Missouri Tigers football pulls away at Vanderbilt and wins first SEC game of season
The Missouri Tigers finally got their first SEC victory of the season on Saturday.
On the road for the first time since Sept. 25, Mizzou defeated Vanderbilt 37-28. The Tigers are now 4-4 on the season and 1-3 in conference play.
Here are takeaways from the win, which broke a five-game SEC losing streak for the Tigers.
Fast start goes to waste
One of the big points of emphasis for Missouri over the bye week was improving on its slow starts.
The Tigers had been outscored 63-10 in the first quarter by SEC opponents through three contests this season, but nearly flipped the script against Vanderbilt — a team that has also struggled with lackluster starts. Emphasis on nearly.
Mizzou scored a field goal on the opening drive and then forced a Vanderbilt three and out. It was the team’s first stop to start a game since Boston College, when safety Shawn Robinson had an interception on the Eagles’ first drive.
Things continued to go the Tigers’ way as they went 59 yards in eight plays on their next drive to take a 10-0 lead with 6:59 left in the quarter. Shortly after, with the Commodores facing fourth-and-8 on their own 27, Stephen Benson, a walk-on listed on the roster as a running back, blocked the punt. Running back Dawson Downing recovered it at the 15.
It was the perfect chance for Mizzou to put the game away early, but the team squandered the opportunity. Instead of making good on the chance to extend its 10-point lead into 17 points, a string of bad plays cut the lead to three.
One play after the blocked punt, on second-and-14, quarterback Connor Bazelak threw a pass up the middle into the arms of Vanderbilt defensive back Max Worship.
On the second play of the Vanderbilt drive following the interception, the Mizzou defense allowed quarterback Mike Wright to rush 69 yards to the MU 7. Then Wright completed a touchdown pass up the middle to Cam Johnson.
It only took the Vanderbilt offense three plays and 1:19 to go 87 yards, cutting the Mizzou lead to 10-7 with 3:21 left in the first quarter. The shift in momentum was palpable, and the Commodores would go on to take a 14-10 lead in the second quarter.
Bold calls make the difference
Mizzou coach Eliah Drinkwitz elected for a gutsy play at the end of the first half and it paid off.
After Vanderbilt failed on a fake field goal, Mizzou got the ball back with time winding down in the second quarter. The Tigers advanced to the Vanderbilt 45 and called timeout with 4 seconds remaining.
Drinkwitz was not settling for the very long field goal.
With excellent protection giving him enough time to drop back, Bazelak threw up a rocket towards the end zone, where a crowd of Missouri and Vanderbilt players were waiting. Wide receiver Keke Chism leapt into the air and caught the football over the helmets of multiple defenders, giving the Tigers a crucial touchdown to regain the lead.
Mizzou entered halftime up 17-14 on the Commodores, with momentum back in its favor.
Drinkwitz made another key call out of a timeout in the third quarter.
Instead of kicking a field goal, he had Mizzou go for it on fourth-and-2 at the Vandy 34. Bazelak found a wide open Tauskie Dove for 19 yards to pick up the first down and more. On the following play, running back Tyler Badie ran 15 yards into the end zone, extending the Tigers’ lead to 24-14 with 5:28 left in the period.
No remedy for the run defense
If you’ve been paying any attention to Mizzou this season, you know the run defense is bad. Like really bad.
But perhaps against Vanderbilt, a team averaging 99.8 rushing yards per game (121st in the FBS), it would be a different story. Not to mention, the Commodores starting running back, Re’Mahn Davis, and leading rusher on the year, Rocko Griffin, were out. Think again.
The Commodores had 258 rushing yards in the game, averaging 7.0 yards per carry.
Wright, the backup quarterback for Vanderbilt, torched the Mizzou defense with his feet. He broke free for two huge runs of 69 yards and 70 yards, going untouched by the Tigers, to set up the Commodores for two key touchdowns. The sophomore finished the game with 152 rushing yards on 14 carries, along with 122 passing yards and three touchdowns.
Bazelak goes down
The Tigers’ starting quarterback left the game with an injury in the fourth quarter.
Bazelak was stumbling and holding his hip after taking a hit on the previous play, when he fell to the ground with 6:16 left. He was attended by trainers and managed to walk off the field himself.
Drinkwitz put Tyler Macon in under center over Brady Cook on third-and-14. The true freshman rushed for six yards, putting Mizzou in more comfortable range for kicker Harrison Mevis.
Mevis then nailed a 52-yard field goal to extend the Missouri lead to 30-21 with 5:59 remaining in the contest.
Later in the fourth quarter, after a 73-yard dash from Tyler Badie, Macon’s 2-yard touchdown run gave Mizzou a 37-28 lead with 2:29 left.
Tyler Badie, come through
The Mizzou offense has been the Tyler Badie show all season, and that continued Saturday afternoon.
The star running back finished with an astonishing career-high 254 yards and two rushing touchdowns. And he did it on just 31 attempts, averaging 8.2 yards per carry.
Badie also recorded eight receptions for 40 yards in the victory.
