How a late roughing penalty saved Kentucky and angered and confused the Missouri Tigers
.JPG "Kentucky wide receiver Barion Brown runs past Missouri defensive back Kris Abrams-Draine during Saturday’s game in Columbia, Mo.")
Missouri got the break it desperately needed when a long snap sailed over the head of Kentucky punter Colin Goodfellow with about 2 1/2 minutes remaining in Saturday’s game at Faurot Field.
The Tigers, trailing 21-17, would take possession around the 30-yard line after Goodfellow made a head’s-up play to retrieve the bouncing ball, turn and boot the kick out of bounds.
But what Mizzou got instead was a penalty flag, along with anger and confusion from its sideline.
The call? Roughing the kicker on Will Norris, who had made a beeline to Goodfellow when he saw the bad snap. Norris lunged and made the tackle just after the ball left Goodfellow’s foot.
An illegal tackle, it turned out.
Kentucky maintained possession with the automatic first down and ran out the clock for the SEC victory.
The explanation given to Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz from the crew led by referee Steve Marlowe was that Goodfellow was still in the tackle box and remained a protected punter when he picked up the ball and punted.
But questions remained.
“How a guy can still be a protected punter 50 yards down the field and how our guy is supposed to know he can’t tackle him is beyond me,” Drinkwitz said. “I’m sure I’ll get an explanation, and I’m sure it will defend (the officials), and we’ll go from there.”
But no doubt about this thought: “They were rewarded for a huge mistake,” Drinkwitz said of the Wildcats.
Goodfellow was injured and carted off the field knowing his alert play, getting to the ball and getting off the kick, likely saved he game. Had Norris not attempted to make the tackle, Missouri, which had scored touchdowns on two of its previous three drives, would have had the ball near the red zone.
What the Tigers wanted to know is how a defender bearing down on the punter who has chased a bad snap is supposed to determine what the punter’s intention is.
If Goodfellow had not attempted to punt it, Norris’s tackle would have given Missouri the ball inside the 5. Was Norris supposed to make that decision closing in at full speed a step or two away?
Kentucky coach Mark Stoops praised Goodfellow for his quick thinking and execution.
“Really fortunate by us,” Stoops said. “Not a good snap. Not a good play. And then he made a great individual play. Unfortunately for him, he is hurt bad.
“The other part of that that we are fortunate on, is that the snap stayed in the tackle box. Because if he exits the tackle box and runs, you are no longer protected, so a couple of things fell our way on that.”
After the game, Missouri teammates consoled Norris in the locker room.
“We told him to keep his head up,” safety Jaylon Carlies said. “Nobody believes he did anything wrong. Everybody on the team probably would do what Will did in that situation.
“That’s a free ball, at the end of the day. It’s on the ground, just a race to it. We trying to tackle him. We don’t know what he’s deciding to do with it,”
Missouri may have been unlucky in the moment, but other non-controversial failures played a bigger role in the Tigers’ fifth loss in nine games.
They were 2 of 13 on third downs, and their 232 total yards gained were their fewest in an SEC game. An unforced fumble by MU quarterback Brady Cook cost the Tigers one possession, as did the offense’s failure to get push on Cook’s fourth-and-1 keeper.
Poor execution on a kickoff also gave Kentucky life. Cook’s tough 20-yard touchdown run and two-point conversation pass gave the Tigers a 17-14 lead with 8:07 remaining, allowing them to overcome a 14-3 deficit.
But Kentucky fell on a squib kickoff at the Wildcats’ 42, setting up a short-field touchdown drive capped by Will Levis’ second TD pass of the day, on a third-down throw to freshman receiver Dane Key.
Missouri had been on a two-game winning streak. Earlier in the week, defensive coordinator Blake Baker had received a contract extension. And before Saturday’s game, the school announced Drinkwitz’s contract was being extended, too.
Kentucky had lost three of four and fallen out of the polls. Momentum seemed to be siding with the Tigers, who appeared to catch a big break in the final minutes.
Only to be penalized.
“This one’s a little heartbreaking,” Carlies said.