee Volunteers.

Mizzou's defense sacked Tennessee quarterback Joshua Dobbs six times on the night, keeping the Vols offense out of the end zone until late in the fourth quarter. Mauk did the rest, throwing for two touchdowns and 152 yards in the final two frames.

With this victory, the Tigers are only a home victory over Arkansas away from the SEC East title.

Positional Unit	1st Half	2nd Half
Passing Offense	D	A-
Rushing Offense	B+	B
Passing Defense	A	A-
Rushing Defense	A+	A
Special Teams	F	D
Coaching	A-	A

Game Grades for the Tigers

Passing Offense

Mauk just could not connect in the first half, going 6-of-15 and 78 yards as his receivers dropped a lot of catchable balls. Everyone flipped the switch after halftime, allowing Mauk to throw both of his touchdowns to put the game out of reach.

Jimmie Hunt turned in a spectacular effort on his 73-yard touchdown, while Bud Sasser recovered from a case of the drops to catch his touchdown. The big duo combined for seven catches, 182 yards and two scores.

Rushing Offense

The ground game was solid throughout, slowing down a very strong Tennessee pass rush. Marcus Murphy led the way with 82 yards and two scores, with Mauk and Russell Hansbrough contributing another 99 yards.

Passing Defense

The defensive line absolutely dominated this game, sacking Dobbs six times before it was all said and done. Tennessee's quarterback did lead an impressive fourth-quarter drive to make things interesting, but you'll always live with 5.3 yards per attempt as a defense.

Rushing Defense

There was absolutely nothing happening for the Vols on the ground, netting just 53 yards on 29 attempts. Tennessee got better in the second half, but not by much.

Special Teams

This unit is the only reason the Vols even stayed in the game. Andrew Baggett missed two extra points and a 51-yarder, while the field-goal unit allowed an easy fake field goal to go for a 31-yard touchdown.

Even at the end of the game, these guys were trying to give it away. The Volunteers recovered two onside kicks, nullifying both with penalties.

Coaching

Gary Pinkel stuck with the plan no matter how close Tennessee was able to keep up. You'd like to see fewer mistakes from special teams, but the rest of the team picked up the slack. His defense allowed one touchdown to an offense that was averaging almost 40 points over its last three games.

Positional Unit	1st Half	2nd Half
Passing Offense	D	C
Rushing Offense	F	D
Passing Defense	B	D+
Rushing Defense	D	C-
Special Teams	A	B
Coaching	B+	D

Game Grades for the Volunteers

Passing Offense

Without center Mack Crowder, the offensive line just had no shot at protecting its quarterback. Dobbs was able to scrape together one scoring drive but had no protection for most of the night.

Pig Howard and Von Pearson each turned in nice efforts, turning in 11 catches for 132 yards.

Rushing Offense

The ground game was a disaster from the start. The offensive line couldn't get any push, Dobbs made several bad reads and the end result was 53 yards on 29 attempts.

Jalen Hurd had a couple of nice runs in the second half, but that's about it.

Passing Defense

Missouri's butterfingers did this group a lot of favors in the first half. Mauk's receivers dropped a couple of big gainers, but then they were able to turn them into points in the second.

The defensive line, led by Curt Maggitt, got some pressure throughout. It just wasn't enough to keep Mauk from slinging it deep.

Rushing Defense

The Tigers rode their ground game to two easy touchdowns in the first half, then they backed off a little as Mauk started hitting the deep balls. Simply put, Mizzou was able to get yardage and extend drives when it needed to.

Special Teams

Special teams scored 13 of Tennessee's 22 points on the night and almost returned the ball to the offense on a couple of onside kicks. The 31-yard fake field goal for the score was keyed by a 58-yard kick return by Evan Berry.

Coaching

We need a pretty thorough explanation as to why Butch Jones wasted a timeout to challenge an obvious illegal touching penalty. There's a huge difference between having two timeouts left with under two minutes to play and one timeout left with under two minutes to play.

Sure, this staff made a nice call on the fake field goal, but the timeout management was awful, and the offensive line looked totally lost. Jones is better than this.