Drinkwitz Defends Team Following Loss: "It Wasn’t Anything Similar to Texas A&M"

Mizzou's coach, Eli Drinkwitz, defended his football team on Saturday following its 34-0 loss to Alabama.

When asked about any similarities to the Texas A&M game, Drinkwitz immediately shut down that narrative.

"I didn’t see any similarities,” Drinkwitz said. “I saw three turnovers. I saw a bunch of guys beat to crap that went out there and fought their butt off. It wasn’t anything similar to the Texas A&M at all. It was 13-0 at halftime because of an interception. We fought our butt off and any other conversation outside of that is ridiculous."

This marks the second time in a month that the Tigers entered a major game only to be completely shut down. Just three weeks ago at Texas A&M, Mizzou was dominated 41-10 in what seemed like a wake-up call, but evidently the Tigers weren't awakened.

While everything became more challenging for Mizzou after Brady Cook was forced to leave the game with a hand injury, there wasn’t much offensive movement during the first four series with Cook still in the contest.

"Offensively, just with Brady’s injury, we just couldn’t ever get in rhythm,” Drinkwitz said. “And obviously the turnovers really put us behind the eight ball, and just put the defense in too many bad spots today."

With four conference games remaining, the Tigers still have an opportunity to finish the season 10-2 and secure a strong bowl game. However, with questions at quarterback and considerable work ahead, it’ll be interesting to see how Mizzou performs coming out of its bye week.

“We still have the potential to finish with a double-digit win season,” Drinkwitz said.