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Mizzou football: Defense dominating, offense rolling

By Thomas Huitt-Johnson

COLUMBIA, MISSOURI - OCTOBER 05: Linebacker Cale Garrett #47 of the Missouri Tigers celebrates as he runs for touchdown after intercepting a pass against the Troy Trojan sin the second quarter at Faurot Field/Memorial Stadium on October 05, 2019 in Columbia, Missouri. (Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images)
COLUMBIA, MISSOURI - OCTOBER 05: Linebacker Cale Garrett #47 of the Missouri Tigers celebrates as he runs for touchdown after intercepting a pass against the Troy Trojan sin the second quarter at Faurot Field/Memorial Stadium on October 05, 2019 in Columbia, Missouri. (Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images) /
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Mizzou football continues to show how good its defense is in first half against Troy.

Troy didn’t take long to silence the Mizzou football crowd. The Tigers fans have been loud ever since.

The Trojans scored on their first possession, becoming the first team to score against the Tigers in the first quarter this season. But that’s pretty much all Troy accomplished.

Mizzou has controlled the first half, taking a 42-7 lead into the break. The Tigers currently have scored 42 unanswered points.

The story of this game would be how Mizzou’s top-tier defense could handle an opportunistic offense in Troy. The first half proved to be yet another A-performance.

You knew the first-quarter defense wasn’t going to be so dominant for the whole season. Troy converted three third downs, including a touchdown on third-and-goal with just more than 11 minutes to play in the opening stanza.

It was the first time the Tigers did not force a three-and-out on their opponent’s opening drive. It was close, but Troy converted a third-and-4 by one yard.

Even coming off a bye, it was hard to imagine the the Tigers being able to hold this Trojans offense down. Troy is a top offense with one of the best QBs the Tigers will see this season, per coach Barry Odom.

But after the first drive, the Tigers defense did as well as anybody could imagine. What matters isn’t that the defense gave up a touchdown early, it’s that the offense responded, and the defense rebounded.

Mizzou scored a TD on a 1-yard score from Larry Rountree III to answer the Trojans. They added four more touchdowns while holding the Troy offense to nothing.

Kelly Bryant ran in a TD from three yards out. Then the senior QB hit Jonathan Nance on a 64-yard highlight TD before he found Albert Okwuegbunam in the back of the end zone for another big highlight.

Cale Garrett grabbed a 33-yard pick-six and finally Jalen Knox finished off the first-half pounding with a 6-yard touchdown.

Garrett’s TD was his third score of the season, and it was his second INT in the game.

Garrett is the leader of one of the best units in the country. He was the highlight of one of the most impressive defensive performances as well.

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