Missouri Tigers: 3 Keys To Victory Vs. Florida Gators

THE ‘THURSDAY THREE KEYS TO VICTORY’:

Tough to watch. That was the last game for the Missouri Tigers, falling hard to Georgia 34-0 at home.

In the past few games for the Tigers, we’ve been fully expecting high scoring affairs, because well, the offense for Missouri is really good on paper and their opponent has had some pretty good offenses as well.

This week, not so much. If you consider how anemic Missouri’s offense has been lately, it’s hard to see them scoring at all against Florida’s stonewall defense– which is sad to say when thinking back to how much promise the team showed earlier on this year.

Which is why we are giving quarterback Maty Mauk and company the benefit of the doubt here. I think Missouri’s offense will bounce back. Whether or not they can do it well enough on the road against one of the conference’s better defenses remains to be seen. But luckily their opponent isn’t all that much better.

Here are the three keys to beating Florida for the Tigers on Saturday.

The Tigers will need more production from Marcus Murphy and the running game. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

It will ALL come down to whether or not Missouri can limit Florida’s defensive line

This will decide the game. And in the “whether or not,” it’s leaning heavily toward the not right now. Missouri’s offensive line has been abysmal this season, especially since at the beginning of the season folks were calling it the best O-line in the SEC. The injury to Anthony Gatti did not help matters at all, but the team has also been unsuccessfully experimenting with a mish-mash of a line up in response to that injury and that has gone terribly wrong.

Something’s got to change this weekend if Missouri wants to stop a beast of a pass rush from wreaking havoc and keeping Mauk from doing anything at all– which is what happened in the Georgia game. In fact, I’d put this UF defensive front right on par with Georgia’s.

The crux in it all is that Florida boasts the best defensive secondary in the SEC. That will only make matters worse for Mauk, who struggled to find receivers and found more Georgia Bulldogs down field a week ago.

Part of it will be up to the running game for Missouri, which has been non-existent, to really show up strong. But that too requires good blocking.

Thus, the offensive line MUST play better. If not, this game is pretty much over before it starts.

Tigers Must Play Shutdown defense (and it’s not that hard to do)

The huge plus here for Missouri, is that they’re playing a team with an offense that has been just as woeful as Missouri was last week and been that way pretty much all season. Florida scores a lot of its points on special teams and defense, and its quarterback Jeff Driscoll has been far south of so-so this year. Missouri will create opportunities for its offense by creating turnovers, and perhaps even score off one if the stars allign.

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If Missouri comes to play on the defensive side of the ball, it will go a long, long way in giving them a chance to win.

Somebody teach this team how to convert a third down!

Still, something has to give on offense right?

The Tigers have been seriously dreadful on third down. In their past two games, they’ve converted 2 out of 14 third downs. That is not just really bad football. It’s kind of pathetic. This week must be different. Missouri plays a tough defense this week, there’s no secret there. This is where the Tigers must really turn the corner. They will no doubt face many a third down in this game. If they want to win, they’ll have to convert a heck of lot better than they have in the recent past.

Coming out and being successful on a few third downs early will give this team confidence that they can and have begun to rebound from last week’s game. It’s imperative that it happens Saturday at Ben Hill.