51ºÚÁÏ

Make no mistake. Nothing was “proven� by beating a lower-tier opponent into submission and continuing the beating well after the fight had been decided. No real significant statements were made.

However, it served as an indication of the mindset of the Tigers (3-0). They’re in a Big Boy conference with Big Boy programs. There’s a mentality that must come with that if you’re going to have high-level success.

That’s what the 52-10 at Faurot Field represented on a sweltering Saturday afternoon. The 250 rushing yards (187 in the first half) by Tigers running back Ahmad Hardy were gaudy.

The fact that Louisiana (1-1) mustered 121 total yards for the entire game just underscored that these programs operated in two very different worlds.

Was the public exhibition of bullying really necessary?

Yes. Because you could’ve made the case that Mizzou appeared poised for a letdown after an emotional win in an electric environment against a longtime rival last week.

Yes, it was necessary because the biggest test so far still awaits Mizzou next week when nationally-ranked SEC foe South Carolina comes to Columbia.

So, yes, it matters that Mizzou punched Louisiana in the mouth and was able to lean on its offensive line to impose its dominance from the start.

Mizzou ran the ball eight times in its initial 10-play drive. On one play during that opening possession, the offensive line opened a hole large enough to squeeze through a small Volkswagen. Hardy averaged a ridiculous 11.7 yards per carry in the first half.

And you can chalk all that up as the offensive line answering the bell.

“I think we improved from last week,� center Connor Tollison said. “That’s really the goal we’ve been trying to do every week, just get a little better and better. I think we did better today in communication. There’ll still be some things to clean up. I know we had a few tackles for loss, but we’ll get better.�

That unit has been where a lot of the question marks landed this season, dating back to fall camp when they shifted a potential All-American left guard, Cayden Green, to left tackle. Since the games started, the group has had some real ups and downs in winning performances.

In his comments during the week leading up to the game, Mizzou head coach Eli Drinkwitz pointed to Louisiana’s defensive line as a strength. Drinkwitz also mentioned the pressure Mizzou allowed and the “inability to gain short yardage in critical situations� last week against Kansas.

It didn’t take any reading between the lines to understand the implication. Drinkwitz challenged the offensive line to control the game in a way it hadn’t so far this season.

The Tigers gave up four sacks in last week’s rivalry tilt against Kansas, though they rallied from a 21-6 first-quarter deficit to earn the win in front of their home crowd. Even in the season-opening 61-6 rout of Central Arkansas, quarterback Beau Pribula faced pressure caused by miscommunication and missed assignments along the line of scrimmage.

This week leading up to the game, senior guard Dominick Giudice described the goal for the offensive line this week as “everyone has to have the same set of eyes.� That encompasses pre-snap communication, nonverbal communication and reacting to the defense in synchronicity.

It’s safe to assume their eyes collective lit up when they looked at the Louisiana defense on Saturday, and include tight ends Brett Norfleet and Jordon Harris in that group.

They mauled the Ragin’ Cajuns to the tune of 230 first-half rushing yards. The first offense played the first drive of the second half and bowed out after taking a 45-10 lead and having amassed 475 yards of total offense.

Hardy gave the offensive line a “shout out� in his postgame remarks and credited them for “setting the line of scrimmage� on the zone run plays.

Well, now South Carolina looms next weekend with a preseason first team all-conference selection edge rusher in Dylan Stewart. As a unit, South Carolina recorded 12 quarterback hurries and six sacks through its first two games (their third game was on Saturday night).

So the offensive line’s performance is as relevant as anything that took place on the field on Saturday.

Mizzou’s statistics and the level of domination won’t translate to next week’s game, but you’d like to think the attitude and determination to win at the point of attack can carry over every week regardless of the opponent.

Even though Louisiana didn’t pose a great threat or a big test for Mizzou, it did give the offensive line a chance to take a step forward as a group. In that regard, the game served its purpose perfectly.

It doesn’t guarantee that the performance will be stellar against South Carolina, but at least it shows Mizzou’s line has the mean streak in it that you’d expect.

“Discipline to dominate your opponent for four quarters,� Drinkwitz said of whether there’s something to take from the mentality his team showed on Saturday. “I think we’ve got guys who’ve played a lot of football. We’ve got a lot of playmakers. We’ve got to be willing to continue to lean into that. I think there’s a lot of confidence in our running game, and there should be a lot of confidence in our pass game.�

Missouri’s defense didn’t give up much to Louisiana in the 23rd-ranked Tigers’ 52-10 win — but especially in the air. The Ragin’ Cajuns, trailing for almost the entire game, did throw the ball. Fourteen times, to be exact.

Daniel Beale completed one pass for 5 yards. Backup and wildcat option Lunch Winfield completed one for minus-1 yard.

So Louisiana’s combined tally of passing yards? Four. F-O-U-R. The kind of box-score stat that better befits the days of yore.

Saturday becoming a day of four makes it one for the record books — and a wild dive into Mizzou’s history with single-digit passing games.

The last time the Tigers held an opponent to single-digit passing yards was in 1991, when Iowa State completed just one of its five passes, finishing with 6 passing yards.

And the last time MU held an opponent to 4 or fewer passing yards? Nov. 20, 1976, when the Kansas Jayhawks finished with 2.

Here’s what’s remarkable, though: Prior to Saturday, Missouri had lost the previous five games in which it had held opponents to single-digit passing yards.

Iowa State, with its 6 passing yards, beat Mizzou in ’91, 23-22. Oklahoma threw for only 8 yards in 1988, yet won 16-7. When KU managed only 2 yards through the air in 1976, the Jayhawks still won 24-22.

That 1976 season, with Al Onofrio in charge, actually saw four games in which MU opponents threw for single digits.

The week before that ground-based affair with Kansas, Oklahoma hadn’t thrown a single pass while still steamrolling the Tigers 41-14. Two weeks earlier, Oklahoma State needed only 8 passing yards to win 24-14.

Those were the last five single-digit passing games from Mizzou opponents, all defeats for the black and gold.

The Tigers’ most recent win against a single-digit passing team was a month earlier in 1976, when Missouri beat Ohio State 28-21 on the road. The Buckeyes completed one of their eight passes, finishing with 9 yards.

“They stopped our offense cold in the second half,� legendary Ohio State coach Woody Hayes said after that game. “We didn’t deserve to win. Missouri did.�

The novelty of that win, to Mizzou, was not so much the defensive coverage but the play of Pete Woods, who replaced starting quarterback Steve Pisarkiewicz to lead the Tigers to an unexpected victory in Columbus, Ohio.

“This has to be the greatest game a Missouri team ever played under the conditions that existed,� Onofrio proclaimed afterward.

It took the Tigers nearly 49 years to win another game under the very specific condition of an opponent throwing for less than 10 yards in a game.

Nobody’s proclaiming Saturday’s thumping of Sun Belt Conference member Louisiana as the greatest game in any sense, though. Tailback Ahmad Hardy put together a career-high 250 yards as MU’s ground game dominated, but that wasn’t especially unexpected.

Two factors seemed to help Mizzou keep the Ragin’ Cajuns from finding much through the air.

For one, Louisiana is without Walker Howard, the Louisiana State and Mississippi transfer who began the year as its starting quarterback. He suffered a serious oblique injury in a season-opening loss to Rice, so the Ragin’ Cajuns came to town as a team already far more likely to lean on the run than the pass.

Second, after struggling in zone coverage at times against Kansas last weekend, MU defensive coordinator Corey Batoon trusted his defensive backs to hold up in man coverage more often.

“If I’m going to be real: Obviously, their starting quarterback got dinged up, and he’s a really good player,� Tigers coach Eli Drinkwitz said after the game. “... We just felt like we needed to be very aggressive and relentless in our coverage. I don’t think we called much zone cover today. The first completion they had was zone and that was about it. We knew we wanted to take away windows.�

Novel and dominant as it was, holding a team to 4 passing yards isn’t especially repeatable for Missouri. South Carolina, headed to face the Tigers next weekend, has a star quarterback in LaNorris Sellers. Even in any other blowouts that may happen this season, the losing team still tends to land one or two passes of merit.

So don’t hold your breath for the next single-digit passing game from a Mizzou opponent. If history holds true, it’ll be a few decades.

Mizzou ran for 427 yards, wearing down Louisiana in decidedly un-weary fashion.

Wearing anything to the game, which was moved up three hours to marginally mitigate the effects of 90-plus-degree weather, was to sweat through it. The temperature of the Faurot Field turf was too high for an analog thermometer that went up to 120 degrees to read before the game. By the end of the game, the turf measured at 176 degrees.

Yet the most noteworthy three-figure number of them all? MU tailback Ahmad Hardy’s 250 rushing yards.

It was both a career high for Hardy, the 5-foot-10, 212-pound running back in his second season of college football, and the seventh-most rushing yards in a single game in Missouri history. Hardy’s tally came in only about 2 ½ quarter of work, too — the Tigers pulled their offensive starters with about eight minutes to go in the third quarter.

Hardy also scored three touchdowns to make himself the clear headliner.

“I think he hit every hole the way you want to,� Mizzou coach Eli Drinkwitz said.

Hardy’s first score was a 7-yarder via a pitch on the opening drive of the game. His second was a 71-yard breakaway, and his third was another one scored from 7 yards away.

To most, Saturday’s nonconference meeting looked ripe for a bloodbath. Louisiana may have won 10 games and played for the Sun Belt championship last season, but it was down its starting quarterback and struggling to throw the ball this season. (The Ragin’ Cajuns managed a meager 4 yards through the air. Not a typo: It really was single-digit passing.) MU, meanwhile, is readying for Southeastern Conference play with No. 11 South Carolina headed its way next week.

To Hardy, however, Saturday was ripe for revenge. He’d lost to Louisiana last year when he was leading the Sun Belt in rushing with Louisiana-Monroe, a 37-23 defeat for the Warhawks to close the 2024 regular season.

“Last season, they beat us by 14 points,� Hardy said. “I was telling the guys, this was a little personal, so I wanted to beat them. I wasn’t really focused on the yards.�

Still, the yards came, prolific and efficient as could be. Eight of Hardy’s 22 carries went for 10-plus yards. And he wasn’t the only effective piece of the MU backfield.

True freshman Marquise Davis, handling relief duty after the starters were pulled, used 20 rushes to pick up 113 yards and a touchdown.

Jamal Roberts ran the ball eight times for 46 yards and turned a check-down pass from quarterback Beau Pribula into a 39-yard receiving score.

“We were able to get our outside zone going,� Drinkwitz said, “which honestly, I wasn’t sure (about) just because they run that scheme too.�

Pribula’s performance was solid but lacked the luster of his first two games in a Mizzou uniform. He completed 15 of 22 passes with 174 yards and two passing touchdowns. On a draw play, he also scored a 14-yard touchdown.

He also threw his first interception with the Tigers.

Mildly deep in his own territory, Pribula tried to sling a low pass toward the left sideline. It was too low to clear Louisiana’s Cameron Whitfield, though, who tipped the ball to himself and picked it off.

“About time,� Drinkwitz said he told Pribula. “Let’s get it out of the way so people quit asking us about it. Move on. I mean, it was Cover 2. He probably should have moved on to (a different target), but he didn’t. The thing about Beau is when he makes a mistake, he owns it and moves on. That’s a part of growing.�

The Ragin’ Cajuns failed to punish him for the error, mostly because they couldn’t get anything going on offense. Despite taking over at the MU 22-yard line after the interception, they settled for a field goal.

Louisiana’s other seven points came on an 84-yard rushing touchdown for tailback Zylan Perry — a run that busted right through the middle of the Tigers’ defense.

Take that single play out of the equation and Louisiana would’ve had just 37 yards of offense. That counts as a dominant day from the Missouri defense.

“I wish you could take everything but one play, but we did give up a big play and that’s got to get taken off the tape,� Drinkwitz said.

That seems to be the predominant takeaway from Mizzou’s dominant day. There was a lot of very good, particularly on the ground. If this matchup against the Ragin’ Cajuns, sandwiched between season-defining showdowns with Kansas and South Carolina, was ever a trap game, that trap was deftly side-stepped.

The most glaring of flaws — and more will be uncovered in film sessions over the next couple of days, naturally — could be boiled down to two plays. Not too shabby.

“I really challenged our guys to demonstrate an elite edge, to demand it from themselves and others, and to be disciplined to dominate their opponent for four quarters,� Drinkwitz said. “Outside of two plays — the interception by Beau and then that long run — I felt like we really dominated that game.�

The Tigers (3-0) dominated the Ragin’ Cajuns (1-2), riding an efficient ground game and oppressive defense to a breezy nonconference win despite temperatures in the 90s. It wasn’t perfect, but it was clearly good enough to thump the visitors.

There was no stopping Hardy during the best game of his career so far, and Louisiana couldn’t do much besides be stopped itself.

Here are five takeaways from Mizzou’s blowout win.

Great day on the ground

What an afternoon to be Hardy. The MU tailback who led the Sun Belt conference in rushing last season with 341 more yards than any other running back in the league put on a show against a team from his old conference.

Hardy’s final tally — 22 carries for a career-high 250 yards — was stellar yet still belies the degree to which he cruised against Louisiana. Saturday was his third career 200-yard outing.

He worked his way into the MU record books with the seventh-most rushing yards in a single game and fifth-highest yards per attempt (11.36) in a game.

Hardy scored the first touchdown of the game from 7 yards out on a pitch to the left side. His second touchdown came in the second quarter, when he broke through the right side and torched a Louisiana defender along the sideline to score from 71. That was one of eight runs of 10 or more yards that Hardy provided.

One play after picking up 25 yards with a defender holding on for most of them, Hardy punched in his third rushing score of the day.

Jamal Roberts, whose strong start to the season has turned the Tigers’ backfield into a tandem, posted 46 yards on eight carries. Though it wasn’t technically a run, he took a check-down pass from Pribula 39 yards into the end zone for a receiving score made mostly by his legs.

Pribula’s first pick

The other key part of Roberts’ receiving touchdown: A contortion act from Pribula to even get the ball out. He looked to roll to his right on the play but discovered a Louisiana blitzer charging him down head-on. With that defender in his face, Pribula leaned to make an off-balance toss to his check-down option.

On the next series, however, Pribula threw his first interception in a Missouri uniform. He nearly threw one on a play that didn’t wind up counting because of an defensive offside penalty, then channeled a pass low for Louisiana’s Cameron Whitfield to tip the ball up to himself and intercept.

The pick gave the Ragin’ Cajuns the ball at the MU 22-yard line, but they wound up settled for a field goal after advancing the ball a mere 5 yards following the turnover.

Interception aside, Pribula played well — solid, just not stellar.. He continued to find slot receiver Kevin Coleman Jr. often, to the tune of eight catches for 84 yards — some of which were nominal passing yards because of jet-sweep touch pass plays.

Pribula finished 15 for 22 with 174 passing yards, two touchdowns and two sacks taken. On the ground, he picked up a 14-yard rushing touchdown from a draw play.

Unique review

Ever seen a football play in which a video review changes the result from a touchdown for one team to a touchdown for the other? That happened in the first quarter of this contest.

Pribula hit wideout Marquis Johnson on an 11-yard slant that put Johnson right on the goal line. Before he hit the ground, though, the Ragin’ Cajuns ripped the ball away. Louisiana’s Maurion Eleam was off to the races for a 99-yard fumble return touchdown.

Upon review, however, replays clearly showed that Johnson had crossed the goal line before the fumble. Officials wiped the Louisiana score off the board and changed it to a Mizzou touchdown.

Defensive haymakers

Tigers coaches probably won’t be too happy with an 81-yard touchdown run that Louisiana running back Zylan Perry busted through the heart of the defense to earn, but it was otherwise a smothering day from the MU defense.

The Ragin’ Cajuns finished with 121 yards of total offense — only 4 yards of which came on passing plays — compared to a whopping 606 for Missouri.

Defensive end Zion Young and middle linebacker Josiah Trotter notched two tackles for a loss apiece. D-end Damon Wilson II and linebacker Khalil Jacobs each came away with a sack.

Davis closes strong

The Tigers pulled their starters with about eight minutes left in the third quarter. That meant opportunities for the likes of true freshman tailback Marquise Davis, who did the running part of running the clock down, took 20 carries for 113 yards and a rushing touchdown.

Backup quarterback Matt Zollers, also a true freshman, came in but only threw twice.

Up next

Mizzou’s homestand continues with its first SEC game of the season next Saturday, when No. 11 South Carolina comes to town. With the Mayor’s Cup on the line, the Tigers and Gamecocks will face off in an evening game. Kickoff will be at either 6 or 6:30 p.m., aired on ABC or ESPN — with that determination to be made this weekend.