Goodness gracious great balls of fire.<\/p>\n
Can\u2019t even begin to describe the feeling(s) of that one. Let\u2019s just get to the takeaways.<\/p>\n
1. Is Jordan-Hare haunted?<\/p>\n
If you watched the TV coverage of this game, you\u2019ll probably be sick of that word considering the crew used it a few dozen times in the final quarter of the game.<\/p>\n
But maybe there\u2019s something to it. It\u2019s October, after all.<\/p>\n
Some wild stuff has taken place on The Plains in recent college football history. Mizzou got a front seat view of that in 2022 when Nate Peat\u2026 you know, we don\u2019t need to talk about it.<\/p>\n
And then on Saturday, with the good Tigers in field goal range with the clock running toward zeros, Beau Pribula took a bad sack and then lobbed the next pass 30 yards into the air for Auburn\u2019s CB to sit under, effectively ending regulation and leading to OT. There, both teams managed to miss field goals. And then, in double overtime, Mizzou found a way to make it happen.<\/p>\n
Spooky season indeed. But, you know, the good kind!<\/p>\n
That\u2019s it. That\u2019s the takeaway.<\/p>\n
Two sacks, both in key moments of the game. Lots of naughty words on television.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a winning night right there.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll get to our negative takeaway next, but just a moment to appreciate the effort of the team tonight.<\/p>\n
Winning is hard, and it\u2019s even harder in the SEC. Moreso, it\u2019s hardest on the road. Eli Drinkwitz, as you may have heard, has struggled mightily with that final piece of the puzzle. So when you go to Jordan-Hare and struggle to execute against a flawed but talented Auburn team in front of 80K, it makes it easy to think this game would turn out just like most other road trips.<\/p>\n
But Eli Drinkwitz\u2019s teams, god love \u2018em, don\u2019t quit. And with the standards rising for the Tigers over the past few seasons, these types of games become moments that prove character. When the talent isn\u2019t dictating the momentum and the game is breaking down, which team will have the character to go out and make the play that seals the game?<\/p>\n
Mizzou, specifically Beau Pribula, displayed that character after nearly 4 hours of game on Saturday night. Meanwhile, the other Tigers crumbled.<\/p>\n
Eli Drinkwitz was effusive in his praise for his team right after the game. And it\u2019s easy to understand why. They found a way to win even when they didn\u2019t play particularly well. That\u2019s character.<\/p>\n
4. Offensive regression continues<\/p>\n
Mizzou entered Saturday ranked as the No. 14 offense in the country by SP+. But maybe being hyper-efficient against weak opponents isn\u2019t the best way of measuring the potential of a unit.<\/p>\n
The Tigers weren\u2019t bad against Alabama last weekend, but there were signs that they might have been filling up on junk food for the first few weeks of the season. Ahmad Hardy only managed 52 yards from the backfield and Beau Pribula didn\u2019t quite look ready for the spotlight of a Top 15 matchup. But that\u2019s Alabama, so maybe some struggle should be accounted for?<\/p>\n
Then again, maybe not. Mizzou\u2019s offense was anemic against a strong Auburn front. Ahmad Hardy was crucial in the end zone but largely ineffective outside of it. The offensive line was leaky at its best, porous at its worst. Pribula looked disoriented all night. The play-calling was confusing and strangely conservative.<\/p>\n
So what\u2019s the answer for these struggles? Is it the result of playing two very good defenses? Teams figuring out Ahmad Hardy and Beau Pribula? Whatever it is, the Tigers need to get it figure it out and fast. They travel to Nashville next weekend to face a Commodore offense that can\u2019t stop scoring. They\u2019ll need to find a way to keep up.<\/p>\n
5. \u201cYou just have to survive Auburn\u201d<\/p>\n
Auburn might not be a great team. But they play in a great stadium. With a great fanbase. And an unbelievable atmosphere. They\u2019ve been watching Hugh Freeze ball for the better part of a half-decade and are still selling out home games on the regular. You don\u2019t just walk into Auburn and win, no matter how quality the team you\u2019re going to face is.<\/p>\n
Mizzou went in and was trailing by a score to start the fourth. And they just won. That\u2019s all that matters. It doesn\u2019t matter that they turned it over on the final drive. Doesn\u2019t matter that the offense sputtered. Doesn\u2019t matter that they missed a field goal to win it in OT.<\/p>\n
None of that matters. What matters is that Beau Pribula ran it in for a score in 2OT. What matters is that the defense stopped Auburn from doing the same on the next drive.<\/p>\n
23-17. 0:00 on the clock. That\u2019s what matters.<\/p>\n
As Bill Connelly said on BlueSky right after the game: \u201cYou just have to survive Auburn.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Goodness gracious great balls of fire. Can\u2019t even begin to describe the feeling(s) of that one. Let\u2019s just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236226,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[48551,99],"class_list":["post-236225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-mizzou-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}