The Thanksgiving Thursday Three Keys To Victory
In this holiday season, the Missouri Tigers have a lot to be thankful for. Since a humiliating loss to a dreadful Indiana team at home, and a 34-0 drubbing to Georgia– also at home– Missouri has found a way to overcome those early stumbles and work its way back into the college football playoff committee’s good graces. Winners of five in a row, the Tigers control their own destiny. A win and they’re in. A trip to Atlanta for the SEC Championship would be a much-deserved reward for closing out the year in style and taking down the suddenly super tough Arkansas Razorbacks.
Missouri’s Harold Brantley and the rest of the defensive line must find a way to shut down Arkansas’ rushing attack. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Arkansas arrives in Columbia on a roll. They vanquished ranked teams, LSU and Ole Miss in consecutive weeks, including a beatdown of the Rebels who were once ranked No. 1 in the country just over a month ago. They play old school football. They run the football more than any other team in the conference. And they play really tough defense.
In this first in-conference meeting between these two, the Tigers clearly have more on the line. As they battle for the new border rivalry, the Tigers must find a way to keep their mojo and stop Arkansas from taking momentum in their home stadium.
In this game, “Black Friday” will be taken quite literally. Missouri hosts its annual “Blackout” game with its fans decked out in all black. Those fans will be treated to a really good game. Here are the three things Missouri must do to stop the Razorbacks:
Find A Way To Limit The Run:
Arkansas has found grooves this season where it just can’t be stopped on the ground. Thousand-yard rusher Jonathon Williams and his near-thousand-yard counterpart Alex Collins are the best rushing duos in the country. And they’ve punished opponents in the recent past. Statistially, Missouri is among the top teams in the SEC in stopping the run. But we’ve seen them look extremely vulnerable this season against good running teams.
Nov 22, 2014; Fayetteville, AR, USA; Arkansas Razorbacks running back Jonathan Williams (32) rushes during the first quarter against the Ole Miss Rebels at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Nelson Chenault-USA TODAY Sports
Georgia, for example, did most of the damage on ground, bruising Missouri’s defense for 210 yards. Indiana, and Doak Walker award finalist Telvin Coleman, racked up 194 yards on them. Missouri has been up to the challenge in their pass defense this season. And Arkansas can pass too. But if the Tigers want to win this game, they’ll have to find a way to slow down the freight train or it could be a black Friday Tiger fans will want to forget fast.
Keep The Ball
One way to stop an offense that can beat you down? Run the ball yourself. The biggest key here is that Missouri holds onto the football for as long as humanly possible. The Tigers cannot be hurrying to the line to snap the ball every play. They must drain the playclock and drag out their possessions for as long as possible. The longer they have the ball, the longer Arkansas doesn’t. Keeping their defense off the field will go a long way to helping Missouri limit the run game and clinch a victory.
South Bound & Down
Turnovers, Turnovers, Turnovers:
It’s simple. These two teams have won games because of turnovers. The Tigers have only coughed up the ball twice in the last five games and have gotten key takeaways when they needed it most to help win games this year. A +9 in the turnover category, winning that battle here will help Missouri defeat Arkansas. It won’t be easy. Arkansas have forced eight turnovers in their last three games, 14 overall in SEC play. The Razorbacks make these big plays at pivotal moments in the game, for example when Ole Miss was finally about to score last week to get back in the game, they picked off quarterback Bo Wallace at the goal line and returned it 99 yards for a touchdown.
Those types of plays can’t happen if Missouri wants to win this game. And winning the turnover battle may just be the biggest key to winning this game. Tiger quarterback Maty Mauk must continue his impressive play and take care of the football. If the Tigers limit the big mistakes of their own and get a big one late, they can win much in the way they beat Texas A&M and Tennessee in the last two games.