Tennessee football falls during Week 9 bye in SEC Power Rankings
![Missouri Tigers running back Larry Rountree III (34) cut through a hole in the defense during a game against the Florida Gators at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, Fla. Oct. 31, 2020. [Brad McClenny/The Gainesville Sun]Florida Missouri 40](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_1080,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape%2Fcover%2Fsport%2F5e3cd887024ccb82c35b7a0f46d0cb96079e45b057f4e5f248a30f08832a8f0b.jpg "Missouri Tigers running back Larry Rountree III (34) cut through a hole in the defense during a game against the Florida Gators at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, Fla. Oct. 31, 2020. [Brad McClenny/The Gainesville Sun]Florida Missouri 40")
2-3. Previous: . Tigers . 7. team. 822.
Lost to Florida Gators 41-17
What seemed like a rebound for the Missouri Tigers after wins over the LSU Tigers and Kentucky Wildcats was hit with a crushing reality as they got blown out by the Florida Gators. Eliah Drinkwitz’s team turned into one that looked much worse even than the team that lost to Tennessee football in the second week of the season.
Defensive issues that have plagued the team all year were really on display. To be fair, though, this was against a Florida team coming off two weeks of rest, and it already had a Heisman candidate in quarterback Kyle Trask and a great offensive mind in Dan Mullen. Given where Mizzou is at this moment, there’s really no shame in allowing UF to dominate its defense like that.
However, Drinkwitz’s selling point was his offense, and historically, they take off pretty early. That had begun to happen with Connor Bazelak at quarterback. Issues against Florida, though, included two turnovers and an inability to run the ball.
These guys didn’t even get 300 yards of offense, and this Florida defense is not that good. Maybe it got better during the two byes, but Missouri’s offense should have been better. That’s why thee guys dropped in our SEC Power Rankings.
Was it a fluke? Well, they have another bye, and then they face the Georgia Bulldogs, so we won’t know for sure for a while. However, they close things out against three teams lower than them in our rankings: The South Carolina Gamecocks, Mississippi State Bulldogs and Vanderbilt Commodores. They also face the next team in these rankings.