AMHERST, Mass. — Missouri needed the tonic of wildness.
Reeling from a collapse a week earlier, the No. 21 Tigers trekked into the Massachusetts woodlands, seeking that phrase coined by the writer Henry David Thoreau as he took up residence along Walden Pond 75 miles east of Amherst. Surrounded by foliage and only a smattering of fans, they might have found that.
Sandwiched between two Southeastern Conference games and played in front of a fraction of the crowds that those matchups draw, the Tigers’ 45-3 novelty nonconference victory over Massachusetts on Saturday could wind up being a small dose of a needed tonic.
“I talked all week about responding, and there was a lot of different ways that this could have gone,” MU coach Eli Drinkwitz said. “They leaned into each other, the staff leaned into the players, and they fought back and responded the right way today. Whether it was running the football, whether it was throwing the ball, whether it was converting third downs, whether it’s the defense forcing takeaways, I thought they really played team football today. Proud of them for that.”
People are also reading…
The caveat is that Mizzou (5-1 overall) did those things against a now 1-6 bunch of Minutemen who are languishing in the basement of the Football Bowl Subdivision. But given how absent any sort of success was from the Tigers’ last outing, there’s some relief its presence.
Missouri’s rushing attack thrived against UMass. Wide receiver Luther Burden III took a handoff from a jet sweep on the Tigers’ second play from scrimmage and turned it into a 61-yard touchdown, stiff-arming one defender before entering joystick mode for the rest of his downfield journey.
That Burden created something on that play was what gave Drinkwitz a feeling MU was responding the way he wanted.
“He set the tone,” Drinkwitz said. “Could have been an easy way for us to not really respond. I don’t think we blocked anybody on that play, but for him just to say, ‘I’m going to set the tone as a guy that everybody looks up to.’ ”
“I did my little good faith (block),” running back Marcus Carroll said. “Next blink, this man is already down the field.”
Burden left the game in the third quarter after taking a big hit on a slant route. He went straight from the field into Mizzou’s sideline medical tent with his left arm hanging prone at his side. Though Burden eventually exited the tent to take a seat on the bench, he did not return to the game that Mizzou was commanding.
Carroll was the Tigers’ most prolific scorer, picking up three touchdowns for the fourth time in his career. He ran the ball 15 times for 91 yards.
Nate Noel, Missouri’s primary running back, was held out of the game at the last moment because of back tightness that popped up on the Tigers’ flight from Columbia to Springfield, Massachusetts, and didn’t relent during warm-ups. Starting outside linebacker Triston Newson and rotation defensive end Joe Moore III were out because of undisclosed injuries. Linebacker Khalil Jacobs, Newson’s backup, left in the third quarter with what appeared to be a shoulder or arm injury.
Quarterback Brady Cook threw two touchdowns in three quarters of work. One was a 63-yard reception by wide receiver Joshua Manning, who turned a little bit of green space into a lot of running room. Cook’s second was to tight end Brett Norfleet, who has been climbing back into games since an opening-week shoulder injury.
While Drinkwitz seemed confident in the Tigers’ overall ability to respond early on, their in-game response — something else missing from last weekend’s 41-10 loss to Texas A&M — appeared just before halftime.
A fake punt had extended a UMass drive, sending the MU defense spiraling as the Minutemen set up shop in the red zone. But before a third-and-goal play, Mizzou linebacker Corey Flagg Jr. and hybrid safety Daylan Carnell made a pre-snap coverage adjustment.
It put Flagg in the perfect position to intercept a pass from Taisun Phommachanh, sending the Missouri linebacker off to the races. He didn’t win the race, getting dragged down at the UMass 15-yard line.
“First of all, I need to go to speed school,” Flagg joked after the game.
But his well-timed play took away a scoring opportunity from the hosts and created a routine field goal for kicker Blake Craig.
“I mean, talk about a huge momentum play,” Drinkwitz said. “It was going to be 21 to 10 or six, and instead, we end the half 24-3, which is exactly what you want to do in the swing eight” minutes at the end of the second quarter and beginning of the third.
That Mizzou entered its locker room at halftime leading in resounding fashion instead of feeling threatened by the Minutemen was important.
“I think we came out and responded just like we needed to,” Cook said. “We scored 24 in the first half, defense gave up three. That’s a pretty fast start. That’s a pretty good rebound.”
Missouri subbed a multitude of depth players into the game, with some receiving extended looks from the start and others entering the fray once blowout status had settled in over the stadium.
Beating UMass won’t do much to revert any external cynicism lingering around the Tigers after their first loss of the season, but the result seemed like what it needed to be: a comfortable win in which the game plan worked and quite a few players participated.
“Your confidence comes from your preparation — and then your performance when you execute,” Drinkwitz said. “There was a lot of really good executed plays today, and I think guys made plays within the scheme. Hopefully it’s something we can build on.”
No. 21 Missouri 45, UMass 3
Missouri 14 10 21 0 — 45
Umass 0 3 0 0 — 3
First Quarter
ѱܴ—Burden 61 run (B.Craig kick), 14:03.
ѱܴ—Carroll 3 run (B.Craig kick), 5:15.
Second Quarter
ѱܴ—Carroll 4 run (B.Craig kick), 11:02.
Ѵ—FG Lurie 28, 6:00.
ѱܴ—FG B.Craig 42, :00.
Third Quarter
ѱܴ—Carroll 35 run (B.Craig kick), 10:09.
ѱܴ—Manning 63 pass from Cook (B.Craig kick), 8:30.
ѱܴ—Norfleet 8 pass from Cook (B.Craig kick), 1:24.
MIZZ MASS
First downs 22 13
Total Net Yards 461 237
Rushes-yards 38-231 31-95
Passing 230 142
Punt Returns 3-6 1-0
Kickoff Returns 2-29 2-51
Interceptions Ret. 1-80 0-0
Comp-Att-Int 17-24-0 15-25-1
Sacked-Yards Lost 1-10 4-21
Punts 4-40.0 8-38.875
Fumbles-Lost 0-0 2-1
Penalties-Yards 4-35 6-45
Time of Possession 31:38 28:22
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
鱫—Missouri, Carroll 15-91, Burden 2-68, Jones 6-41, Cook 3-16, K.Lacy 7-16, Roberts 3-7, Pyne 2-(minus 8). Umass, Powell 1-39, Hester 9-33, Campbell 8-14, Haston 2-7, Desiderio 3-3, Phommachanh 8-(minus 1).
ʴ—Missouri, Cook 14-19-0-219, Pyne 3-5-0-11. Umass, Phommachanh 12-22-1-132, Haston 3-3-0-10.
鷡䷡ձ—Missouri, Burden 5-59, Norfleet 3-48, Wease 3-48, Manning 2-68, M.Johnson 1-6, Cooper 1-4, Stephens 1-0, K.Lacy 1-(minus 3). Umass, Keeney-James 6-80, Campbell 3-24, Mazotti 2-29, Hester 2-1, Galban 1-6, Desiderio 1-2.
MISSED FG—None.