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Mizzou hosted Buffalo in a nonconference game that wasn’t expected to be very close. And it wasn’t.
The Tigers took a 24-0 lead into halftime, and they left plenty of points on the board. The deficit could have been much worse for the Bulls at the intermission.
The offense only scored 14 more points in the second half, but the defense stayed strong all night long, shutting out the Bulls to make some history (more on that in the last second).
Mizzou committed too many penalties, but we’ll focus on the positives for our 3 biggest takeaways from the Tigers’ 38-0 romp over Buffalo.
Luther Burden III was involved early
I was personally disappointed that Burden only got 3 catches for 39 yards against FCS foe Murray State last week. It seemed like a good game in which to get him plenty of action to boost his Biletnikoff Award résumé.
So I was happy to see the Tigers and OC Kirby Moore make a concerted effort to feed the ball to Burden in the early going. That featured him getting touches as both a receiver and a runner. He scored on this strong 3-yard run:
Luther Burden—not a finesse player pic.twitter.com/HmNbsiSOZ5
— Represent Mizzou (@RepresentMizzou) September 7, 2024
However, an issue popped up in the second quarter, as Burden left the field with an apparent injury:
INJURY UPDATE: Luther Burden went to the locker room, according to Chris Gervino. Status unclear.
— Mizzou Radio (@MizzouRadio) September 8, 2024
They called it an “illness” on the broadcast late in the second half, so we’ll see if it’s something that lingers. If it isn’t an injury, that’s probably good news for the Tigers moving forward. We’ll have to listen to what coach Eli Drinkwitz says about his star receiver in the postgame press conference.
Theo Wease Jr. is an elite No. 2 receiver
With Burden making his impact mostly as a runner and then getting banged up, Wease stepped up in the passing game. At halftime, he already had 10 catches for 105 yards.
That put him in an impressive group of SEC pass catchers who have had 10 catches for 100+ yards in the first half since 2014. That list includes guys like AJ Brown, Malik Nabers, Elijah Moore and DeVonta Smith. Pretty good company!
Wease finished the game with 13 catches for 149 yards. Though he didn’t find his way into the end zone, he made a few different plays that set up scoring opportunities for Mizzou.
Hopefully Burden is OK, but if he misses any time, Wease is a strong WR1. He’s one of the best WR2s in the country, as he showed on Saturday against the Bulls.
The defense is a surprise
Even the staunchest Mizzou supporters thought the defense would take a step back this season. Through 2 games, that hasn’t been the case. The defense has been the better unit. While the offense has struggled with injuries, penalties and mistakes, the defense has looked sharp.
In fact, it’s the first time since 1935 that the Tigers have had two-straight shutouts to start the season.
Again, I’ll qualify that statement by mentioning that the defense has looked good against inferior opponents in Buffalo and Murray State. But still, playing 2 games like they have so far has inspired plenty of confidence in the Tigers.
As tougher opponents loom on the schedule, the Mizzou defense is looking like it can hold up its end of the deal. Now it’ll be up to the offense to get healthy and play a bit cleaner moving forward.
Adam is a daily fantasy sports (DFS) and sports betting expert. A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 16 SEC football teams. He is the director of DFS, evergreen and newsletter content across all Saturday Football brands.
