From the other sideline: Missouri

Missouri head coach Gary Pinkel and several Missouri players talk after the loss to USC 31-10. Hear what they had to say after the game after falling to 2-2 on the year with their second loss in the SEC this season.

Missouri Head Coach Gary Pinkel

Opening Statement
First of all, South Carolina is a really good football team and I think we have to give them a lot of credit. Personally I think they deserve it. They are very well coached, didn't make many mistakes and in turn took advantage of some of the mistakes we made. Especially with the field position they had in the first half because of their special teams. That was a pretty dominating performance so we will learn from it and get better.

On not being able to convert on third down
I think you give their front six a lot of credit, because they are very talented. Obviously, we are very young, and overall, they won that battle. You get in third and long situations and that's not the ideal situation to be in with that group up front for the Gamecocks. They put pressure on you and are very difficult to block. We will learn from that, but they are very talented and they played very well.

On the difference in special teams
I said something about that at halftime in the interview with CBS that field position was staggering. So much of it was tackling and a lot of it was hang time. When you only have two or three seconds hang time on a punt, you have serious problems. Especially with the quickness of the players they have back there waiting to return the ball. That was huge, and we gave them short fields to capitalize on.

Jack Meiners - Senior - Offensive Line (RT)
On the difficulty blocking South Carolina's front four
The difference in South Carolina's defensive front apart from the rest of the SEC is their depth. Their first-string guys are world class defenders, probably going to be high-round draft picks, especially their two starting defensive ends.

On pass protection
I felt like it was good. There were a couple of holes here and there. they got us a couple of times just talent wise. They are great players, great defensive ends, but I felt for most of the time James (Franklin) had some good time back there.

T.J. Moe - Senior - Halfback
On struggling on offense and going back to the drawing board
All I can do is run my routes and try to get open, and unless I'm watching film it is hard to evaluate anyone else.

On losing two games this year
The defense has been great this year and put us in a position to win this game. We just have to put [ourselves] in a position to make plays. We weren't necessarily dropping balls all over the place. We weren't so bad today offensively. We just have to put ourselves in a position offensively to make plays.

E.J. Gaines - Junior - Cornerback
On what you can learn from today's game
Always can take something from this game, but today most of the things we will take away will be negative. We just have to go watch film and just get better.

On the two touchdowns passes allowed today
The first one we were in cover two so it was just a mix up between coverages, and the second one I just got beat off the line. It's just my fundamentals, so I just have to work on them and get better for next week.

Kip Edwards - Senior - Cornerback
On Shaw completing 20 in a row
We need to play better. It starts in practice, and we need to play better. On both sides of the ball, we gave up 31 points - that's too much. We are trying to win the East; we are trying to win the whole SEC. It's too much. So practice we need to take more seriously.

On stripping a guy on a punt return vs. tackling him
That's an underclassman mistake I made. I should have made the tackle, and I blame the whole momentum shift and the way the game went on me because if I make that tackle nobody knows we could have stopped him and the game would have still been 0-0.

Marcus Lucas - Junior - Wide Receiver
On pinpointing what problems the offense is experiencing right now
We played a great football game today, and I think it is just something we are going to have to do internally and just step up a little bit.

On where the confidence level of the team is coming out of today's game
We had some good drives where we drove in to their territory, and we just need to build off it and have confidence in our game. And we can play with these guys. We just have to remain confident.