With much riding on outcome, Missouri rallies to beat Texas A&M 34-27

Missouri’s offense totaled 308 yards, including 202 yards on the ground.

And that was only the third quarter of a 34-27 victory against Texas A&M, whose struggling defense was down two starters on the line and had no answers for a suddenly surging Tigers attack.

Missouri — which racked up season-highs in total offense (587 yards), rushing yards (335) and yards per play (6.6) — rode Russell Hansbrough, who finished with 20 carries for a career-high 199 yards and two touchdowns, to its third win in four games at A&M since 2010.

“I think that’s the best we’ve played overall as an offense this year,” MU offensive coordinator Josh Henson said. “Obviously, if you look at the numbers. We talked this week about playing our best game, because we were going to need that to contribute to a team victory. I don’t think we played perfect, but obviously we played better.”

The Tigers, 8-2 overall and 5-1 in the Southeastern Conference, hadn’t topped 400 total yards since a Sept. 20 loss against Indiana (503), but had 385 and 320 yards in wins against Vanderbilt and Kentucky before last week’s bye.

Before that, Missouri’s offense had bottomed out with 147 yards in shutout loss against Georgia and 119 yards — an all-time low under coach Gary Pinkel — in a win at Florida.

“I don’t know if relief’s the right word, but there’s a lot of joy,” Henson said. “I’m happy to see us play like this. Obviously, the challenge is to come back and do it these next two weeks. We’ve got two tough games coming up.”

As well as the offense played, it was a stop by the defense on fourth and 1 at the MU 2 with 2:47 remaining that clinched the win.

A&M quarterback Kyle Allen tried a throwback screen to senior tight end Cameron Clear, but Missouri seniors Matt Hoch, Duron Singleton and Braylon Webb, who sat out the first half after a targeting ejection last week, converged and smothered Clear for a 1-yard loss.

“We lined up in our base alignment,” said defensive end Shane Ray, who added another sack to his single-season record (13) and finished with two tackles for a loss. “We weren’t expecting a screen, but we had a lot of guys just make a play.”

It was the last gasp for A&M, 7-4 overall and 3-4 in the SEC, which announced before the game that freshman defensive end Myles Garrett and senior defensive tackle Ivan Robinson were unavailable due to injury.

The defensive stand also preserved Missouri’s hopes for a return to the SEC Championship Game on Dec. 6 in Atlanta.

The Tigers must win at Tennessee next weekend and against Arkansas on the Friday after Thanksgiving to represent the SEC East in the conference title game.

Trailing 13-6 at halftime, Missouri’s offense stirred to life in the third quarter.

Sophomore quarterback Maty Mauk opened the second half by completing four of five passes for 42 yards, including a 16-yard, back-shoulder fade to senior Darius White for a touchdown, on a 77-yard march.

White finished with a career-high six catches for 55 yards after missing four of MU’s last five games because of groin injuries.

A&M immediately answered, retaking the lead on a 57-yard catch-and-run by sophomore Josh Reynolds, who leads the SEC with an Aggies’ single-season record of 12 touchdowns.

It was all MU from there as Hansbrough and company chewed up and spit out A&M’s defense on the ground.

Hansbrough knotted the game again with a 49-yard touchdown, then put Missouri in front to stay with a 45-yard touchdown after the maroon sea known as the Aggies’ defense parted from blocks by junior center Evan Boehm and junior right guard Connor McGovern.

“I knew Russ was going to have a great game,” said Mauk, who completed 23 of 40 passes for 252 yards. “All week, he practiced well. He’s coming back to his home state and he wanted to put on a show. That’s what he did.”

Late in the third quarter, the Tigers’ lead ballooned to 34-20 on freshman Ish Witter’s first career touchdown, a 16-yard run around left end.

The Aggies countered in the fourth quarter, cutting the deficit in half on Allen’s 4-yard touchdown pass to senior Malcolme Kennedy.

A&M scored the only touchdown of the first half two plays after freshman Eric Beisel’s roughing-the-kicker penalty on a punt extended a drive when Reynolds tight-roped down the sideline on a 24-yard touchdown pass from Allen.

A&M pushed its lead to 13-6 at halftime when Mauk’s lone interception led to senior Josh Lambo’s 31-yard field goal as the first half expired.

Before that, the Tigers and Aggies traded field goals — Missouri junior Andrew Baggett’s 38-yarder and Lambo’s game-tying 40-yarder — during the opening 8 minutes.

This story was originally published November 15, 2014 at 8:26 PM with the headline "With much riding on outcome, Missouri rallies to beat Texas A&M 34-27."