How Can Mizzou Improve it's Red-Zone Offense in 2025?: The Extra Point

Welcome to Missouri Tigers On SI's "Extra Point," a video series featuring the site's Missouri beat writers. Multiple times a week, the writers provide analysis on a topic concerning the Tigers or the landscape of college sports.

At first glance, execution in the red-zone has been a strong point for the Missouri offense over the past two seasons under coordinator Kirby Moore. In 2023, Missouri finished third in the country in drives in the red-zone that ended in a score, having a 96.55% success rate. That only dropped to No. 10 in 2024, sitting at 92%

But, on a further glance, it's been closer to a weakness. After the 2023 season, Moore circled the fact that too many of the trips to the red-zone involved penalties that led to having to settle for a field goal.

In 2023, Missouri finished 61st in the country on the rate of red-zone trips that ended in a touchdown, sitting at 62.07%. In 2024, that dropped to spot No. 62 at 62% percent.

Those issues in the red-zone in 2024 were especially noticeable and impactful in a Week 4 game against Vanderbilt, when only three of Missouri's six trips past the Vanderbilt 30 ended in points for the Tigers. Blake Craig missed three kicks from that range, a significant factor to sending the game to overtime.

"We're just not able in the red zone to finish drives, and we got to take a really hard look at that on 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.

Even though Missouri is losing wide receiver Theo Wease Jr. as a key red-zone target, the Tigers have developed and added the right personnel to improve in that area. But as evidenced last year, the play calling and execution will be just as important as the roster.