How do you find bad news in a 52-point win? Bill Connelly of SB Nation Missouri Tigers blog Rock M Nation tells you how:
When you lose focus in the middle of a competition, it is really, really difficult to get it back. And as strange as it sounds in discussing a 52-point win, we saw quite a bit of that last night at Faurot Field. Mizzou scored four touchdowns in 3:49 in the first quarter -- James Franklin found T.J. Moe for a two-yard touchdown, Zaviar Gooden pulled off a pick six two plays later, Kendial Lawrence ripped off a 76-yard touchdown run after a SE Louisiana punt, and Kony Ealy decapitated SE Louisiana quarterback Nathan Stanley on the next play, setting up an easy Michael Sam fumble return touchdown. It was swift, devastating, and really, really easy. And Mizzou wouldn't score again for 23 minutes. The play-calling reverted to base play after base play, the blocking slacked, the rain came, and the offense completely lost its focus. It is pretty excusable in this instance -- for all intents and purposes, the game was over eight minutes in -- but it was still frustrating, if simply because it wasted an opportunity for the offense to execute in a sharp manner.
Despite his frustration, Connelly did find positives in the Tigers' overall performance, especially that of quarterback James Franklin, who completed 62% of his pass attempts.
Missouri faces Georgia at Faurot Field next Saturday, in the program's first game in the SEC.