Missouri State football's loss at Southern Illinois raised more concerns than answers

CARBONDALE, Ill. — In a game that was supposed to show Missouri State football how far it had to go to be among the top teams in the Missouri Valley Football Conference, the Bears departed Southern Illinois with more questions and not a lot to feel good about.

The Bears' 33-20 loss to the Salukis might not be the only defeat they suffered on Saturday evening as their starting quarterback might be headed to the sideline with an injury that has lingered all season.

At the same time, the troubling trends that haunted the Bears' defense during their first two losses of the season reappeared — most notably when they allowed a 64-yard touchdown run on the Salukis' first carry of the game.

Make no mistake, Missouri State showed it doesn't look like a team that will finish in the top half of the toughest conference in the FCS — nor did many think it would following a blowout win over a putrid Utah Tech last week.

After a few surprising results across the MVFC on Saturday, there are only a special few you would pick the Bears over heading into future weeks. FCS No. 2 North Dakota State lost at home to South Dakota and the angry Bison will visit Springfield next week while the Bears currently don't know what they're going to do at quarterback.

More: Missouri State football couldn't hang with No. 10 Southern Illinois

Clark's shoulder injury described as 'significant'

Bears starting quarterback Jacob Clark, the reigning MVFC Offensive Player of the Week, exited the game late in the second quarter Saturday after he scrambled on third down for a first. His play was keeping the Bears within striking distance after a poor defensive start but it appears the Bears might be without him heading into future weeks.

Bears head coach Ryan Beard told the News-Leader that Clark injured the same shoulder that had been bothering him throughout the early weeks of the season. The quarterback was in a sling on the sideline throughout the second half.

"I think it's significant at this point," Beard said. "We have to evaluate it to see exactly how bad it is. I'm not exactly sure the extent of what's going on. He's a tough guy and that was enough to take him out when he could hardly move much."

Beard also indicated Clark could have banged up his knee but wasn't sure how serious the leg injury was. Clark's night ended after he had completed 10 of 16 passes for 129 yards and a touchdown.

Backup quarterback Jordan Pachot entered the game for the Bears and completed 14 of 21 passes for 176 yards and a score. He had a critical fumble late in the game that SIU recovered, leading to the Salukis eliminating the Bears' hope.

Pachot had seen little bits of time for the Bears when Clark hurt his shoulder in a loss at UT Martin and while playing garbage time minutes in the Bears' blowout win over Utah Tech. True freshman Cole Feuerbacher is the Bears' third-stringer.

"I just need to stay ready because you never know when your opportunity is going to come," Pachot said. "Every week since Week 1, I've been preparing as if I'm going to go out there first, even though I'm not. If Jacob can't go, then I'm going to be the guy and I'm ready for it."

Missouri State's defensive struggles made a return

No matter who was at quarterback or who will be heading into next week, the Bears' defense is going to have to improve. If the Bears were to win Saturday, they would have had to play near-perfect offense with the way SIU moved the ball.

Everyone who's watched Missouri State football this year suffered a bit of deja vu when the Salukis broke away for a touchdown run on the third play of the game. It was reminiscent of the Bears' start at UT Martin in which the Skyhawks broke away for an 81-yard scoring run on the first play of the game.

"That's inexcusable by our defense to go out there and not fit things correctly," Beard said. "We have to do a better job of making sure when you've got bodies at the football, you gotta put your pads on and bring the guy down. It's not an effort thing. We just gotta find a way to put it all together."

The run made up for more than half of the Salukis' ground attack for the night as adjustments were made after halftime and the Bears held SIU ball carriers to minus-10 yards on the ground. There were positives in MSU's pass-rush when it's been nothing to talk about through the first few weeks.

But the Bears couldn't get off the field when they needed to. The Salukis were 4 for 12 on third downs but were 3 for 3 on fourth downs. SIU star quarterback Nic Baker made plays with his arms and legs while receivers were running free on some of the biggest defensive plays of the game.

Southern Illinois scored on six of its nine drives that weren't ending in victory formation.

"It was a really frustrating game," linebacker Von Young said. "We've talked about it. At our film session last week, we did a self-check on everyone. So yeah, it's frustrating. We thought we came out in the middle of the game and did good things but it wasn't good enough. We should execute the way we need to."

It's only going to get more difficult

As injuries start to pile up at key positions — the Bears also lost starting offensive lineman Grant Goodson to an ankle injury during the game — Missouri State heads into an even more difficult game against a team that's going to be extra motivated.

North Dakota State will visit Springfield on Saturday while coming off a surprising home loss to South Dakota. The Bison, who were ranked No. 2, are going to need to send a few messages because they have more difficult games ahead as well.

Saturday's results also saw Northern Iowa narrowly beat ranked Youngstown State — both are on the Bears' schedule. Top-ranked South Dakota State doubled up a very good North Dakota team. MSU concludes its regular season against the Jackrabbits.

If you were to look at the Bears' schedule, you would only label them as favorites in two more games — a trip to Western Illinois on Oct. 14 and then the following week when they host Murray State.

Expectations weren't high for Missouri State entering the year and it will be curious to see how the fanbase responds to a young first-year head coach who is in his fourth year with the program. There appears to be a talent gap between MSU and others as a young team will need to continue to develop.

We don't find it fair to go into panic mode about the program and its future four games into the season when this appeared to be a possible outcome before the year started.

Unfortunately, it may be more difficult to get a gauge for the growth of the team as it could be without its quarterback for a while. No matter what, the defense has to get better.

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 takeaways from loss at Southern Illinois