Arkansas and Missouri Meet Again in Another Renewal of 'The Battle Line'

Arkansas and Missouri Meet Again in Another Renewal of ‘The Battle Line’

Posted on November 25, 2021 by Kyle Gilbert Leave a comment

(Photo: Hunter Dyke, Missouri Athletics)

Arkansas and Missouri will meet for the 13th time on Friday in the latest renewal of ‘The Battle Line’. Missouri has won the last five meetings including last year’s 50-48 slugfest. The Razorbacks do have the home-field advantage and revenge on their minds, though, and have a chance to beat Texas A&M, LSU, and Missouri in the same year. Before the season, no current Razorback had ever beaten the three, much less all in one year.

OFFENSIVE BREAKDOWN

Missouri is scoring just under 31 points per game this year and that is thanks to Connor Bazelak and Tyler Badie. Bazelak has thrown for almost 2500 yards and 16 touchdowns and Badie has run for 1385 yards and 13 touchdowns. Badie is also one of Connor’s favorite receiving targets, catching 53 passes for 335 yards and 4 touchdowns.

Arkansas’s 31 points per game can be attributed to the work that KJ Jefferson and Treylon Burks have put in. Burks has been on the receiving end of 10 of Jefferson’s 20 touchdowns and has accumulated almost 1000 yards. Jefferson has also run for almost 500 yards and 5 touchdowns and only thrown 3 interceptions.

DEFENSIVE BREAKDOWN

The Razorback defense clearly has the edge in this game and deservingly so. They are only giving up 24 points per game and only 370 total yards. Their leading tackler is Bumper Pool, who has racked up 107 on the year, but he’s not the only one who’s been wreaking havoc. Defensive lineman Tre Williams and linebacker Hayden Henry have combined to sack the quarterback 9 times. The strength of this defense is its secondary though. They only give up 228 yards through the air on average to their opponents and have secured 10 interceptions as a group this year.

Missouri on the other hand has not had a very pleasant year on defense, giving up 34 points per game and almost 450 yards. They do have some bright spots like defensive backs Martez Manuel and Kris Abrams-Draine. Manuel leads the team in tackles and has racked up 3 pass deflections and 1 interception. Abrams-Draine is second on the team in interceptions with 3, but leads the team in pass deflections with 7.