How the ranked Missouri Tigers’ road football game at Texas A&M became a disaster
Looking to engineer a road upset of a ranked Southeastern Conference opponent, No. 9 Missouri instead found itself a step behind the No. 25 Aggies of Texas A&M all afternoon on Saturday at Kyle Field.
A string of missed opportunities sealed the Tigers’ fate, a 41-10 blowout loss in which they fell flat and showed few signs of momentum at Kyle Field.
It all started on Missouri’s first drive, when a deep pass from senior quarterback Brady Cook to graduate wideout Theo Wease Jr. drew a penalty flag on fourth-and-2. However, officials converged and waved off the defensive pass interference call, wiping away the drive and the Tigers’ early momentum in an instant.
Later in the quarter, with just under five minutes remaining and the Tigers trailing 10-0, Missouri looked like it had muscled momentum back when Cook found junior wide receiver Luther Burden III down the sideline for a 75-yard touchdown. But then came another flag — this time, an ineligible man downfield penalty on right tackle Armand Membou that negated the would-be six points and stalled Missouri’s drive.
The Tigers’ defense did not have much luck either, though.
“At the end of the day,” defensive tackle Kristian Williams said, “we beat ourselves.”
Texas A&M started quarterback Conner Weigman, who was a game-time decision, and the choice paid off. The redshirt sophomore completed 18 of 22 passes for 276 yards, piloting the offense to seven coring drives, including on each of the first four offensive possessions.
One of the few times Missouri’s defense could have limited the damage from Weigman, running back Le’Veon Moss (12 rushes, 138 yards, three touchdowns) and the Aggies’ offense came four minutes into the second quarter. Tigers cornerback Toriano Pride Jr. dropped a would-be interception from Weigman, a missed opportunity that was followed with Texas A&M marching down the field to take a 24-0 lead at the 6:34 mark of the second quarter.
Under Weigman, the Aggies’ offense was successful on all five of its red-zone visits. A&M also torched a usually sturdy Missouri defense on third downs, converting on 7 of 12.
“This is one loss, and it’s a tough loss, because you’re embarrassed by the performance. I’m embarrassed by the performance,” coach Eli Drinkwitz said. “But it’s just that — it’s one game, and there’s a whole heck of a lot of football left. And it’s going to be up to us to either seek comfort in placing blame or have resolve to get it fixed.”
As Texas A&M raced to a 34-0 advantage, the Aggies’ defense played a key part as well. The Tigers turned the ball over on downs on their first drive and then punted on five of their next six possessions, mustering just 84 total yards of offense in that time.
They finally pieced together a scoring drive late in the third quarter.
With just over five minutes remaining in the third, Cook connected with Wease for a 59-yard touchdown that quieted any noise of a shutout. The completion was the highlight of the day for Cook, who completed 13 of 31 passes for a season-low 186 yards and one touchdown.
The senior signal-caller started the game completing just four of his first 11 pass attempts in the first half, equaling the same number of punts Luke Bauer had for Missouri in that span. Missouri totaled only four first downs the entire first half, one of which came on the first play of the game — a 27-yard completion to Burden, who led the team with seven catches for 82 yards.
“We weren’t able to protect the passer as well as we needed to, obviously, and weren’t ever able to establish a rhythm of the run game,” Drinkwitz said. “When the score got lopsided, we really weren’t able to even try to run the football.”
Despite the multiple-possession deficit, Drinkwitz said postgame he never considered pulling the starters.
“We’re trying to establish some sort of rhythm,” Drinkwitz explained. “I mean, we’re obviously not playing well, and the only way to get better is to play. So, no, I never even considered it.”
With their starters still in, the Tigers did put up points in their only trip to the red zone, which came in the final minutes of the fourth quarter. Redshirt-freshman kicker Blake Craig drilled a 23-yard field goal with less than 10 seconds left in the game.
By then, of course, it was far too late.
Texas A&M controlled possession through a majority of the first half, with over 18 minutes of possession. It made the most of that, totaling 24 points and 305 yards in the half against Missouri’s defense.
A third-down stop by linebacker Corey Flagg Jr. at the Aggies’ 47-yard line with just 15 seconds left in the first half forced the first of three punts of the day for Texas A&M. It didn’t matter much for the Tigers’ fate, though, as Cook was forced to drain the clock with an incomplete pass when the Aggies’ punt pinned Missouri at its own 1-yard line.
The Aggies punctuated their strong first-half showing, which included a trio of 1-yard touchdown runs (two from Amari Daniels and one from Moss), with a 75-yard touchdown run by Moss on the first play of the second half. Moss, who added an 18-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter, split the Tigers’ defense on his second-half-opening score, solidifying the victory for Texas A&M and sending the crowd at Kyle Field into a frenzy.
Missouri had just 254 yards of total offense in the loss.
“We got slapped in the face today,” Wease said. “We’re gonna see how we respond next week.”
The Tigers next hit the road to face UMass at 11 a.m. Saturday in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Copyright 2024 Columbia Missourian
This story was originally published October 5, 2024 at 3:28 PM.