It’s not your fault, Drew Lock

Drew Lock is one of the best quarterbacks in the country, but he’s only as good as his surrounding cast will allow him to be.

On Saturday, Missouri entered its game against the second-ranked Georgia Bulldogs with a 3-0 record. Just a week ago, the Tigers barely escaped Purdue the previous week, but big things are expected from the Tigers.

Drew Lock is in his final season as quarterback at Missouri and had a chance to prove himself in front of NFL scouts against an elite defense. The last two matchups haven’t been kind to Lock or the Tigers and Saturday wasn’t really much of a different story.

Georgia led the Tigers 20-7 heading into the locker room at halftime, and if you weren’t actually watching the game then you’d think Georgia had completely dominated. That’s not entirely true, as at that point Lock had outplayed his counterpart across the field, Jake Fromm.

Missouri has held Georgia to 2-for-8 on third downs in the first half and got a crucial fourth down stop right before the end of the half. The problem wasn’t defense (at least not in the first part of the game), it was the fact that nobody seemed to want to help Lock out.

Lock finished the game with over 200 yards but was 11-for-21 with 83 yards and an interception in the first half. His final statline seems to be more the product of garbage time padding than anything else. Still, not everything was Lock’s fault, as his lone interception he the result of a deflection off his receiver’s helmet and into the hands of Georgia’s Tae Crowder.

Drew looks to be a lock (I know, I know)) to be a first-round draft pick, and not all of the Tigers’ miscues have been all his fault. But there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done before he completely impresses scouts.

When your first half drive summary goes as brutally as it did for the Tigers, and Lock is the face of the offense, that’s not going to equate to an impressive outing.

As bad as things got in the first half for Missouri they stuck around in the second half and Lock got in a rhythm. Once he was there,  the Tigers put up 22-points in the second half against a defense that had only given up 24 points all season. Lock also made some throws that make you realize why he’s a first-round talent.

Was it garbage time luck, or Lock settling in and showing us what kind of quarterback he’ll be?

The fact of the matter is Lock showed a lot of guts on Saturday, he just didn’t get a ton of help. The team couldn’t needed a perfect game to beat the Bulldogs and when the defense played well in the first half the offense faltered. In the second half it was the exact opposite. All three touchdowns the Bulldogs scored in the second half were 30 yards or more.

Don’t put this one on Lock, he bounced back after a rough first half and played well even though his streak of 13 straight games with a touchdown pass was snapped. The Tigers are off next week before a matchup on the road with South Carolina. We’ll see if they can bounce back.