As expected, the Missouri Tigers didn’t have much trouble claiming their first win of the season in their home opener Saturday night against the Eastern Michigan Eagles.

First-year head coach Barry Odom is now 1-0 at Faurot Field thanks to Mizzou’s big 61-21 victory.

There were plenty of positives to take from the performance, most notably Drew Lock’s career-high 450 passing yards and 5 TD tosses, but the Tigers still have a long way to go if they want to earn bowl eligibility this season. The 5 TD passes tied a school record.

Here are some good things and some things that need to be worked on following Mizzou’s Week 2 victory.

What I liked

1. They started quickly: Mizzou’s first scoring drive took only 1 minute and 31 seconds, ending in a nice 36-yard touchdown pass from Lock to WR Emanuel Hall.

In total, the Mizzou offense put up 96 yards in the first quarter. That may not seem like much, but when you consider the short fields the Tigers were working with, it’s a decent start.

2. They got big plays on every side of the ball: In the first quarter alone, the Tigers showed explosiveness on offense, defense and special teams.

The touchdown pass to Hall was a beautifully executed play, Johnathon Johnson sped through the Eastern Michigan defense on his 54-yard punt return touchdown and CB Aarion Penton snagged an interception and returned it 63 yards.

3. Johnathon Johnson is the real deal: As mentioned above, Johnson showed his explosive abilities on a first-quarter punt-return touchdown.

Late in the first half, Johnson took a screen pass 87 yards to the end zone to put the Tigers ahead 26-7. He finished with five catches for 115 yards.

The freshman is playing his way into a bigger role for Mizzou, especially on the offensive side of the ball.

4. The punter is still great: After a strong performance in the Week 1 loss at West Virginia, P Corey Fatony was solid again Saturday night.

Following a stalled offensive drive in the second quarter, Fatony rolled a punt inside the Eastern Michigan five-yard line.

He averaged 46 yards per punt against the Eagles.

5. Lock’s deep passes were solid: In the first quarter, Lock hooked up with Hall for a 36-yard touchdown pass. Just before halftime, he hit Ray Wingo for a 68-yard gain, which the Tigers took advantage of to take a 33-7 lead into halftime.

As a whole, Lock had his best game as a Tiger, piling up 450 yards and completing 24 of 37 passes.

He also spread the ball around, completing passes to 10 different receivers and finding five different players for his touchdown passes.

What needs to be worked on

1. The defense is still giving up too many yards: The Tigers allowed three plays of more than 20 yards in the first half alone. The Eagles put up a total of 374 yards in the first three quarters.

The linebackers are still struggling in coverage and the secondary takes too many risks at times.

Meanwhile, the defensive line is still not where it should be in terms of pressuring the quarterback.

Add all that together and the Tigers may struggle against RB Nick Chubb, QB Jacob Eason and the Georgia Bulldogs next weekend.

2. The defense doesn’t look elite: Look, the simple fact is that if Mizzou wants to consider itself one of the best defenses in the country again, then allowing even one Eastern Michigan touchdown is unacceptable.

The fact that it came at the end of a long drive (see above) made the second-quarter score even harder to understand. Add in a third quarter in which the Eagles and Tigers each scored 14 points and it’s fair to say the defense struggled.

Yes, Eastern Michigan put up 61 points last week, but that was against an FCS team. Mizzou’s defense should expect better against a team that went 1-11 (0-8 in the MAC) last season.

3. The kicking game is still a big negative: After Tucker McCann missed two field goals last week, the Tigers turned to Turner Adams to handle the kicking duties against Eastern Michigan.

That move didn’t exactly pay off, as Adams pushed an extra-point attempt wide right late in the first half.

McCann then took over and immediately pushed another extra point wide right on the next scoring drive.

Can anyone on the Mizzou campus make short field goals consistently?

What’s next: Mizzou (1-1) will host Georgia (2-0) in both squads’ SEC opener. The game will kick off at 6:30 p.m. Central time and can be seen on the SEC Network.