Mizzou Football: Death Row Defense Alive and Well in Season Opener

Reports of Death Row Defense's decline may have been greatly exaggerated.

Missouri's defense seized control and didn't give it up until the game was well in hand during the Tigers' 54-14 season opening win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff.

"I feel like our defense played to a standard that we chose," linebacker Robert Woodyard Jr. said, "and the mindset that we anticipated going into the game was really to dominate."

The Golden Lions didn't move the chains on offense until the second quarter. They didn't cross midfield until the second half. And they scored their first touchdown of the night with 2:31 left in the third quarter after MU pulled its starters coming out of the half.

That performance should be taken with a few large grains of salt — Arkansas-Pine Bluff went 4-8 in the FCS last year, after all.

But for a unit viewed by many as the team's biggest concern entering the season, Thursday night's performance had plenty of positives to pick from.

The defense allowed just six total yards in the first half, and the Golden Lions had negative (that's right, negative) 26 rushing yards heading into halftime. More often than not, holding the opposition to 0.2 yards per play across 30 minutes of action will get the job done.

Mizzou also did all of the above while recording two tackles for loss — with no sacks or forced turnovers. The defense didn't come up with any major plays, but it still dictated the action for two full quarters when on the field.

"I feel like we executed pretty well," defensive back Elijah Dotson said, "At the end of the day, you always find something to clean up; like coach said, we've got a lot of things to fix. But I feel like we did a good job today."

The night wasn't all positives for defensive coordinator Corey Batoon's unit. The Tigers will need those big plays moving forward, and the defense bent slightly in the second half once the coaches subbed in the reserves.

"We were able to create some constriction in the pocket, but we weren't able to shed blocks. Guys were going to get out and escape," head coach Eli Drinkwitz said, "So we'll have to go back and look at the tape, but there's things we've got to improve on for sure."

The defensive front left Memorial Stadium with room for improvement in the pass rush, but mitigated that impact by effectively serving as a brick wall against the Golden Lions' rushing attack.

"Our guys up front, they set the standard," Dotson said, "We always talk about we've got to win in the trenches, and that's what they did today."

The Tigers' experience on the interior of the defensive line was a difference maker. Defensive tackles Marquis Gracial and Sterling Webb are the unit's only two returning players who more than five starts in 2025, and the positional rotation also features a fifth-year senior in Jalen Marshall.

Veterans weren't the only players that stood out, though. Dotson recorded three tackles, including one for a loss, and also forced a fumble that was recovered by Arkansas-Pine Bluff.

Arguably his biggest play of the night was one that never officially happened. Dotson came up with what would have been MU's first interception of the season, but the play was overturned when Nicholas Rodriguez was flagged for roughing the passer.

"What he did today was really what he did most of the spring," Drinkwitz said of Dotson, "He's a guy that played multiple positions for us, and I felt like he's a great tackler and a guy in space."

After battling with Kensley Louidor-Faustin for the starting spot throughout fall camp, Dotson looks like a player who could become key to a new-look secondary that will rely heavily on production from transfers.

The secondary didn't see any major breakdowns during the opening half — not an easy task for a group learning to play alongside each other and communicate in a game setting for the first time.

"I felt like it was really good. It's something we've been working on in practice every day," Dotson said, "We always talk about communication. That's a key thing; if you can't communicate, you can't win."

Much of the talk following the season opener will focus on Mizzou's offense, and for good reason. Eli Drinkwitz's attack put up 40 points and over 400 yards of total offense in the first half as Austin Simmons looked comfortable and commanding in his Tigers debut.

The defense also showed plenty of promise when its starters were in.

This year's version of Death Row Defense is unlikely to reach the heights of 2025, when the group was a top-10 defense in the nation. But if Batoon can help this unit to a top-25 performance — especially with an offense that looks ready to roll — MU might be able to make some noise in the always-tough SEC.