No. 21 Missouri hangs on for 27-20 win over Arkansas State

Missouri was on the ropes at halftime against Arkansas State, which benefited from a couple first-half interceptions and took a lead into the locker room on a circus touchdown with 8 seconds remaining.

The No. 21 Tigers are the highest-ranked team ever to play in Jonesboro and the upset-hungry Red Wolves’ crowd of 29,143 was extra fired up with the debut of a $25 million offseason renovation to Centennial Bank Stadium.

But two touchdowns by junior quarterback Maty Mauk and another stellar performance by Missouri’s defense spoiled the party in the second half as coach Gary Pinkel’s squad rallied for a 27-20 victory.

“I’m very proud of our players,” Pinkel said. “We could be sitting here talking about a loss, but we found a way to win the game. That’s good. The bad news is we’re not playing as good as we need to play.”

Mauk passed Blaine Gabbert for fourth on the Tigers’ all-time list with two third-quarter passing touchdowns, a game-tying 32-yard BB to senior receiver Wesley Leftwich and the go-ahead 21-yard strike to junior tight end Sean Culkin.

The defense did the rest, allowing only 217 total yards and racking up 15 tackles for a loss on 75 snaps against an Arkansas State offense that topped 400 yards last week at Southern California.

Senior linebacker Kentrell Brothers backed up his career-high 16 tackles in the season opener against Southeast Missouri with another 16-tackle performance.

He also added an interception that led to senior Andrew Baggett’s 41-yard field goal midway through the fourth quarter and iced the game with his second pick at the 1-minute, 17-second mark.

“He had a few missed tackles,” Pinkel deadpanned. “I was kidding around with him about that a little bit, but a couple big plays. … He’s just playing really well, but the good news is he can do even better.”

Sophomore defensive end Charles Harris also showed why he received so much offseason hype, finishing with six tackles, including 4 1/2 for a loss, and two sacks. The sacks and tackles for a loss were career highs.

Meanwhile, junior linebacker Michael Scherer had a career-best three tackles for a loss and finished with 10 total tackles for a defense that only allowed 37 yards on 29 plays in the second half.

Arkansas State, 0-2, finished with 19 carries for minus-1 yards and went four of 10 for 38 yards passing with two interceptions after intermission.

“We’ve got to help those guys out,” said Mauk, who was 16 of 36 for 148 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions. “How they’re stopping opposing teams, if we’re scoring points, we’re not going to get beat. If we can get this consistency going, I feel real good about it.”

Missouri’s offense only totaled 282 yards, including just 106 in the first half.

“We’re just screaming for consistency on offense,” Pinkel said. “That’s what we’re doing. We’re screaming for it. It’s blocking better, it’s solving our running back problem … and playing catch. It’s a combination of all those things. We’re stopping ourselves a lot.”

Senior running back Russell Hansbrough played, but only on a very limited basis and finished with five carries for 15 yards.

The Tigers’ backup running back, sophomore Ish Witter, had 44 yards on 10 carries, but also was sidelined after he “got dinged” during the second half, Pinkel said.

“We’ve got some severe problems there,” Pinkel said. “We leaned on Maty a lot and he pulled through.”

Mauk had 10 carries for 75 yards in winning the quarterback battle with the Red Wolves’ Fredi Knighten, who was 11 of 23 for 97 yards with two touchdowns and an interception before he was knocked from the game with a groin injury.

Mauk and freshman Drew Lock threw first-half interceptions on back-to-back offensive snaps for Missouri, which trailed 17-10 at the break.

Mauk’s was eerily similar to the interception he threw against Southeast Missouri, another underthrown lob deep down the right sideline into double coverage.

Safety Bo Sentimore returned the interception 45 yards to the MU 7-yard line, setting up Knighten’s first touchdown senior receiver Tres Houston.

Doing his best Odell Beckham impression, Houston snared Knighten’s high pass with a one-handed, overhead grab that left senior cornerback Kenya Dennis stunned.

Lock, a true freshman quarterback from Lee’s Summit, came in for the next series after the Wolves’ surprise onside kick failed.

After a false start, Lock’s pass was tipped by redshirt freshman Thomas Richard and intercepted by junior safety Chris Humes.

It was Lock’s only play in the game.

That led to an Arkansas State field goal and a 10-3 lead, but Knighten returned the favor with a lame duck that Missouri cornerback John Gibson intercepted and returned to the 11-yard line.

Mauk, led the Tigers with 75 yards rushing on 10 carries, knotted the proceedings with an 11-yard fade to sophomore Nate Brown for the game-tying touchdown, but the Wolves answered in impressive fashion.

Knighten led a 12-play, 63-yard drive and put Arkansas State back in front with a 5-yard touchdown to Houston, who dotted the back of the end zone with his toes for his second circus touchdown catch.

The play was initially ruled out of bounds, but replays showed Houston had control and got both feet down and the Wolves retook the lead 17-10 with 8 seconds remaining before halftime.

This story was originally published September 12, 2015 at 8:21 PM with the headline "No. 21 Missouri hangs on for 27-20 win over Arkansas State."