Missouri football is going to need to be close to its best.

Getting that is going to require the best from its top talents.

The Tigers (4-0, 1-0 SEC) take on Texas A&M on Saturday on the road in College Station, Texas, for what could, when it’s time for hindsight, be one of the more influential games in their 2024 season. With the new stakes at hand — a berth to the 12-team College Football Playoff, namely — that makes it one of the Tigers’ more influential games in the past decade.

The Aggies (4-1, 2-0) are coached by Mike Elko and have been a tough team to pin down through five games. A&M was underwhelming in a Week 1 loss to Notre Dame, cruised by a middling-to-woeful Florida side and was periodically dominant in Dallas to beat Arkansas on neutral ground last Saturday.

At Kyle Field, where The 12th Man waits for Mizzou, coach Eli Drinkwitz’s team is entering prove-it territory.

Here are three players we think need their best games of the season so far for Mizzou to beat Texas A&M:

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Can Missouri football WR Luther Burden III get back to 2023 level?

It's the obvious answer, sure. But there's good reason to include it.

It’s time to see the definitive Luther Burden III performance of 2024.

Don’t be fooled, the wide receiver hasn’t been far off, and the jaw-dropping moments are still there. His 19-yard, catch-and-run touchdown against Boston College got MU back in that game. His go-route grab on the first play overtime against Vandy was as impactful and meaningful of a snap as MU has had all season.

But there’s a sense that he hasn’t quite hit full stride.

The superstar wide receiver could make life a lot easier for a Tigers offense looking for inspiration by giving quarterback Brady Cook some of the cheat-code moments we saw last season. Burden hasn’t had more than six offensive touches in a game this season. He averaged more than seven across all 13 games last season.

He has 19 catches through four games for 257 yards (64.3 per game) and four touchdowns. He averaged 93.2 yards per game last season.

The fear Burden’s after-the-catch ability put on defenses in 2023 was a major player in why the Tigers went 11-2, as the attention he draws gives the Tigers freedom elsewhere on the offense. That’s still the case.

But if they can combine that with Burden receiving and winning more one-on-ones, there’s a good chance the Aggies can’t keep up on offense.

DEJohnny Walker Jr. vs. the still-unknown QB

Missouri’s defense hasn’t been particularly aggressive in pass-rush situations so far this season. There’s a few reasons for that.

The two Power-conference QBs the Tigers have faced, Thomas Castellanos of Boston College and Diego Pavia of Vanderbilt, were liable to take off and cause problems on the ground. Rushing and getting caught behind them immediately outnumbers the defense. Both of those QBs also were experienced, with at least a year of starting experience behind them.

Texas A&M is a little different. If Conner Weigman returns from injury as the starting quarterback, he’s much more reliant on a clean pocket. If it’s Marcel Reed, who Drinkwitz believes will start, he’s a threat on the run but much less experienced than the two quarterbacks Mizzou has met.

That, at least in theory, gives the green light to bring some heat.

Johnny Walker Jr. is listed here because he’s the obvious threat on this MU roster. He plays the position the Tigers tabbed as the premier pass rusher, which is the ‘Joker’ boundary defensive end role. He had five sacks and hurried the quarterback 20 times last season. That's down so far this season, as he has one sack and one hurry through four games.

Mizzou is going to meet either Weigman, who struggled against versus Notre Dame in Week 1, or Reed, who has three college starts to his name. Trying to make life as uncomfortable as possible for either of those is a good way to get a win on the road.

OTs Marcus Bryant and Armand Membou vs. Nic Scourton and Co.

Burden isn’t going to be a threat, and Cook’s passing numbers are not going to improve if Texas A&M’s defense does what it did against Arkansas.

If the result doesn’t go Missouri’s way, it’s likely because Nic Scourton was the difference. The Texas A&M defensive end controlled the game against Arkansas as he had two sacks, a QB hurry and a forced fumble and demanded enough attention up front for A&M to bring pressure from the secondary.

More: Takeaways from each of Missouri football’s remaining SEC opponents through Week 5

The Aggies are, above anything else, a top-tier unit up front on defense. Scourton will likely be a Day 1 draft pick next year. Defensive end Shemar Turner and tackle Shemar Stewart are both big threats to backfields, too.

That makes this the biggest pass-blocking game of the season for Mizzou. There were seemingly issues on this front against Vanderbilt.

The Aggies haven’t been a particularly explosive offensive team. For long periods against the Razorbacks, they couldn’t get anything moving on that side of the ball. But if they get into a rock fight with the Tigers, they’ve shown they can outlast SEC opposition.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Missouri football players who could help the Tigers beat Texas A&M