The Missouri Tigers picked up a big, important 40-37 victory over the Purdue Boilermakers on Saturday night, avenging last year’s embarrassing 35-3 home loss.

However, the effort still left a lot to be desired, as Mizzou’s defense was gashed for 572 yards through the air against a guy who isn’t even Purdue’s full-time starting quarterback.

So, yes, the Tigers are 3-0, but what can we expect moving forward? Let’s take a look at some areas where Mizzou needs to improve in a hurry heading into the toughest stretch of the schedule.

With games against Georgia, at South Carolina and at Alabama coming up the next three weeks, the Tigers must do much better than they did against Purdue. If they don’t, losing all three of those upcoming games is not out of the question.

Where does Mizzou need to improve? Let us count the ways:

Pass defense, anyone?

The Tigers snagged an interception, but they were torn apart by David Blough, who only played because Elijah Sindelar was injured.

When you give up 572 yards through the air to a team that had lost to Eastern Michigan and Northwestern, you aren’t doing a good job. Blough averaged an impressive 10.4 yards per pass attempt, so really, the only question facing Purdue coach Jeff Brohm should be, “Why did you run it 16 times?”

It was a historically bad night for the Tigers’ defense, as evidenced by these embarrassing stats:

When you’re breaking records at a school which produced Drew Brees, Kyle Orton, Curtis Painter and others, you’re doing something right.

Based on what Blough did, can you even imagine what guys like Jake Fromm, Jake Bentley and Tua Tagovailoa might do to Missouri in the next few weeks?

Where was the pressure?

The Tigers were all around Blough during the game, but he was very elusive and often escaped pressure to complete passes for huge gains.

The Mizzou defense had six tackles for a loss, but only one sack — that’s simply not going to cut it moving forward.

With pass defense, everything works together. If the defensive backs aren’t covering their guys, the quarterback will have a field day. If the pass rushers aren’t getting to the quarterback, the receivers will have a field day.

On Saturday night, the Tigers didn’t cover or pressure well and it showed in the statistics. Moving forward, Mizzou is going to have to keep quarterbacks uncomfortable in the pocket. Otherwise the Tigers will be staring at a 3-3 record heading into a tough homecoming game against Memphis.

Credit: Thomas J. Russo-USA TODAY Sports

Be more aggressive

A few times in Saturday’s game, the Tigers took the conservative route, punting when they should have gone for it or kicking a field goal when a touchdown would have been better.

Coach Barry Odom hasn’t exactly built a reputation as a huge gambler, but he is going to need to be a bit more aggressive in the coming weeks if the Tigers are going to have a chance at pulling any upsets.

Sometimes, there’s a need to play conservative. However, there were plenty of opportunities for Odom to be a bit more aggressive on Saturday, and he chose not to take them.

We’ll see if Odom keeps the Tigers’ foot on the gas pedal a little bit more next week, when a dynamic Georgia team comes to Faurot Field. If he plays it safe and punts early and often, Georgia could run away with the game.