Most Telling Statistics for Mizzou's 2024 Season Up to Week 4

The good, the bad and the ugly for the Missouri Tigers' stat book four weeks into the season.

Sep 21, 2024; Columbia, Missouri, USA; Missouri Tigers quarterback Brady Cook maintains his balance as he's knocked out of bounce on a run during a game against the Vanderbilt Commodores at Faurot Field at Memorial Stadium / Matt Guzman/MissouriOnSI

Over the first four weeks of the season, the Missouri Tigers have changed spots in the AP Poll each week, being rated as high as No. 6 and as low as No. 11. Though its not too wide of a range, that number change only tells part of the story for Missouri's 2024 season.

Even though the team is just starting to find its bearings in some areas, it has consistently been succesful or struggled in certain areas.

Heading into a bye week in Week 5 before heading to Texas A&M in Week 6, Missouri has its work cut out. Here's the good, bad and the ugly for how Missouri is doing by the numbers.

GOOD: Nate Noel's Workhorse Production

Running back Nate Noel is doing just fine replacing Cody Schrader. The App State transfer has received over 20 carries and rushed for over 100 yards in each of the last two games, something Schrader didn't do until games 8 and 9 in 2023.

Noel has also averaged seven yards per carry in the last two weeks. He's made up for 36% of the Tigers' total offensive yardage in the wins over Boston College and Vanderbilt.

Noel has seemed to really found his stride with Missouri and proven to be a cruical transfer portal add for the Tigers early on.

BAD: Seven Penalties Per Game

The Tigers have worn gold jerseys in only half their games so far in 2024, but yellow laundry has been present on the field for the entire season. Especially on offense.

Missouri has been charged with 28 penalties through the first four games, tied for the 88th most in the nation. 21 of them have been charged to the offense.

The Tigers have been trending downwards in penalties over the past few weeks, committing just two against Vanderbilt. However, its costed them 248 yards so far.

For an offense that has struggled to get in rhythm, penalties certainly do not help its efforts. Missouri will have to hope the downward trend continues through SEC play.

UGLY: Red Zone Inefficiency

Missouri set its focus on improving its red zone offense this offseason. It was a talking point during both spring and fall camp. Offensive coordinator Kirby Moore and his staff did a comprehensive study on what was and wasn't working and looked to other College Football teams and the NFL for ideas. Every day of practice for fall camp began with a red zone session.

However, the old coaching addage of 'you get what you emphasize' has failed in this situation.

"We're just not able in the red zone to finish drives and we got to take a really hard look at that. What we're not able to do in the red zone and why we're not able to get touchdowns in there," head coach Eli Drinkwitz said after the Vanderbilt win.

Against Vanderbilt, Missouri only scored touchdowns two times out of five drives past the Vanderbilt 25. With kicker Blake Craig missing a kick from 24 yards out, the Tigers only earned 20 points instead of the potential 35 in the red zone.

Through the first four weeks, Missouri has scored touchdowns on just 13 of their 20 drives to the red zone.

There's plenty of questions surrounding this Missouri offense. It certainly lacks the explosive plays it excelled with in 2023. Quarterback Brady Cook has been off with timing with some receivers.

Yet, considering how much time and emphasis the team spent working to improve its red zone offense in the offseason, this might just be the most pressing concern.

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