OXFORD, Miss. — No. 13 Missouri began its big-time matchup against No. 9 Ole Miss with perhaps its best opening drive of Southeastern Conference play: a 10-play, 75-yard drive that at one point set the Tigers up for a first-and-goal at the Rebels’ 10-yard line.
A false start penalty—one of three from the Tigers in the afternoon—backed them up 5 yards. A Jamal Roberts rush for no gain, a dropped touchdown from Naeshaun Montgomery and a Donovan Olugbode reception well short of the plane led Missouri to deploy Blake Craig for a 27-yard field goal, which he made to give the Tigers’ a 3-0 lead.
Seven would’ve been ideal, but three had often sufficed for Missouri through its first six games of the season.
When the Tigers next appeared deep in Rebel territory, this time trailing 14-3 with 6:56 remaining in the second quarter on Ole Miss’ 3-yard line, a touchdown looked imminent. Two Xai’Shaun Edwards carries for negative yardage and an incomplete pass to Cayden Lee prompted MU coach Eli Drinkwitz to once again trot out Craig for a chip-shot field goal from 23 yards out.
Drinkwitz tried to play it safe—keep his team within one possession in a rowdy road environment against a dangerous Rebel squad.
Craig, who hadn’t missed from within 30 yards all season, shanked it left of the uprights. Ole Miss marched 80 yards to the end zone immediately after, and Missouri didn’t score again the rest of the game. Ole Miss stomped Missouri 31-3.
"If we make (the field goal), it’s still a one-possession game. If you don’t get it, you’re still in a two-possession game,” Drinkwitz explained. “(I) felt like we worked really hard to get down there, so we needed to just come away with points. Obviously, that was a deflating moment in the game, but I still think it was the right call."
The Tigers’ next seven drives went as follows: punt, punt, turnover on downs, punt, punt, punt, interception. The drive ending in an interception—when the Tigers were already down 28 points with mere minutes left to play—was the only drive of the saga in which they gained 35 or more yards.
“You got to score in the red zone and get everybody settled down, and we were never able to just get settled into the rhythm of the game,” Drinkwitz said. “I thought the defense settled in the third quarter and gave us chances, but offensively, we were just pressing.”
Missouri ended the game six of 17 on third downs with an average distance of 7.8 yards to go and punted more times than it successfully converted a third down. It had seven third downs with 9 or more yards to go but just three within 3 yards.
“When you let a team get a lead like that, obviously you're going to be chasing from behind,” starting center Dominick Giudice said. “I think we've been in a position like that before, and we've been able to show that adversity to pull together.”
Missouri had clawed back from previous early deficits against Kansas and Troy. It nearly capped off a comeback win against then-No. 24 Mississippi State in Starkville and didn’t even come close to starting a comeback against the No. 9 Rebels.
Early deficits and slow starts on the road against ranked conference opponents creates a recipe for disaster—one that needs quite a complete performance to overcome. Missouri didn’t have a complete performance Saturday.
Starting quarterback Austin Simmons finished the contest with zero touchdowns for the first time in his young Missouri career, completing 25 of his 44 passes for 339 yards and an interception. Roberts, who rushed for more than 200 yards in each of his last two outings, tallied a measly 39 in Oxford.
“For me, it can never be frustrating,” Simmons said of the struggling run game. “You just have to adjust. You're not going to have a perfect game all the time. Jamal's rushing for 200. You just have to really just adapt and just control the game.”
Missouri had no control over this game. Ole Miss, on the other hand, did from the get-go.
“When you have success early in games, they have to change what they do, and they lose confidence in certain plays,” Ole Miss coach Pete Golding said of stopping Missouri’s run. “Then you get a double-digit lead and the game changes. I thought we did a good job early versus the stretch running game. Thought we tackled better early, and Missouri changed their gameplan.”
Missouri (5-2, 2-2 SEC) has an opportunity to reset itself throughout its upcoming bye week before facing Arkansas on Oct. 31 in Fayetteville.
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