Much of the talk around the Missouri program is about the Tigers’ struggling offense during a 4-game losing streak ahead of Saturday’s game against Tennessee.

The defense, perhaps overshadowed, has played some of its best football in the past month, and surprisingly, it has done so without the heart and soul of the unit, LB Cale Garrett. Garrett suffered a season-ending pectoral injury that derailed a likely All-SEC season.

For context on Garrett’s value and production, he is still 2nd on the team in tackles despite only playing in 5 games, which by now is half of the rest of the team.

Entering Saturday, Mizzou is 10th in the country in total defense, allowing just 297 yards per game. The Tigers are also 6th in pass defense, allowing just 166 yards per game.

Most important, it’s 5th in the SEC in scoring defense, giving its offense a chance by allowing just 19.5 points per game. That’s nearly a TD fewer than last year.

Last week, Mizzou limited Florida to just 58 rushing yards, which is the 5th time this season that Mizzou has held an opponent below 100 yards. The defense also kept Florida to just 3 3rd-down conversions on 14 attempts. Mizzou’s defensive line was largely the key in the first half, as it sacked Florida QB Kyle Trask 4 times.

So given the struggles on offense, coach Barry Odom was asked on Tuesday if the defense has added motivation to have to play perfectly in order to win.

“I think you look at motivationally, what drives competitors,” Odom said, “it’s the responsibility that we know they’re never going to play perfect, but we know we need to play really well. If we were scoring 35 points a game, we would need to play well on defense. That just comes with the territory.”

They’ve done it all over the field as a defensive tackle, Kobie Whiteside, leads the team with 6 sacks on the season after he had 2 against Florida, his 2nd multi-sack  game of the season.

Last week, S Khalil Oliver and CB Jarvis Ware each posted career highs in pass breakups and tackles with 2 and 6, respectively. Oliver also had a career-high 5 solo tackles. He has now had a pass break up in 5 games on the year.

LB Nick Bolton, shouldering much of the load after Garrett’s absence, is tied for the SEC lead with 88 tackles.

The Florida game was just the 3rd time since the start of the 2017 season that Mizzou recorded at least 4 sacks (Arkansas in 2018 and South Carolina in 2019). After a stretch of 24 games without it, Mizzou has now done it in 3 of its past 12 games.

Two weeks ago at Georgia, Mizzou limited QB Jake Fromm to his worst career completion percentage (44.8). The defense allowed just 27 total yards of offense in the 2nd quarter in Athens, and that was at negative 6 yards before Georgia’s final drive that led to a field goal as time expired in the first half.

Georgia coach Kirby Smart even said he studies Mizzou’s defense for his own unit.

“They are an aggressive style. They load the box on you. They make you play one-dimensional. They are very multiple and they disguise things well,” Smart said. “We always study what they do because we are always trying to get better and they do different things than we do. … Schematically they are different from us, and we are always trying to steal ideas from them. I have a lot of respect for them and the way they play defense.”

Takeaways, 3rd-down conversions — where they stand at 14th nationally — and other more general defensive categories offer motivation for the defense to keep it up.

“They’ve got a number of factors defensively that they’re trying to finish on the trajectory that they are,” Odom said. “They’re doing a lot of really good things. They want to continue that. Ultimately, they want to win, whether it’s 3-2 or 35-33, we want to win the game. They know, they understand the better that they play defensively, the better chance we’ve got to win. … This week, specifically, we’ve got to eliminate explosive plays because Tennessee’s got playmakers that they can make things happen.”