Go with the flow: Mizzou's stout defense has offense changing tune
COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Struggles in the passing game and a dominant defense have led to an unexpected emphasis on the run for Missouri's offense.
Russell Hansbrough and Marcus Murphy fit the mold of coach Gary Pinkel's teams as small, fast tailbacks with skill sets suited to complement a passing attack, rather than carry the ball 20-30 times per game. But lately they've been featured much more often as the Tigers' focus has shifted away from just scoring as many points as possible and toward simply coming out on top.
"We've just made a little bit of an adjustment there," Pinkel says. "Run the football and lean on it a little bit. There's a lot of different directions we can go and I think we've done some good things."
Of course, Missouri still wants to score points, and Pinkel says he'd like to see more sustained blocks up front to set up some big plays. But the Tigers also have come to terms with their current reality as a defense-oriented team.
They've held their last three opponents to 14 points or less, a number that would have surely meant blowout wins in recent years. Instead, two of those wins came by just 10 points, and another turned into a rout only because of four touchdowns by the defense and special teams.
In fact, halftime of that 42-13 triumph at Florida may be the exact moment Mizzou's offensive philosophy changed, if one exists. After calling nearly the same number of passes as runs in the first half, the Tigers went conservative to seal the victory after halftime, running the ball 10 times and throwing it just twice.
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The next game against Vanderbilt, Mizzou had twice as many runs as passes. And even 10 straight completions by Maty Mauk in a 24-14 win over Kentucky didn't take the Tigers back to their previous run-to-pass ratio that was nearly even against Georgia and South Carolina.
"We felt comfortable running the football," left tackle Mitch Morse says of the adjustments. "There's always little chinks in the armor, but it's something we fix in practice and we plan on keeping it and trusting (offensive coordinator) Josh Henson, who's extremely good at finding what's working at certain times and just going with the flow."
But it's not as if the Tigers' ground attack has been unstoppable, especially against Kentucky. They averaged only 3.5 yards per carry against one of the SEC's worst run defenses, with nearly half of their 150 yards coming from quarterback Maty Mauk.
Nonetheless, just like when it ran for a season-high 244 yards the previous week against Vanderbilt, Missouri jumped ahead early and held on the rest of the way. That's undoubtedly part of the reason for the major shift in the Tigers' pass-to-run ratio, since they trailed most of the game against South Carolina and Georgia, but it doesn't tell the whole story.
"You've still got to outscore your opponent. So when your defense is playing really well, that certainly helps (the offense) and also if you don't turn the ball over and your kicking game provides long fields, that really helps, too," Pinkel says. "So it's a combination of all those things and if you can get three first downs and punt and put your opponent on the 10-yard line, there's benefits in that."
It's strange to hear Pinkel talk about the benefits of punting, but keeping the opposing offense in poor positions or off the field entirely has clearly become a key part of the Tigers' game plan. Kentucky ran just eight offensive plays in the first quarter and 23 before halftime, and a similar approach might be the best way to stop Texas A&M's explosive offense this Saturday in College Station.
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The Aggies rank 12th in the SEC with 196.3 rushing yards allowed per game and gave up more than 280 yards on the ground in four of their last five SEC games, so the opportunities should be there for Murphy and Hansbrough. Both have already surpassed their career highs for carries while picking up the lost production from 2014 senior Henry Josey, and Mauk pitched in against Kentucky with a season-high 14 carries.
"It helped the whole offense," Murphy says. "They won't be able to just sit back and play Maty. They'll have to bring another guy up to watch him."
A perfectly timed bye week should have provided plenty of rest for the Tigers' tailbacks, both of whom surpassed 13 carries in each of the last two games. That hadn't happened since a 49-24 win over Toledo on Sept. 6, and their combined 35 carries against Vanderbilt set a new season high.
They still won't be taking on a huge workload, and maybe Mauk will get to throw the ball after completing more than 50 percent of his passes and compiling more than 150 yards for the first time in five SEC games against Kentucky. The return of senior Darius White should also give a boost to a thin Tigers receiving corps that hasn't gotten much help from its freshman backups.
But as long as Missouri doesn't get in a deep hole early, its best bet will be to ride its defense and run the clock while grinding out yards on the ground. Like it or not, that's the Tigers' new formula for success.
"However we can get the offense going, I think that's the approach we'll take," Murphy says. "We've got a lot of backs that can make plays, so I think we'll do good running the ball."
You can follow Luke Thompson on Twitter at @FS_LukeT or email him at lukegthompson87@gmail.com.
