COLUMBIA - It's beyond cliche to say no conference football game in the SEC is easy. But through a combination of scheduling and luck, Missouri has played one of the toughest schedules in the nation, and its winless conference record clearly shows that.
The Tigers (4-4, 0-4 SEC) hosted two of the top 10 teams in Tuesday's initial College Football Playoff rankings - No. 6 Georgia and No. 9 Kentucky - went to No. 1 Alabama and this week hit the road to face No. 11 Florida.
The most glaring issue thus far is Missouri hasn't put together the complete effort on offense, defense and special teams necessary to win conference games. Worse yet, it's usually that one or two of those units turns in an average or above-average performance, while the third doesn't just play below that standard but makes mistakes that actively hurt the team's chances of winning.
Going chronologically: the Tigers' offense played well enough to beat a Georgia team that came to Columbia without its A game, at least for three quarters, before committing two turnovers, one of which resulted in a touchdown, and special teams had a punt blocked for another score.
At South Carolina, it became clearer that Missouri might be tougher mentally than it was a year ago, but it still wasn't tougher than the Gamecocks. The Tigers looked rattled at halftime after failing to bury the Gamecocks early and were unable to deal with a torrential downpour in the same way as their opponent.
Two second-half turnovers, including a muffed punt, were nearly offset by a career-long 57-yard field goal from Tucker McCann, but the defense could not prevent Michael Scarnecchia and the Gamecocks from going 53 yards in 76 seconds and putting through a 33-yard game-winning field goal.
Missouri hung with top-ranked Alabama for a quarter and responded well to an almost-immediate 10-point hole, but did not have the roster to compete with the Crimson Tide.
And Saturday, in stunning fashion, the Tigers gave back what looked for 54 minutes like an assured, controlled win against a ranked team with an offense that misfired in the second half, gaining 49 yards in 24 plays without a first down, a special teams gaffe, and a defense that again could not stop a back-breaking final drive in the last minute and a half when it was clear how Kentucky wanted to move the ball.
"We've made a lot of progress, we're going to keep making it, and now the next step is get in that situation again and go win it," Missouri coach Barry Odom said Tuesday.
Things do get easier in the final third of the season. After Florida, Missouri plays Tennessee on the road and hosts Vanderbilt and Arkansas, three teams with a combined conference record of 2-13.
The Gators are a good opponent to show that improvement against, especially if Emanuel Hall returns to action. Hall, who hasn't played since the Georgia game because of injury and the death of his father, was listed at second on the wide receiver depth chart this week.
Missouri's offense just looks different with Hall in the lineup. In its first four games (of which, just one was a conference game), Drew Lock was 101-for-161 (62.7 percent) for 1283 yards, 11 touchdowns and two interceptions. In the past four games, three of which were SEC games, Lock was 68-for-118 (57.6 percent) for 861 yards, five touchdowns and four interceptions. His yards per completion numbers didn't change, but Lock is completing and attempting fewer passes, about 10 fewer of each per game without Hall, despite the Tigers playing from behind more. When healthy, Hall is an integral piece of this Missouri offense, and still its leading receiver, with 10 more yards than Albert Okwuegbunam, in half of the team's games.
Odom ruled out the possibility of Hall redshirting - he's technically eligible to do so and return for a fifth season - unless a further setback occurs this week in preparing for Florida.
"It is off the table unless we go out there tomorrow and and he can't go after today," Odom said Tuesday. "We'll just keep seeing how it goes. It was really promising today, he looked awesome. It's exciting, but I'm also cautious, because it's the most work that he's done in some time, and we've got to see how he responds for tomorrow's practice.
"We've talked about it and he thinks that he can go play the next four right now, so I'm going to be positive and thinking that same thing as well. And if we get to the position that we have a setback, then we'll bring that topic (redshirting) back up."