Missouri gets dominated by Kentucky 29-7, drops second straight ahead of bye week
Not long ago, there was optimism surrounding the Missouri Tigers. That’s gone now.
For the second straight week, MU dropped a road football game against a division foe as a double-digit favorite. Saturday night, the Tigers went from fighting for a division title and sitting atop the SEC East to soul-searching after a 29-7 loss to the Kentucky Wildcats.
In rainy, wet conditions at Kroger Field, the second quarter proved to be the Tigers’ undoing. The Wildcats scored 22 straight points before halftime to hand MU its fifth straight loss in this series — Mizzou hasn’t beaten UK since 2014.
“Obviously very disappointed in the performance,” MU coach Barry Odom said. “Offensively, we couldn’t get anything at all going. When we did, there were some self-inflicted things that took us back.”
Missouri’s offense scuffled again Saturday, producing just seven points after averaging 38.8 points per game in its first six games of the season. Mizzou has scored just 10.5 points per game over the last two weeks.
The defense was just as much to blame Saturday. Lynn Bowden Jr. — the Kentucky wide receiver playing quarterback out of necessity — was exactly the playmaker Odom feared.
Bowden gashed the Tigers for 21 rushes for 204 yards and two touchdowns. He broke free often throughout the game, going for long gains and setting up the Wildcats within sight of the end zone. He even threw deep a few times with varying levels of success.
The Wildcats scored on four straight drives in the decisive second quarter, including a gut-punch touchdown with 10.2 seconds left until halftime off a Missouri turnover.
The only points the Tigers were able to muster came on a screen play from quarterback Kelly Bryant to Tyler Badie. It went for 74 yards and was one of the few times the Missouri offense showed life.
MU made a quarterback change in the third quarter, pulling Bryant from the game and going with Taylor Powell. Odom said after the game that Bryant had strained his hamstring. Bryant said he was willing to play on, but it was clear he was not helping the Tigers move the ball well enough and the switch was made.
MU has a bye week before playing its third straight road game and toughest matchup of the season to date: at Georgia on Nov. 9.
“It was a hard one to lose on the way that we did,” Odom said. “Had chances, had opportunities.”
This story was originally published October 26, 2019 at 10:00 PM.