Everything Eli Drinkwitz said after Missouri gets battered and bruised by Texas A&M

The Missouri Tigers got embarrassed in front of the whole country on Saturday, falling down 24-0 at halftime en route to a 41-10 loss to Texas A&M that was frankly not even as close as that final score would suggest. It was about as comprehensive a beating as you're liable to see in a matchup between two ranked teams: Mizzou managed just 254 yards of offense, its lowest total in two years, and even that required a garbage-time drive late in the fourth quarter; the Aggies, meanwhile, nearly cleared that number on the ground alone, putting up 512 yards and nearly nine yards per play.

With numbers like that, you know you're in for an uncomfortable press conference for the losing head coach — especially when that head coach, in this case Missouri's Eli Drinkwitz, had already come under some fire for his team's sluggish start to the season. Drinkwitz took full responsibility for the poor performance, while also trying to sound a note of optimism with plenty of season left to play. Here's everything he had to say after the loss.

Everything Eli Drinkwitz said after Missouri's embarrassing loss at Texas A&M

'I apologize to our fans'

Drinkwitz got his press conference underway but placing this loss on his shoulders, apologizing to Missouri fans everywhere and saying that the performance — and improving on it moving forward — "starts with me". He also singled out not being able to convert third downs on offense or get off the field on third down on defense as "the difference in the game," which feels like a generous interpretation of what happened at Kyle Field.

While we're sure that Missouri fans appreciate the sentiment, it's also not quite the kind of accountability — or the tone — that they want to see after such a thorough loss. This was a theme throughout Drinkwitz's remarks: The head coach opted against a fire and brimstone approach, instead trying to be honest while also staying positive.

'Figuring out how we can improve'

Speaking of: Drinkwitz was later asked about how the loss might impact the Tigers' SEC and College Football Playoff hopes, but he wasn't having any of it. All the coach wanted to talk about was the next few days, and how Missouri can get out of its season-long funk and finally play to its potential next Saturday against UMass.

Credit where due: It wouldn't do anybody any good for Drinkwitz to look ahead to national implications right now, both because the Tigers haven't warranted it with their play so far this season and also because any realistic look at it would simply hurt his team's confidence moving forward. That said, Drinkwitz is still optimistic about what his team can achieve this season, and expressed as much with a quote that's likely to stick with Missouri fans for the next few days.

'The season really starts today'

When asked about the message he gave his team in the locker room, Drinkwitz said that Missouri still has all of its goals in front of them, adding "the season really starts today".

Which is, technically, true enough: This was Missouri's first loss, and in our new 12-team College Football Playoff world, the Tigers could still very much pick themselves off the deck and make a run at both an SEC title and a Playoff spot. Still, "the season really starts today" is not what you want to hear from a coach who just oversaw a tremendously disappointing loss in a hugely important game. The season in fact started several weeks ago, and just because Drinkwitz's team has sleepwalked through it so far doesn't make that less true. Saturday's loss left the impression that the Tigers don't have a ton of toughness about them right now, for all of Drinkwitz's mid-week bluster; this is the sort of response that will only help that impression grow.