COLUMBIA | Bells of doom echo out of the giant speakers in the new Memorial Stadium scoreboard when Missouri&rsquo;s defense forces an opponent into a third-down play.</p><p>After Saturday&rsquo;s gut-punching 40-32 loss to Baylor, even the staunchest of Tigers players, coaches and fans cannot help but wonder if they toll for thee, Mizzou.</p><p>&ldquo;The mood, it&rsquo;s shock right now,&rdquo; MU senior linebacker Sean Weatherspoon said. &ldquo;Three games left, that&rsquo;s all that&rsquo;s guaranteed.&rdquo;</p><p>At 5-4 overall and 1-4 in the Big 12 North, what the Tigers barely considered an improbability after a 36-17 victory at Colorado a week ago, now seems a reality too possible to ignore.</p><p>&ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got to go out there and figure out a way to win these last three ballgames,&rdquo; Weatherspoon said.</p><p>At North Division-leading Kansas State next Saturday, back home the following Saturday against Iowa State, and then finally the Border War with Kansas at Arrowhead Stadium &mdash; a game that might by that time be a contest between opponents who have squandered all hope for good bowl-worthy seasons.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s really sour then,&rdquo; Weatherspoon said. &ldquo;We can&rsquo;t let this carry over.&rdquo;</p><p>Missouri has lost three home games. And the Tigers haven&rsquo;t scored a touchdown in the second half of five straight games &mdash; according to a football historian who researches records for Missouri, that has not happened before, going back to when reliable records began to be kept in 1938.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s getting hard going back in that locker room,&rdquo; linebacker Andrew Gachkar said.</p><p>Baylor had scored only 34 points in a winless first four games of Big 12 play. The Bears&rsquo; offense had only three touchdowns in that span.</p><p>Against Missouri&rsquo;s defense on Saturday, Baylor freshman quarterback Nick Florence hit 32 of 43 passes for 427 yards, including touchdown passes of 8, 13 and 59 yards.</p><p>Two Baylor receivers topped the century mark in receiving yards &mdash; Kendall Wright with 10 catches for 149 yards and David Gettis with eight for 110. And Lanear Sampson nearly joined them, with five catches for 85 yards.</p><p>&ldquo;We were really expecting a shootout,&rdquo; Sampson said.</p><p>And through one half, Baylor got one.</p><p>Missouri quarterback Blaine Gabbert hit 21 of 27 passes for 322 yards and two touchdowns as the Tigers roared to a 27-16 lead at the break. Danario Alexander caught 11 passes for 171 yards in the first two quarters. And Gabbert and Alexander combined on the longest touchdown pass and catch of their careers &mdash; 84 yards.</p><p>Baylor stayed in it by probing the Missouri defense for weaknesses on sideline and up-and-out routes, primarily against the corners.</p><p>&ldquo;We saw a few plays that were working, and they were working over and over again,&rdquo; Sampson said. &ldquo;We saw that they were sitting on some (routes) and bailing on others.&rdquo;</p><p>As has been all too common since the start of Big 12 play after a 4-0 non-conference start, Missouri&rsquo;s offense turned into a ghost in the second half.</p><p>After the break, Gabbert hit only nine of 24 passes for 146 yards and Alexander caught only two passes for 43 yards.</p><p>With 2 minutes, 55 seconds to play, Grant Ressel&rsquo;s 46-yard field goal produced the only offensive points for the Tigers in the final two quarters. The other two points came on a safety credited to Dominique Hamilton.</p><p>Alexander and Gabbert fell back on the generic failure to execute as the reason for Missouri&rsquo;s second-half offensive snooze. Gabbert, pressed once too often to expand on the contention, clearly was angry when he left the interview room.</p><p>&ldquo;We just didn&rsquo;t execute,&rdquo; Gabbert said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what it boils down to. It&rsquo;s pretty simple.&rdquo;</p><p>What is simply obvious is that Missouri&rsquo;s season now hangs in the balance.</p><p>Lose out and the Tigers don&rsquo;t go bowling. Lose two of three and Missouri attains only the bare minimum for postseason play at 6-6.</p><p>&ldquo;I have taken a lot of great pride in fixing problems,&rdquo; Missouri coach Gary Pinkel said. &ldquo;If you don&rsquo;t fix them you&rsquo;re sitting right where we&rsquo;re at.&rdquo;</p><p><hr class="infobox-hr-separator" /> <div class="infobox"> @ Go to<strong> KansasCity.com</strong> for a photo gallery from the game.</p><p></div>