Mizzou Tigers football loses in final seconds of Armed Forces Bowl to Army, 24-22
The Missouri Tigers had a one-point lead over the Army Black Knights with a little over a minute left, but ultimately lost 24-22 in the Armed Forces Bowl on Wednesday night at Amon G. Carter Stadium.
After Brady Cook led an 83-yard touchdown drive in his first college start, the Tigers defense allowed Army to go 51 yards and kick a 41-yard field goal for the win.
“We thought we had it there,” Tigers kicker Harrison Mevis said. “It just sucks.”
Here are takeaways from the game.
Another bowl game loss
Entering Wednesday night’s game, Missouri hadn’t played in a bowl in each of the last two seasons. Before that, it hadn’t had much success in the postseason in some time, without a win in one since 2015.
With the result against Army, that makes it three bowl losses in a row for the Tigers.
Since the turn of the century, Mizzou is 6-7 in bowl games. The program is 15-19 all-time.
The defeat also means that the Tigers end 2021 with a losing record of 6-7. This marks the first losing season for the program since 2016.
“Our guys gave it everything they had, gave us a chance,” Mizzou coach Eliah Drinkwitz said. “And just came up one play short.”
Cook’s first career start
Cook, a redshirt freshman, got the start at quarterback over Connor Bazelak and marched the Mizzou offense down the field on the opening drive. He scored the first touchdown of the night, rushing 30 yards on an option keep. The Tigers went 72 yards in seven plays to take a 7-0 lead with 11:55 left in the first quarter.
The Tigers scored on every single drive of the first half, but not by way of touchdowns. Harrison Mevis made field goals of 22, 25 and 39 yards on the following three trips. Cook completed 13 of 15 passes for 117 yards and added 61 rushing yards on eight attempts in the half.
“We just didn’t put the ball in the end zone enough,” Cook said. “Can’t win a game like this doing that. You gotta put the ball in the end zone.”
The offense didn’t fare as well in the second half. Army ate up a lot of the clock so there were limited chances. The Tigers couldn’t make the most of what little possession they did have.
On the sole offensive drive of the third quarter, Mizzou turned the ball over on downs. Then in the fourth, right after Army took its first lead of the night, running back Dawson Downing had the ball stripped by safety Marquel Broughton and Army linebacker Andre Carter II recovered.
After a key defensive stop, Cook had a chance to lead the offense on a crucial drive, though it would be a tall task starting from his own 2. He got Mizzou to its 27, but was sacked on third-and-10.
It seemed as if the game was over, but the defense came up with another stop. Cook and the offense would have one more opportunity.
It may have been Cook’s first start, but it sure didn’t look like it. He was calm and cool under pressure as he led the Tigers on an 83-yard stampede in just 1:33. He completed four passes for over 12 yards, each to a different receiver, followed by a six-yard connection with wide receiver Keke Chism in the end zone. The touchdown gave Mizzou a 22-21 lead with 1:11 left in the game.
The Tigers’ two-point conversion failed. That ended up costing them the game.
Though he couldn’t get the win, Cook finished 27 of 34 passing for 238 yards and a touchdown. He also had 53 rushing yards and a touchdown on nine carries.
“I thought I did some good things. Obviously made some costly mistakes,” Cook said. “I missed the throw when it mattered most.”
How the run defense fared
One of the biggest questions entering this game was how Missouri was going to defend Army’s triple-option offense, which was averaging the second-most rushing yards in the country (286.4 per game).
Mizzou held Army scoreless on its first drive of the game. The Black Knights took seven and a half minutes to get down the field before missing a 43-yard field goal attempt.
With a little under 14 minutes left in the second quarter, Army quarterback Christian Anderson kept the ball, found a wide open hole in the defense and ran 22 yards down the right sideline to give the Black Knights their first score. They wouldn’t score again in the half as Mizzou led 16-7.
Army had 90 rushing yards in the first half and only managed to convert one of five third-down attempts. The Tigers also kept their opponent without the ball for much longer than they’re used to. The Black Knights average the second highest time of possession in the nation, but they had the ball for just under 12 minutes in the first half, compared to over 18 minutes for Mizzou.
To open the second half, Army burned out the clock as it methodically marched down the field. The Mizzou defense allowed its opponent to go 75 yards in nearly eight and a half minutes, eating up most of the third quarter. Army running back Jakobi Buchanan eventually scored on a 10-yard rush, trimming the Tigers’ lead to 16-14. Pretty much every play on the drive was a run.
Then, late in the game, the defense allowed Army to easily gain 51 yards and kick the game-winning field goal.
The Black Knights ended the game with 211 rushing yards on 55 attempts.
“I thought they played I mean really as well as I could have hoped considering [we were] shorthanded as we were and all the different things,” Drinkwitz said of the defense. “Obviously we wish we could have had a different result on that last drive, but I thought they played their butt off.”
Fourth-down woes
Missouri couldn’t stop Army on fourth down.
Coach Jeff Monken and the Black Knights went for it five times, converting each fourth down try.
“At the end of the day, we got to grit up a little bit more,” linebacker Blaze Alldredge said. “A lot of it I think just came down to some one on ones that we lost. We let up too many leaky yards and too many missed tackles.”
The most costly of those failed stops came in the fourth quarter. On fourth-and-2 in the red zone, quarterback Tyler Tyhier rolled to his right and threw the ball 14 yards to a wide open receiver, Brandon Walters. The touchdown gave Army its first lead of the game, 21-16 with 10:20 left.
Lots of Tigers missing
Missouri was without a plethora of key players against Army.
None of the four players who were named Mizzou’s captains at the start of the season appeared in the game. Center Case Cook and safety Martez Manuel were both out with injuries, quarterback Connor Bazelak was replaced under center by Brady Cook and running back Tyler Badie opted out to prepare for the NFL Draft, at the suggestion of coaches.
Starting cornerback Akayleb Evans also opted out. Additionally, the Tigers were without the bulk of their tight end group, as starter Daniel Parker Jr. and Messiah Swinson transferred and Niko Hea was out with an undisclosed injury. Another frequent starter, Akial Byers, was out on the defensive line, as were offensive linemen Bobby Lawrence and Zeke Powell. Defensive lineman Kobie Whiteside was out as well, in sweatpants before the game, though he wasn’t on the injury report released earlier in the week.
The Tigers entered the game with a depleted secondary, which saw several injuries throughout the season, and it continued to take hits throughout the night. Both Jaylon Carlies and Allie Green IV were both injured in the first half and didn’t return.
Safety Shawn Robinson started after missing the last five games, but got injured in the first half. He came back in second, but Jaylon Carlies and Allie Green IV, who were also in the first, didn’t return. Some unusual appearances at the position ensued with their injuries, including linebacker Devyn Nicholson, freshman safety Tyler Hibbler and walk-on running back Stephen Benson.
This story was originally published December 22, 2021 at 10:31 PM.
