These four and half minutes gave Missouri the game in its 65-33 win over Memphis

Barry Odom’s call for Mizzou to go for it on fourth-and-one was a decision that may be looked at as a defining moment for the Tigers’ third-year head coach later in the season.

But short-term, it was a game-changer in Saturday’s 65-33 win over Memphis as it came in the midst of the wildest five minutes between the two teams that ultimately swung the game.

Memphis scored its first touchdown of the game off a one-yard rush from tailback Patrick Taylor to cut Missouri’s lead to 21-10 with 13:01 left in the first half.

Missouri would go three-and-out on its ensuing drive, that ended with an uncharacteristic 16-yard punt from Corey Fatony. The punt gave Memphis the ball on Missouri’s 38-yard line to start the drive.

It took two plays for Memphis quarterback Brady White to make it a one-possession game. White handed off to backup tailback Patrick Taylor for a gain of eight on the first play of the drive. On the second, he found Tony Pollard for a 30-yard touchdown to make the score 21-17 with 10:52 left. Memphis had the ball for only 41 seconds.

Needing a response, Missouri quickly got itself into third down territory. Drew Lock was unable to find Jalen Knox on first down and Damarea Crockett only picked up a yard on second down.

Lock found Johnathon Johnson on third down for an eight-yard pickup, but Missouri was still short a yard. Facing fourth and one from his own 34-yard line, Odom decided to go for it.

“I knew we needed to score,” Odom said after the game.

Missouri had a chance to go for it the previous drive, which Lock was all for, but Odom decided against.

This time around, Lock was ready.

“It’s a pretty gutsy call,” Lock said. “I was all for it.”

On the ensuing play, Lock found Johnson again for a diving eight-yard catch to move the chains.

With a fresh set of downs, offensive coordinator Derek Dooley saw Memphis’ defensive alignment and decided to go all in. Offensive lineman Kevin Pendleton said before Crockett’s short run, Dooley had noticed that Missouri’s run game was giving the Memphis defense all sorts of problems.

“We were hitting them with the run game a little bit, it was starting to crease them,” Pendleton said. “So we felt like once we call play action, they’ll bite for it.”

Dooley called one of the lone plays he inherited from predecessor Josh Heupel, play action, where tight end Okwuegbunam acts as a decoy to the linebacker and winds up open in the middle of the field.

The play worked perfectly and Okwuegbunam ended up in the end zone with a 58-yard touchdown to put Missouri up 27-17.

“We’ve been running the ball so well so their linebackers were flowing heavy inside,” Okwuegbunam said.

Memphis got the ball back with 8:42 left in the first half, only to turn it over on the second play of the drive. White was picked off by Adam Sparks in a rare occasion where Missouri’s defense got a stop when the team could pull away.

Seeing the opportunity to put the game away, Lock found Knox for a 44-yard touchdown on the first play of the drive to make the score 34-17 with 8:28 left. The play capped 27 points of scoring between both teams in just a 4:33 span.

Both Lock and Knox looked back on the fourth down conversion as the turning point in the game.

“The energy just changed,” Knox said. “We got the momentum back.”

Memphis never came within striking distance the rest of the game and Lock’s day was done by the start of the fourth quarter.

Missouri moves on to No. 14 Kentucky, who beat the Tigers last season on a controversial clock runoff that the officials didn’t act on.

Odom took a poll in the locker room after the game asking his players who on the current roster has beaten Kentucky. Pendleton said very few hands went up.

“We did it my redshirt freshman year we haven’t beaten this team since I’ve been here and played here,” Pendleton said. “It’s a little extra motivation.”

This story was originally published October 20, 2018 at 10:01 PM.