First Glance: Missouri Offense

With the upcoming Cotton Bowl less than two weeks out, it is time to do a little more research on the Missouri Tigers.

Earlier in the month we looked at the series history between the two teams, a series that has seen Ohio State and Missouri play 12 times, but most of those occurred in the 1940s, with only two games taking place in the last 30 years.

Today we are going to look at the Missouri offense, more specifically the three main weapons on the offense with a high-level quarterback, running back and wide receiver leading the way.

That is not to take away anything from any of the other players, we know that football is a team sport and star watching can be dangerous. But for Ohio State fans who likely have not seen much Mizzou to date, these are names to know going into the game.

Quarterback – Brady Cook

Cook ranks No. 3 overall in the SEC in passing yards, only trailing Jayden Daniels (LSU) and Carson Beck (UGA) with 3,189 yards on the season. Those passing yards led to 20 passing touchdowns on the year which has him tied for 5^th in the conference in that category, but with Missouri’s run game, that is understandable.

Cook is a 66.4-percent thrower when it comes to completion percentage and only has six interceptions on the year, which has him near the top of the conference as well.

The Missouri quarterback can throw for big numbers when that is required with five 300-yard games on the year, but four of those required 35 or more pass attempts with only the Memphis game seeing him break the mark on just 25 attempts as the Tigers stepped out of conference.

The Tigers have not needed to ride Cook as much down the stretch, throwing 30 or fewer times in five of the last six games, but during that same stretch, the quarterback has thrown for just a single passing touchdown in five of the last six games.

All six of Cook’s interceptions came against ranked opponents with UGA and LSU each picking off the Missouri quarterback twice. Kentucky and Tennessee each had one as well.

Cook’s passing yards would rank 2^nd in the Big Ten, only behind Taulia Tagovailoa. His completion percentage would rank 3^rd in the league and his touchdowns thrown would be 4^th.

But you have to wonder about how the numbers translate from one league to another with the Big Ten having eight teams in the top-50 nationally in pass efficiency defense to the SEC’s three.

Translation or not, Cook is a better thrower than most of the quarterbacks that Ohio State has faced this season and while Cook may not have as many weapons around him as Western Kentucky or Maryland did, this could end up being a very real test for the Ohio State defense with a quarterback who is not afraid to go downfield with his offense.

Running Back – Cody Schrader

To be fair, there were not many big-name running backs in the SEC this season when you look at the league from top-to-bottom. Couple that with teams like UGA having two backs that see ample action and the numbers certainly thin out.

That didn’t stop Missouri’s Cody Schrader from leading the league with 1,489 rushing yards, 300-plus yards more than the next leading rusher (who happened to be Heisman winning quarterback Jayden Daniels).

Schrader averages more than 6 yards per carry and carried the ball a whopping 247 times on the season. That is almost 30 more attempts than any back in the Big Ten and only two backs in the B1G had a better YPC average (including TreVeyon Henderson) and each of those backs had 100-plus fewer carries.

Schrader is not going to wow you when you see him come off the bus, just 5-foot-9, but at 214 pounds, he is difficult to get down to the ground and Schrader can also run away from defenses if he sees any daylight.

In the last six games of the season, Missouri let Schrader really carry the mail with 20-plus carries in all six games, one of them (Tennessee) saw him carry the ball 35 times. Schrader ran for 914 yards in those six games and seven touchdowns.

For having as many weapons as it does, Missouri is not one of the highest scoring offenses in the nation, coming in at No. 24 (seven spots ahead of Ohio State, which is 31, but just scoring 1.3 points per game more than the Buckeyes) so there is not a player that is breaking the curve for everyone else by putting up ungodly numbers. But much like Cook, Schrader could prove to be the toughest challenge the Buckeyes have faced this season when it comes to facing a single running back, at least if the numbers are any indication.

Wide Receiver – Luther Burden

This is a familiar name for Ohio State recruiting fans as the Buckeyes really wanted to land this kid. Then again, so did everyone else before Burden decided to stay home and that decision has paid off in a major way for the Tigers.

Burden is third in the SEC in receiving yards and is the primary focus in the throw game with Oklahoma-transfer Theo Wease checking in at No. 15 in the conference.

Burden’s 1,197 receiving yards are great, but the talented wideout also has 83 receptions on the year, good for No. 2 in the SEC, only behind LSU’s Malik Nabers.

The Missouri receiver comes in just slightly under 6-foot and weighs just slightly under 210 pounds, but not everyone has to be built like Marvin Harrison Jr. to find success in the game.

To get to 83 receptions, it is obvious that you need to get the ball thrown to you a lot, and the Tigers have thrown it to him 118 times on the year, which means he hauls in 70.3-percent of passes thrown his way. That is a better rate than Harrison or Emeka Egbuka.

Maybe Ohio State needs to look at what Kentucky did defensively as the Wildcats kept both Burden and Schrader largely in check. Granted, Kentucky also lost the game 38-21 as other players stepped up in their place.

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