While Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz may not be worried about his team overall, he may feel differently when he sees the defensive statistics.

While Mizzou is top 5 in the nation in sacks, the concern is the number of yards they are giving up per game.

In their first 2 games, the Tigers gave up 475 yards to Central Michigan and 519 yards to Kentucky. When you add it up, Mizzou has given up nearly 1,000 yards this season so far.

That’s more than staggering. That’s last in the SEC and No. 121 (out of 130 teams) nationally.

In Week 1, Mizzou couldn’t stop the pass. Central Michigan threw for 301 yards. In Week 2, Mizzou couldn’t stop the run. Kentucky ran for 341 yards, with Chris Rodriguez going off for 206 yards and 3 TDs.

Drinkwitz realizes his team got totally dominated upfront by the Cats and says honestly until he watches the film, he doesn’t know how his team got beaten so badly up front.

But it wasn’t pretty, and it was pretty consistent.

“We didn’t do very much of anything right,” he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Coming into the season, the Tigers knew they had to replace several players on defense, most notably star linebacker Nick Bolton.

It seemed like they had found the guy in Blaze Alldredge, who had 3.5 sacks against Central Michigan in the opener. He had a hand in 13 tackles against Kentucky but didn’t get to the quarterback. In fairness, Mizzou only registered 2 sacks Saturday as Kentucky stayed with a run-first approach.

One bonus: The secondary played fairly well Saturday. Will Levis, a Week 1 star, only attempted 18 passes. The Tigers kept most of the plays in front of them, though Wan’Dale Robinson did get loose for a 49-yard completion.

Despite the issues on defense, the good news for the Tigers is that they probably have a good enough offense to keep them in games, which they may need a lot of down the road.

Connor Bazelak and Tyler Badie stepped up against Kentucky, almost pulling out the victory in the closing minutes, just falling short. Badie, in particular, has been a revelation of sorts. Mizzou fans knew he was good and versatile, but he’s exceeded any realistic expectations through 2 games.

Drinkwitz credited both players and the way they handled the pressure in Lexington, particularly Badie.

“He’s a hell of a football player,” Drinkwitz told reporters. “The dude is playing his butt off.”

But Drinkwitz admits his team didn’t do enough to help his two best players. Bazelak threw for nearly 300 yards and 4 touchdowns and Badie had 61 yards rushing and 88 yards receiving.

With the way the Tigers are playing on defense right now, Bazelak will probably have to play this way every week in order to keep his team in the game. At some point, this defense will have to make a stop or two to close out a game.

Had they done that against the Wildcats, they may have won.

Despite the loss, Drinkwitz doesn’t seem to be discouraged by his team’s play and refuses to hit the panic button.

“It’s a good reminder for myself. It’s 1 football game of 12. We had an opportunity. We didn’t get it done, but there’s a lot of season left and a lot of fight left in this football team. …

“I’ll tell you what, I saw a bunch of fighters in that locker room. A bunch of freaking fighters on the sideline. That’s a football team that’s going to continue to improve and get better. They’re going to fight to improve and get better. I don’t know how many games we’re going to win, but I know we’re gonna fight.”

The biggest improvement needs to start on defense. If Mizzou plans on making a run in the SEC East, they are going to have to get better in a hurry because the schedule only gets tougher from here.