Missouri State football snaps back to reality with undisciplined loss. What's next?
Missouri State needed to prove something on Saturday afternoon against a good opponent. After beating two bad ones, the Bears had an opportunity to show us who they were at this point in the season.
But as the late Dennis Green once said, "the Bears are who we thought they were."
Only Youngstown State didn't let them off the hook.
Missouri State's 44-28 loss at FCS No. 24 Youngstown State showed us what we thought previously heading into the Bears' two-game winning streak. They're a young team not ready to compete with the best in the conference. The Bears are better than the worst and that's what we figured it would be heading into Ryan Beard's first year as head coach.
Sure, there were small things to like here and there. The run game wasn't terrible and the rush defense wasn't bad. You continue to like what you see from quarterback Jordan Pachot, who was a backup going into the year, and you see that this team will fight until the end.
More: Missouri State football left much to be desired in loss at No. 24 Youngstown State
However, the margin for error is thin. The Bears' lack of discipline throughout the contest and inability to stop big plays through the air took away opportunities that they could have had when the Bears fought back from down 24 early in the third to make it a 10-point game going into the fourth.
The Bears' lack of discipline made an appearance
For whatever reason, when Missouri State visits Youngstown State, the sun never appears and the Bears can't help themselves when it comes to committing several dumb penalties.
The Bears had a combined 11 penalties for 92 yards — almost double their average per game. Three of the fouls were 15-yarders.
"Everything that you wanna do against a good football team, we had times where we did the opposite," Bears head coach Ryan Beard said in his postgame radio interview. "We were penalized a ton and that's not us.
"We had penalties in crucial situations. We're in the Valley. We're playing in the best conference there is. You're not going to get anything on the road. You got to play smart football, play clean football. We weren't able to do that today."
Missouri State's pass rush was non-exisitent
Right when the Bears' defense was starting to get recognized for its improved pass rush, it was non-existent against the Penguins.
After having five sacks in each of the Bears' last two wins, the group didn't bring down the quarterback once. Only Devin Goree, who had 5.5 sacks over the previous two weeks entering the game, was credited with a hit on the quarterback.
It allowed Youngstown State quarterback Mitch Davidson to have a career day as he completed 26 of 33 passes for 390 yards and four touchdowns.
Youngstown State allowed the Bears back in it but they couldn't take advantage
You can feel good about the Bears' ability to get back and make it a 10-point game after falling behind by 24 early in the third quarter but they put themselves in that deep hole to begin with.
The deficit followed the Bears getting off to a rare quick start this season when they drove 45 and 98 yards for touchdowns by the 8:18 mark in the second quarter. With the game tied at 14, the Penguins scored 17 points more before halftime. They scored on eight of their 12 drives by taking advantage of a secondary that has seen better days.
"We were able to stop the run because we came in knowing it was a good running football team," Beard said. "On the other side, it kicked us on defense because of the explosive pass plays."
Within two scores with 4:48 left in the third quarter, the Bears were shut out for the remainder of the afternoon. During their first three drives trying to come back, they moved the ball 21 total yards while throwing the ball to the Penguins once. The final drive of the game saw the Bears reach the Penguins' one with one second left in a pointless comeback attempt.
"We're just going to have to continue to get better and understand how to put a full football game together," Beard said.
What the remainder of the season looks like
If wins over Western Illinois and Murray State had you dreaming of a magical run to end the season and maintain playoff hopes, you woke up on Saturday afternoon. It isn't happening.
The Bears do have an opportunity to try and bring some feel-good into the 2024 season, especially these next two weeks when they host Illinois State and Northern Iowa. Both still have playoff hopes with the Redbirds maybe needing to win out to do so and the Panthers needing to win their next two against Western Illinois and MSU before closing out the year against North Dakota State.
Missouri State can play spoiler, which we saw it thrive on last year when it essentially ended YSU's playoff hopes by beating the Penguins in Springfield. UNI and Illinois State aren't unbeatable.
The season finale at South Dakota State? Now, the Jackrabbits look unbeatable right now. The overwhelming favorite to win the FCS National Championship looks as good as ever.
Wyatt D. Wheeler is a reporter and columnist with the Springfield News-Leader. You can contact him at 417-371-6987, by email at wwheeler@news-leader.com or X at @WyattWheeler_NL. He's also the host of the weekly "Wyatt's World Podcast" on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and other podcasting platforms
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Missouri State football too undisciplined in loss to Youngstown State
