The Missouri Tigers have played much better since a Week 5 bye, competing with Kentucky and Georgia and mopping the floor with Idaho.

However, even though UConn is no powerhouse, neither is Mizzou at this point, so the fact that the game was being played in Connecticut made it an intriguing matchup on paper.

After going down 2-0 early, though, the Tigers controlled every aspect of the game, lighting up the scoreboard once again en route to a big 52-12 victory.

Now the Tigers are on a two-game winning streak and face some winnable SEC games in the coming weeks. At 3-5 overall, a bowl game isn’t out of the question, but tougher tests remain moving forward.

Here are a few things I liked and a few things that need work after Saturday’s big win over UConn:

What I liked:

Johnathon Johnson making plays

It wasn’t just Johnson, but the redshirt sophomore looked really good in the first half against UConn, catching four passes for 56 yards.

A couple of his grabs were quite athletic, where he had to adjust to the ball in the air.

He also made a catch in the third quarter and sprinted past the UConn defense for a long touchdown to put the Tigers ahead 45-5.

Locked and loaded

There’s no one better at torching inferior opponents than QB Drew Lock, and he was at it once again against the Huskies.

In the first half, Lock threw a nice fade to WR J’Mon Moore — one of his three first-half touchdown passes — and made the same throw again in the third quarter.

When Lock is rolling, there aren’t many teams that can stop the Missouri offense, and he was certainly rolling on Saturday night. He finished 31 of 37 for 377 yards and five touchdowns, to go with no interceptions.

Albert O makes the offense go

After catching three first-half touchdown passes against Idaho, freshman TE Albert Okwuegbunam caught two more touchdowns in the first half Saturday night.

The freshman gives the Tigers a legitimate red-zone threat, and he is quickly becoming one of Lock’s favorite targets near the goal line.

Bend-don’t-break defense

The Tigers gave up 192 yards in the first half on Saturday night, but only allowed the Huskies to score a measly five points.

Yes, there was a missed field goal in there, but even forcing a missed kick is a step up for the Tigers, who have had trouble stopping opponents on third downs this year.

What needs work:

Too much reliance on drops

Yes, the Mizzou defense played much better on Saturday, but that was due in large part to the Huskies dropping several key passes.

Especially on the first drive in the second half, the Huskies had a wide-open receiver for what would have been a big play and he simply dropped it.

Better teams won’t make mistakes like that, so the Mizzou defense still has some work to do moving forward.

The play-calling is too simplistic

Yes, Albert O is making some nice plays, but the routes he’s running on his touchdown catches simply won’t work against better defenses.

The same route has worked for Okwuegbunam five times against Idaho and UConn, but don’t expect that to continue against Florida, Vanderbilt and Tennessee moving forward.

Micah Wilson

Lock’s day was over late in the third quarter, at which point redshirt freshman QB Micah Wilson came in.

However, Wilson was not good in his first extended action of the year, throwing an interception, missing open receivers and taking a big sack.

He ran for a touchdown later in the game, but he still needs more work before he develops into a viable option at quarterback.

Lock is the guy, and is in no danger of losing his starting job anytime soon, but the Tigers would certainly like to see a better effort from their backup moving forward.

What’s next:

The Tigers host Florida next weekend in an SEC East showdown. The Gators are a mess right now, and may be without head coach Jim McElwain, who might be fired before the weekend is over.

The game kicks off at 11 a.m. Central time and can be seen on ESPN2.