Mizzou beats Vanderbilt 26-17 for first SEC win of season

Missouri still didn’t play a perfect game, but it managed to snap a five-game skid that dated back to late September.

There were the usual dropped passes, especially by freshman Dimetrios Mason and junior J’Mon Moore, that have plagued the offense and stalled drives all season.

There were the usual kicking struggles as freshman Tucker McCann blew two extra points, pushed a 21-yard gimme wide right and nearly had a desperation 55-yard field goal returned for a touchdown.

The Tigers, 3-7 overall and 1-5 in the Southeastern Conference, also continued to waste opportunities, fumbling away a scoring chance with a bad snap at the goal line while nursing at two-point lead in the third quarter.

For once, it didn’t matter.

Mizzou, which first-year coach Barry Odom has repeatedly said has no margin for error, bucked that wisdom by overcoming myriad miscues in a 26-17 win Saturday against Vanderbilt at Memorial Stadium.

And relief washed over the Tigers as well as the announced crowd of 50,261.

“It was a sigh of relief,” said junior defensive end Charles Harris, who led a resurgent Mizzou defense with nine tackles and 2  1/2 sacks. “It’s crazy when you work hard each week … and don’t come up with the result that you want. But we finally have one and that’s a sigh of relief.”

The victory snaps an 11-game SEC losing streak, one shy of the program record for consecutive conference losses — 12 in a row in Big Six play from November 1932 to November 1934.

“When you’re faced with adversity, and we’ve had plenty of it, you could go a couple of different ways,” Odom said. “I’m excited for them to have some success after what they’ve been through — if you really look at — over the last 18 months. … Our guys continued to fight and played well during times of the game where they really needed to. It wasn’t pretty, that’s for sure, but I’m glad we ended up on the right side of one.”

Missouri — which continued to have injury issues as well, losing sophomore center Sam Bailey (sprained right ankle) and senior long snapper Jake Hurrell (concussion) during the game — got off to a fine start.

Harris sacked Kyle Shurmur, forcing a three-and-out on the Commodores’ first drive. It was one of six sacks for the Tigers’ defensive line, including a career-high 2  1/2 by junior defensive Marcell Frazier.

“It felt like last year (for the defense), but it was a little different with us moving the ball and scoring some points and helping them out,” said sophomore quarterback Drew Lock, who completed 22 of 37 passes for 294 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions. “That part felt a little different than last year, but they looked like they were having fun, flying around and making plays.”

Freshman Damarea Crockett, who totaled 20 carries for 154 yards, opened the scoring with a 4-yard touchdown on the ensuing drive, providing the Tigers’ first lead in conference play since Sept. 17, when Georgia took the lead in a one-point win with 1:29 remaining.

The Tigers had gone 245 minutes and 39 seconds during parts of six conference games — including losses at LSU, Florida and South Carolina and against Kentucky — before snapping that streak at the 10:50 mark in the first quarter against Vanderbilt.

The lead remained 6-0 when McCann shanked the extra point, but an interception by junior linebacker Joey Burkett reset the momentum.

Two drives later, senior cornerback Aarion Penton seized it back with authority, outmuscling a Vanderbilt receiver for position and returning Shurmur’s pass 19 yards for a touchdown.

“The ball bounced our way a little bit this game,” Frazier said. “Last week, some of those same things kind of didn’t go our way.”

McCann made the extra-point try for a 13-0 lead, but he missed the next three kicks.

Fortunately, it didn’t impact the outcome, because Lock and Moore had a big game, hooking up eight times for 138 yards and two touchdowns.

The first score was an 82-yard catch-and-run in the second quarter before Vanderbilt closed the first half with 10 straight points on sophomore Khari Blasingame’s touchdown run and a field goal by junior Tommy Openshaw.

The Commodores pulled as close as 19-17 on junior Ralph Webb’s 1-yard plunge, which capped a 75-yard march to open the second half.

Mizzou drove inside the Vanderbilt 5-yard line on its next two possessions, but came away empty when McCann missed a 21-yard field goal and backup center Alec Abeln flubbed a snap Lock couldn’t handle at the goal line.

Lock-to-Moore iced the Tigers’ first SEC win in more than 13 months with a 4-yard TD hookup in the fourth quarter.

“I missed the victory formation,” Lock said.

This story was originally published November 12, 2016 at 6:31 PM with the headline "Mizzou beats Vanderbilt 26-17 for first SEC win of season."