Recapping Mizzou vs Murray State | Rock M Reacts

[Music] what's going on guys we're here right after uh witnessing a stellar opening performance from missou football from top to bottom and I mean that in the most specific way possible top to bottom literally everybody got a chance to contribute today in a 51 to nothing season opening Victory uh over Murray State and what was the sixth largest uh home opener crowd for the football program and it was an absolute uh barn burner to begin with and quent and I want to talk to you ask you about the hot start that you got to witness how was that yeah they have literally never started as fast as they did they scored 21 points uh in about 319 seconds missou football had never scored 21 points that fast in over 120 years of football uh started with a couple of quick touchdowns Miss started uh with great field position each time then torano Pride uh how to pick his first pick as missou tiger going pretty well um and that really set the tone for the rest of the game Cory flag said that the pick six specifically set the tone for the defense that we're going to talk about uh very shortly had a phenomenal game um but I at least offensively um they did slow up a little bit after the first quarter but it it's tough to maintain a 28 point Pace uh per quarter through four quarters um but the hot star gave them enough of a cushion to where they could slow down they could stagnate a little bit uh in the second quarter and Beyond but I was really impressed with how hot mou came out of the gates especially because over the past few years that hasn't really happened even against the early season FCS opponents um so I think it was really great for them to start as fast as they did and Adan I want to ask you about the offense specifically um contributed well over 40 points um Brady cook looked okay other than a few deep shots you might talk about uh here but the the running game specifically was really nice uh with Marcus Carol and Nate noell leading the way so I want you to talk about that yeah um forly with the offense I think one of the main things that they talked about you know all the coaches talked about but specifically coach drink and Kirby Moore were talking about how excited they were to really up the tempo this year and run a high Tempo offense that can run efficiently while being high Tempo which obviously can be attributed to the the helmet communication um being added to col War this year giving teams like missou a lot more open opportunities when it comes to running High Tempo because that area area of miscommunication is a little bit minimized not completely gone which we'll talk about later um but and you really saw that out of the gate they they were running the first couple drives where they were in full motor and we really got to see what we're going to expect from this team this year in high intensity games they were really quick to get on the line especially in third short situations to get kind of catch the defense napping not allow them to get those Personnel changes um that they're looking for for those sets um one thing I wanted to touch on especially which I will be you know elaborating more in the sidebar piece is talking about how well the duo of Marcus Caroll and Nate Noel uh complimented each other today um obviously you got Nate Noel you know Nathan our own Nathan Hurst talked about how he's more of a Tyler batty kind of archetype very fast Shifty um and Marcus Carroll built a lot like Cody shraer he's you know smaller in in in height but um uh fast as far as you know it comes to going through the the gaps and very hard to bring down um the two of them I thought were absolutely perfect 100% as far as what they brought to the offense in the first half uh both of them were really good in the pass catching game which I thought was awesome um because that was kind of something that's been absent from our offense the last you know last year I think shider was just ground and pound really not kind of overlooked in the pass cing game although we got to see him do very well in that aspect later on the season especially but um wide receivers look pretty good uh Brady cook a good game Distributing the football you can tell his arm has gotten a lot stronger um and he showed it tonight uh lots of overthrows and de throws you can Chuck that up to strength adrenaline as coach drink said and actually our post game pressor here but you know if he gets that touch he's got a lot more range this year uh a lot more possibilities in the offense which is always great to hear um Quinn I wanted to ask you about Coach Bon's unit because they actually fun fact posted the first lower than 100 yards allowed game that missou has had since 2019 so um want to ask you about that what do you think about the defensive unit today yeah uh second shut out ever uh under Eli drink WTS and as I said a little bit earlier a lot of that had to do with the defense they looked fast uh Cory flag said after the game that the entire unit from the starters to the backups was locked in all game long and Aden actually mentioned this very early on but the tackling tonight um I think we both thought was really exceptional um they set edges really well um they maintained Gap integrity at least along the defensive line uh Chris mcclelen forcing a sack fumble that Joe Moore II recovered uh which led to more missou points uh as a result um but all three levels played extremely well the linebackers uh the starters in the backups played super duper well um it's interesting Chuck Hicks said a little while ago um after he was named one of the five captains uh for missou football he said that the sea on his chest doesn't mean a whole lot uh and that there are a million leaders on the team and emotionally yes but I think you could also uh apply that to the actual onfield performance uh the linebackers whether it was Chuck Hicks who honestly did not do a whole lot flag attributed that and I I agree with him in this he attributed that to Hicks not being involved uh just in a ton of the plays that Mar State ran he just did wasn't really around the ball the ball didn't really find him that much but whether it was flag whether it was Tristan new um whether it was guy like brayan little John who had a couple of really nice plays especially in the backfield uh they stepped up in a big time way and we've already mentioned the defensive backs a little bit with the pick six by toriana Pride Jr but Murray State as evidenced by them registering under 100 yards of total offense on the night explosive plays were pretty much non-existent um and that can be attributed to all three levels doing exactly what they needed to do and you can see the benefits of Cory baton playing a similar style uh to Blake Baker they want to attack they want to get downhill they want to get after the quarterback um and again they just look so fasinating they looked dialed um so hopefully for them that can carry on uh to not only next week but conference opponents as well because the SEC uh as you all know pretty well that are watching or listening to this it's a fast League uh it's a lot about speed on either side of the ball um and missou looked fast tonight Al be it against an FCS of coage um Adan I do want to ask you about uh some improvement areas it's hard to find many major flaws in a 51 to nothing Victory one them is Zoo lead wire to wire um but I wanted to ask you what you think can be improved upon hitting in the next week against Buffalo yeah I think um offense really fed off the crowd in the first quarter but there was a significant you know downgrade in that intensity in the second quarter I think that when you go into these kind of games you're looking for like a pretty much perfect like first half uh hopefully and um they had a perfect first quarter IID have to say I think the barely got points on the board in the second quarter actually took all of 14 minutes and 59 seconds to have that occur um with 1 second left BR cook on the you know option but um realistically speaking that is one thing that can be improved obviously Brady Cook's touch on the Deep balls huge going to be huge going forward even in games like against Buffalo uh especially against Boston College um and and definitely later down the line in SEC play those deep balls hitting are going to be make our break for this season getting those explosive plays cuz teams whether you like it or not in today's version of college football teams that get the explosive plays they get the explosive records um and they're going to get to be explosive in the playoff um more so with the defense I mean I'm going to be totally honest with you there's really nothing that I can find here for the defense uh I am not going to try and be n picky here there is really I I think coach baton is going to have a very tough job over the next couple days figuring out what they can really improve on because I think the defense showed him exactly what he can they can do in his system uh tonight special teams wise I liked what I saw kickoffs and kicking for for the field goals uh Craig did fantastic uh Luke Bower looked pretty solid in the punts just what you're expecting just you know no errors on the punts and all that and good field flipping the field and that's really all you can ask for from your punter um and you know offensively the offensive line I thought they did pretty good in the first half both running backs averaging five yards a can't really say that's you know that's a first down you average five yards a carry in a whole game and run the ball every play you you win the game it's pretty simple um one thing I want to touch on on the defense I thought another pivotal play that actually drink said was even more pivotal than the interception was a fourth and one stop on the first defensive Drive I thought that was fantastic I thought that really did set the tone and um I mean that play by torano is just absolutely I me the most athletic thing I mean he was he was up there um for a while he almost orbited the planet without high up he got there the the second and turns midnight uh we're talking about players like they're celestial objects uh and he um I mean and he showed it in the spring game too I mean just had a had a pick in that game so really uh that's all I got to say about this team uh after that performance uh on to Buffalo what do you want to see next week Quin uh next week I want to see the defensive intensity carryover uh we've talked about it already um they were everyone from the starters to the backups was dialed in all night and I think uh a big part of that was the fall camp that missou had I mean coach Drake has talked about many times uh how this was an unprecedented fall camp in terms of how many live reps they took uh how many scrimmages they had um just how much it felt like playing in an actual game and I think that definitely helped it's so understandable when uh you want to keep everybody healthy heading into the season you want to be 100% uh but at the same time I think going extra hard uh I think really helped them tonight um and so I'd like to see that carryover obviously on both sides of the ball um we didn't even talk about the offensive line tonight which I thought was really fantastic uh again the quality of competition is far from the highest it's going to be this season um but the intensity on both lines I think um hopefully for missou is replicable because the SEC is all about winning in the trenches and so that specifically I hope K Over uh into next week against Buffalo um which should on paper um be another Victory um but Elon dwood said uh in the postgame that a couple years ago 2022 mou wins Big over Louisiana Tech 52-24 in the opener and then goes to Manhattan and gets blown out against Kansas State um obviously 2024 Buffalo and 2022 Kansas State are a little different but the mentality uh should remain the same in that you don't want to Pat yourself on the back too much um they want to keep improving it by the week um and they don't want to flateau at any point so hopefully for the Tigers they can keep that up uh but for tonight they can simply Relish in Victory a big victory an unprecedented victory for many reasons yeah and uh you know that's really all we got for you guys today uh and and then you know it's just uh it's just start to hopefully something great um on the Buffalo and I've been a Dean Ralph I'm qu of gr all saying good night from beautiful Columbia Missouri thank you everyone for tuning in to rock m radio a proud partner of fans first sports network Rock m radio is the official podcast network of rock M plus a new and exciting Subscription Service provided by me and the other voices of rock m radio please take a few moments to head over to rock. plusus and sign up for an account today the cost is only $5 a month and benefits include access to our live podcast a subscriber only Message Board weekly 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