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Missouri unable to overcome slow start in loss to Texas A&M

By Anderson Kimball [email protected]

The Texas A&M Aggies runs for more than 280 yards Saturday to defeat the Missouri Tigers 35-14 at Faurot Field.

COLUMBIA — Missouri’s offense showed some life late and the defense was able to make some stops, but it was too little, too late.

A 21-point hole the team put itself in after 15 minutes was too much to overcome in the Tigers’ 35-14 loss Saturday to No. 23 Texas A&M at Faurot Field.

“Overall just didn’t play well enough in really any of the three phases,” Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz said. “Before we win a championship we’ve gotta keep from beating ourselves and we weren’t able to do that today.”

The Aggies were the latest team to have success against a porous Tiger run defense with Isaiah Spiller (20 carries for 168 yards) and Devon Achane (16 for 124) each going for more than 100 yards.

“I mean it’s the whole team,” Missouri defensive back Jaylon Carlies said. “We all have to do our part. Everybody missed an assignment today. Everybody has to do their part at the end of the day.”

After Ainias Smith caught a 2-yard touchdown pass from Zach Calzada to open the scoring, Spiller and Achane each got scores on the ground that put the Aggies up 21-0 with 2:43 left in the first quarter.

The first Aggies score was set up by a Connor Bazelak interception on the first possession of the game. On a third down, Bazelak threw the ball to Jaylon Jones who returned it deep into MU territory.

That kicked off a horrid start for the offense, which had a pair of interceptions — Antonio Johnson got another pick for the Aggies at the end of the first — and three punts.

“It starts with not turning the ball over in the first quarter and letting them get the 14 points off turnovers,” Drinkwitz said. “That’s where it starts.”

A 32-yard rushing score from Tyler Badie was the extent of the offense in the first half. Badie took a handoff and burst to his left and beat a couple of defenders down the sideline before taking a couple more defenders with him as he barrelled into the end zone.

“It was a great block by (Daniel Parker) I waited to set it up, he kicked out and I just ran right behind him,” Badie said.

The Aggies answered that score by Badie with another touchdown pass from Calzada to Smith, this one from 11 yards out.

After another MU punt, it looked like Texas A&M would put the game to bed with a threescore lead and the ball in the red zone, but Jaylon Carlies got his third interception of the season by undercutting a route to snag a Calzada pass.

That gave the Tigers one last chance to make it a two-score game before the half, but Drinkwitz elected to run the clock out instead, eliciting a chorus of boos that sent the team into the locker room at halftime before Texas A&M got the ball to start the second half.

“I was trying to make sure that they didn’t get the ball back,” Drinkwitz said. “Because they had all three of their timeouts and they got the ball to start the second half. … If we were to do something and give them the ball back and then get a chance to score then they would start with it in the second half and the game would be over.”

The defense, a unit that was leaky at times but put together a much better outing than the debacle against Tennessee two weeks ago, got its fourth stop in five possessions to start the second half.

“I just felt like the way we ended the first half,” Carlies said. “Ending on a defensive stop, I felt like that brought energy into the locker room heading out to the second half to come out and play.”

Then MU put together a 14-play, 97-yard drive with multiple connections from Bazelak to Tauskie Dove before Dominic Lovett scored on a motion sweep from seven yards out to cut the lead to 28-14 and put the Tigers back in the game.

Texas A&M got back up three scores when a 1-yard score by Achane ended a 12-play 75-yard drive with 2:33 left in the third.

The next two Missouri drives got into Texas A&M territory, but a Badie rush for a loss on third-and-9 and an intentional grounding call on Bazelak on a third-and-9 at the Aggie 35-yard line took the Tigers out of field goal range and forced punts near midfield on both drives.

The defense got another stop, but a last-gasp drive by the offense stalled near midfield with Bazelak missing an open receiver on fourth-and-short before the Aggies mercifully ran the clock out.

Bazelak had one of the rougher outings of his career, he finished 29-for-43 passing with 230 yards and the pair of first-quarter picks.

“At the end of the day he’s our quarterback and he’s a leader of this team,” Badie said. “He has to be confident and we have to keep pushing forward and we have to help him as a team and build him up.”

Missouri had a bye week before it travels to Nashville, Tenn., to play Vanderbilt (2-5, 0-3 SEC) in a battle of two winless teams in the conference.

“You’ve got to self-scout who you are and what the problems are,” Drinkwitz said, “We’ve got to recruit, recruit, recruit, and recruit, recruit, recruit, and then we’ve got to get ready for Vanderbilt.”

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2021-10-17T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-10-17T07:00:00.0000000Z

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