Brady Cook's Arm TOO Strong? | Missouri Tigers Podcast

2024 starts off with a sellout and a shut out for the Tigers though Brady cook was a tiny bit off at times though I'm not worried about it at all and I'll explain why I'm locked on maou you are locked on mizou your daily podcast on the Missour Tigers part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day hey all you true Sons and Daughters I'm John Miller your mazou mafioso and the central scrutinizer of Missouri Tigers football and basketball of course on today's program got to talk all about the Missouri and Murray State ball game including taking a closer look at Corey Bon's defense which started off his ERA with a shut out one thing's for sure he definitely trusts dren Norwood there is no question about that before I start the show I to remind you that today's episode is brought to you by Five Hour Energy Five Hour Energy fixes tired fast with zero sugar in a convenient portable size it's the perfect pickme up for getting stuff done go to 5our energy.com and use promo code locked on CFB to receive 20% off your order this offer is only valid until September 30th on one order and cannot be used with other promotions go to 5our energy.com today and a really impressive start for Missouri I would say for the most part yesterday and I'll get into all the good stuff for sure as we get into the program here but you know what I think maybe the big thing that maybe most Missouri fans are nitpicking here a little bit is Brady cook yesterday and I'll tell you this for all the talk of Brady Cook's arm strength by Missouri fans or questioning his arm strength at times well that definitely wasn't the problem yesterday on those deep balls was it and I will say this Missouri unlike last season early at this time one thing I noticed Missouri was kind of unwilling to put those playaction pass deep shots on film last year for week three against Kansas State well since those babies are already on film the Tigers seem to be going hey let's just start chucking them up there and establish that once again maybe we'll see that intermediate passing game whatever maybe Missouri may or may not be holding back we'll be interesting to see if that's the case in the coming weeks here but again I thought the stuff I thought the the play action deep balls the world balls that weren't even play action some of the the the the Fades the inside Fades that kind of stuff that was just a tiny bit off at times not something I'm really going to worry about and again I'll give you some good examples here first of all the first the first one to Maris Johnson here let's bring up that play So first of all on this play Brady cook makes the absolute right decision to throw this ball I don't think anybody in the world could disagree with that particular analysis as Daniel blood goes in motion here you'll notice number 28 the only safety to Maris Johnson side well he goes with him so what does that Tell Brady cook well that tells him he's got a one-onone matchup here to the outside a playaction pass keeps 28 and everybody else sort of in their position well first of all look at this route Maris Johnson runs here on the outside the left side of your screen just completely turns the cornerback around and gets utterly and completely wide open immediately so obviously this was the right throw Johnson I mean it's just right there it's just beyond his reach hits him in the hand I mean did Johnson slightly stumble here at any point no again I I'm not blaming anybody here this is just one of those balls hey it's right there it's obviously the right decision maybe cook should have stepped into this throw and and had his base a little bit more under him I don't know that's for a quarterback coach to nitpick that's real tough for me to nitpick I think that's obviously a good decision a ball that's just barely off I'll just tell you somebody watches the Kansas City Chiefs every week even Patrick Mahomes throws one of those balls a little bit too far on occasion so again I'm not going to overanalyze that particular pass later in the first quarter Burton gets a a similar look although not off play action this time to Luther Burton again one-on-one down the sidelines buron fakes like he's going outside comes inside and really just in terms of placement where this ball has to be you look at where burden ends up you look at where where this ball is Throne cook releases it right here when burdon's at the 40 yd line he comes all the way across to the other hash mark essentially the ball lands at the 10 in terms of placement I mean that ball is perfectly placed really again a ball that's just slightly overthrown by Brady cook I don't know is Brady a little bit too pumped up for the game is he a little nervous in week one was he maybe a little bit off his game in week one last year too is he a guy who just needs to get warmed up a little bit I don't know I'm glad that they maybe got some of these bad ones if you will some of these just slightly missed deep shots out of their system I'm glad they're putting it on film because there isn't a team in the country I understand Missouri is playing Murray State here but there's not a team in the country defensively that is Not Gon to have problems with this Missouri deep passing game so I let's just get the let's just get used to it in the real game Throw the keep throwing them next week too every team in the country knows they're going to have to deal with it let's just get them dialed in I think this is just week one stuff here to me this isn't something to worry about whatsoever again look at the placement of where this ball is he throws it exactly where it needs to be the ball's overthrown by what a yard or two hard for me to get on Brady too much for that ball either and finally on cook other than a miscommunication I thought with mookie Cooper on his final ball down the field the consistent problem for cook in the game if he was ever off the ball was just a little bit heavy was thrown a little bit too far A little bit too high that I don't know that is something to me that's something that can be there's an adjustment there that can be made I I I'm just not that worried about cook at this point though I will say that is a bit of a consistent problem for Brady is that when he misses he tends to miss high fortunately Brady didn't throw a lot of interceptions last season that is something that's a little worrisome if you tend to miss high the ball can tend to be intercepted as well now of course Brady cook did a lot of things right in the ball game too and especially I thought his decision making was spoton again the accuracy at times on certain balls down field left to be left a little bit to be desired and we can argue about our level of concern on that type of deal but the bottom line is Missouri was up 28 to nothing had did basically everything you wanted him to see do offensively other than up we barely well we threw a deep ball a little bit too long but of course when Missouri ran a little bit of a trick play well then the Tigers hit a little bit of a lull in the second quarter didn't do a lot of scoring in that particular quarter but on that trick play I will just say this it's not as though it's not as though that play wasn't going to work in fact if I pull up the film here as you can see Missouri puts four offensive lineman to the left with Luther Burton Murray State wondering what the heck to H what the heck is going on here now Burton takes the Jet Sweep and unfortunately at first I thought you know what I bet Burton was goingon to throw the ball there that's why he dropped the pass the the exchange I should say but if you look at Theo whis on the ra on the right he's not really running much of a pass rout out there is he now this is just a Jet Sweep the whole way for some reason the exchange is just fumbled here but this play was gonna work look to the right side here look at Brett Norfleet look at I believe number 80 there Tyler Stevens I mean there are two lead blockers there if Burton handles that cleanly at this point that's probably a touchdown so to everybody who was whining about the particular play call I wouldn't whine about the call whine about the execution by all means but that play was definitely going to work unfortunately this was an example of the Tigers shooting themselves in the foot a little bit with the occasional holding penalty that kind of thing in the second quarter that stalled the offense a bit but up until that point the offense and the team in general had executed just about perfectly and if Eli drinkwitz and I are right and that replacing Missouri's NFL corners from last season is maybe the biggest task on this club this past off season well the early returns are very promising there's no doubt in my mind that Cory baton trust dren Norwood and also Toriano Pride had a very memorable debut for the Tigers so let's talk about all of that here in just a second first though it's time to power through with Five Hour Energy because if you've got to tackle a to-do list like I do today well 5H Hour Energy fixes tired fast whether you have a long list to do for work or a honeydew list at home to tackle you got to take a Five Hour Energy Shot so you can check everything off of said list or maybe you just want to hit it harder at the gym today power through your 18 holes of golf whatever it is a Five Hour Energy with zero sugar and a convenient portable size is no question to me the perfect pickme up for getting a stuff done so if you go to 5our energy.com that is the number five hour energy.com and get some Five Hour Energy product today you can use my code locked on CFB to receive 20% off your order this offer is only valid until September 30th on one order and can and cannot be used with other promotions the code is not good on subscription orders go to 5our energy.com today he all right this is it one day before the re first real Saturday of college football you got to get up to speed with locked on college football ACC SEC Big 10 Big 12 all the previews and it's not just National people trying to cover way too many teams now you're going to hear from the locked on Experts who cover their team every day so subscribe to lockon college football podcast on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast and I want to talk about the Missouri defense and one thing I'll say drayen Norwood is looking like a heck of a replacement for at least inis rraw or Chris Abrams drain because just based on his usage in this ball game you could just tell that Cory baton basically trusts him to man one side of the field now what you saw schematically at least what I SCA schematically from Missouri in this ball game was pretty vanilla defense for the most part which is exactly what I expected a lot of cover one single high safety man-to-man defense that Missouri ran last year in the year before under Blake Baker by the way that wasn't a big surprise and Missouri ran a lot of cover three Zone I would say as well too probably more Zone I would say than Blaker Blake Baker did last season for the most part but there was a little bit of a wrinkle that you saw you saw some combo coverage that Missouri was running I'm not going to try to guess what the exact call was there but there's no doubt that especially you can tell actually on torano Pride's pick six the type of coverage that Missouri was running here and actually let's bring that up for just a second now on the left side of your screen here is dren Norwood and if I roll the tape forward here you'll see that he is playing man-to-man defense on the outside that's pretty clear right so you might think as a quarterback oh okay we're in man here I don't know if that's what the quarterback thought or not you look to the other side of the field and it's quite clear that Missouri is playing Zone on the other side of the field here and well torano Pride playing a flat zone here in no way threatened deep so he is squatting really really hard on this route now the good news here is by the way Zion young here the defensive end on the right side of the offense here the left side of the Missouri defense he just completely Burns 69 on the inside here smashes the quarterback in the face allowing Pride to grab that ball and High Step It On into the end zone for a Missouri touchdown and by the way you can see some really good shots of Pride's face as he's running down the sideline with just the biggest smile on his face you've ever seen in your life which I thought was a cool thing to see as he's come home as he's called it back from Clemson to more of his stomping grounds in the midwest here the the young man who used to be from East St Louis Missouri now back on this side of Missouri East St Louis Illinois I should say now on the Missouri side of the Mississippi but just a great play here and more to the point again back to the other side of the field dren Norwood not only is he playing man-to-man defense here but you'll notice the safety on his side of the field Marvin Burks number one well he gives him no help whatsoever he just squats he stays in the middle of the field in sort of a robber almost position playing that part of the field again this is I saw this coverage multiple times for Missouri this is a look I think you'll see quite a bit for the Tigers this season and what it says is Dr Norwood we're going to trust you one-on-one on the outside at times and we're just going to key the rest of the defense to stop the rest of the passing game well on this play at least with excellent pressure by Zion young sure as heck was effective wasn't it so I've mentioned Corey baton Missouri debut G going well of course Toriano Pride scores a touchdown off an interception in his Missouri debut well Corey flag began his Missouri Career by attempting to legally murder Murray States kicker now I love that the racers were aggressive to start this ball game but holy cow that onside kick did not work to say the least so let's let's roll this forward here now first of all what I love here Cory flag is to the left here and as you can see he just destroys the kicker in the back knocking his helmet off the kicker's like oh I'll just knock this forward and recover it uh didn't quite go 10 yards so he's going wait for it wait for it well Cory flag was not going to let him recover that football ladies and gentlemen so great job by him but before he even destroys 83 here what I'd like to note is he to the left and also to the man to his right here at least to our screen's life actually to Corey flag's left to my right as we view here notice both of these guys do not take one fall step neither one of them takes goes backwards they're all ready for an onside kick that's what I love here Missouri was incredibly prepared for this moment and by the way in 2024 and really the last few years of college football if you're on that front line of the kickoff there that should absolutely be your number one priority is ensuring that the onside kick does not happen just make sure that you do not get caught off guard by a surprise on side kick because nine out of 10 times that ball is going to be a Touchback it just is so that's your job on the front line even more so than being a blocker at this point but real a really smart play by Corey flag to stay at home and also just a crush the kicker the guy's trying to recover the ball there what's obviously enabled Missouri to recover it there excellent job by Corey flag a very legal and solid football play there I don't know I just was kind of cracking up rolling this one back a few times call me call me a masochist call me a lover of violence whatever the right term is but I just kind of enjoyed watching Corey flag get him some of that kicker there that's just me and really one of the only major concerns during the ball game was the status of Brett Norfleet who who left early well Eli drinkwitz had some encouraging updates for him so let's talk about Norfleet and also all systems go so far for the Missouri kicking units but first let's talk about a FanDuel because you've heard us talk a lot about FanDuel of course America's number one sports book well I have something a little different for you now through September 22nd FanDuel customers can bet $5 and get a three-week free trial of NFL Sunday Ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV then with a YouTube TV Bas plan you'll be able to watch every single regular season Sunday afternoon out of Market game all you need is a Google account and a current form of payment and you can cancel at any time just visit fanduel.com and download America's number one sports book you know the only game that really stood out to me for the most part this week was Georgia minus 12 a half against Clemson as it stands now I got to admit that makes me a little nervous that it's going Clemson's way in terms of the point spread I was hoping Georgia would be a 14-point or some odd favorite by now but I'm still leaning toward the dogs I have to admit minus 12 and a half but if you disagree with me you got to go to fanduel.com and download America's number one sports book fuel up with factors no prep No Mess meals meet your Wellness goals thanks to the menu of Chef crafted meals with options like calorie smart Protein Plus and keto and I'm a big boy I gotta go Protein Plus that's definitely my move but the beautiful thing about factor is with 35 different meals and more than 60 add-ons to choose from every week you're going to always find new flavors to experience I've never gotten in a rut with Factor crush your Wellness goals this month with dietitian approved meals and ingredients that you can trust so head to Factor meals.com locked on50 and use code locked on colge 50 to get 50% off your first box plus 20% off your next month that's code locked on College 50 ATA factor meals.com slocked on50 to get 50% off your first box plus 20% off your next month while your subscription is active it was a quiet game for Brett norle who had one catch for four yards and also left the game early with what looked like a shoulder injury and there were some worrisome signs and updates on the sidelines at one point at least from my angle but after the game Eli drood said he'll be quote fine same thing with Theo whis's hip injury that was bothering him a little bit in the ball game as well so fortunately some good updates there from Eli drinkwitz and Company on the injury side because I think we're really going to need Brett norle if anything I thought Missouri was probably saving some of his passing game usage for the future so nothing to worry about not only in terms of injury but I just think in terms of usage with Norfleet as well speaking of worries well I said all off season that Blake Baker excuse me Blake Craig well of course Blake Baker are former defensive coordinator is gone but no another Blake Blake Craig the Missouri Place kicker hey so far so good and of course 48 to nothing the spread had actually crawled up a little bit by Game Time by kickoff I believe was minus 50 or so for Missouri so there had to be some of you out there who are into that in fact as I watched the game back this morning on the the Bro the ESP and SEC network broadcast there was definitely one miss fan he was incredibly excited at a clutch field goal bl by Blake Craig to make it 51 to nothing for Missouri hey all I know is I told you to stay off of the line the line was right there I said to go under and despite a torano pride touchdown still that hit for you didn't it so congratulations to all of you as usual who listen to my brilliant betting advice but the point here really is that Blake Craig looked excellent yesterday looked good on the kickoff sure he did he pulled one out of bounds not perfect hey nobody is but we're more worried about kickoff or actual place kicking than we are kickoffs and as far as that goes he showed plenty of leg plenty of accuracy so far so good and by the way Luke Bower I thought was a pleasant surprise as well a guy who was in a camp battle for Sheron a guy who was on and off as the starting punter for miss last season despite being a part of one of the great fake punts and plays in Missouri history of course the touchdown pass to Maris Johnson against Kentucky but to me from what from what I can tell that was Luke Bowers best game as a Missouri punter he had several punts that were not only 50 plus yards in distance but were had such hangtime that they were Fair caught as well it doesn't get much better than that so hopefully Luke Bower can keep keep it up two punts for 97 yards yeah the 52 y was fair caught really all systems go so far in the Missouri kicking game other than that one kick out of bounds but of course just one episode of lock on missou not gonna be enough for all of my thoughts on this opening game I still gota still got to get to my thoughts on Drew Pine how he looked as Missouri's backup quarterback also kiwan Lacy looking pretty pretty strong in the in the fourth quarter of that ball game got a little get up and go to him want to talk about the Freshman running back also just the running back usage as well which I wasn't able to touch on in this episode I originally said I'm gonna come out with the show on Saturday I forgot oh yeah there's actual college football isn't there maybe I should maybe I should put this next episode out on Sunday with no NFL football coming out so I haven't totally decided but expect one more recap of Murray State Saturday or Sunday got plenty to still get to ah so I'm so happy football is here can't you tell I hope you're happy too and I'm happy that you are here with me right here unlocked on maou