Missouri-Vanderbilt Preview

Posted on October 29, 2021 by Kyle Gilbert Leave a comment

(Photo: Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports)

Missouri travels to Nashville this weekend to take on Vanderbilt to see who will earn their first conference victory of the season. Missouri (3-4, 0-3 SEC) is coming off a 35-14 loss to Texas A&M, while Vanderbilt (2-6, 0-4 SEC) is coming off a 45-6 loss to Mississippi State. Missouri has a potent offense, averaging 34 points per game, but has been doomed by its sub-par defense. Vandy has struggled on both sides of the ball, only averaging 13 points per game and allowing 35.

Missouri quarterback Connor Bazelak has had a pretty good year so far, throwing for over 1900 yards, 12 touchdowns, and 7 interceptions at a 67% completion percentage. Their leading rusher is Tyler Badie, who has ran for 735 yards on 126 attempts and has scored 9 touchdowns.

On the Vanderbilt side of things, they’ve gone with a two-quarterback system all season. Both Ken Seals, who has gotten more of the reps, and Mike Wright have played in all 6 games. Seals has thrown for 1086 yards, 5 touchdowns, and 7 interceptions, while Wright has thrown for 423 yards on 34 completions, 2 touchdowns, and 3 interceptions. Their leading rusher is Rocko Griffin, who has run for almost 300 yards and 2 touchdowns this year.

Tomorrow’s look 🔥 pic.twitter.com/7Bqx3qE7x0

— Vanderbilt Football (@VandyFootball) October 30, 2021

Keys to the Game

For Vanderbilt, the key is going to be keeping Missouri’s offense off the field. If they can produce long, steady drives and eat clock, they may be able to pull off the victory.

For Missouri, they should be able to score enough points to counter what the defense gives up, but they need to play good, clean football and not allow Vanderbilt to get any easy scoring attempts.