The Tigers looked lifeless, deflated and unable to get more than a handful of yards on an offensive drive.

Then Brady Cook came back out of the tunnel.

Cook brought Missouri back from down 17-6 with 31 seconds left in the third quarter against Auburn to win 21-17, extending the Black and Gold Tigers’ Homecoming winning streak to eight games on Saturday at Faurot Field.

“For all the criticism that young man takes, 12 (Cook) sure would die on the field for anybody,” Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz said as he choked back tears. “I mean, for him to be out there and put his body on the line for us is incredible and ought to be inspiring for anybody that watched it today.”

Cook had started the game with successful plays on the opening drive, keeping a quarterback draw up the middle to convert a third down and finding Brett Norfleet for a 16-yard pass to get to the Missouri 40. But on a scramble up the middle trying to escape pressure, his ankle was rolled on by a defender.

“Pretty classic hip-drop tackle,” Cook said. “I think you can see it on the video and I just saw a video of it. That really explains it. It’s a right-ankle thing.”

Four plays later, Cook booted to his right and collapsed to the turf untouched. He left the field with more than 9 minutes left in the first quarter and went to the hospital on campus. He would not return until near the end of the third quarter.

“They took him to the hospital to MRI the ankle,” Drinkwitz said. “... He told the team that while he was in the hospital he realized, ‘I only have two and a half games left at Faurot Field, there’s no way I’m spending it here in this hospital.’”

In his absence, Drew Pyne set up a 51-yard Blake Craig field goal on the opening drive to put the Tigers in front.

Missouri led 3-0 with 8:24 left in the first, then the Missouri defense was the side doing most of the work.

The Tiger defense forced two three-and-outs on the first two Auburn drives, but the visiting Tigers were able to put together a long drive on their third attempt.

Quarterback Payton Thorne opened the drive with a 14-yard run, then Jeremiah Cobb added a 10-yard carry two plays later.

Auburn kept driving and made it to the Missouri 14, but the Missouri defense was able to force an incomplete pass on third-and-5, with the help of a quarterback hurry by Eddie Kelly, to force a 32-yard field goal from Towns McGough. The game was tied at 3 with 11:12 left before halftime.

And that’s where it remained through the rest of the first half as both teams struggled to put together anything offensively.

“Crazy wasn’t it?” Kelly said. “Even with Brady going down, we believe in Drew. … But we had to step it up, had to make more plays as the D-line. You gotta cause havoc and that’s what we did.”

Auburn received the kick to open the second half and Thorne got to work, completing passes of 9 and 7 yards, then running up the middle for a gain of 9, but a massive hit from Joseph Charleston knocked Thorne out.

It looked as if both teams would be stuck with their backups.

But after one play, Thorne returned and was able to find Cam Coleman with a deep pass down the visiting sideline for a 47-yard touchdown as the coverage bust issue that plagued Missouri in Weeks 3 and 4 returned for another play.

Missouri’s offense went three-and-out, unable to answer as short passes fell incomplete off target.

The Missouri defense then forced a three-and-out of its own, pushing Auburn’s offense backward two yards on three plays, but on the ensuing punt, Luther Burden tried to make something out of nothing to bring a spark to the team and was hit the instant the ball touched his hands. The ball flew free from Burden and rolled into the end zone where Auburn was able to jump on it to go up 17-3 with 11:08 left.

With how the Missouri offense had played without Cook, the lead seemed insurmountable.

But Pyne was able to lead a response, connecting with Burden for passes of 4 and 5 yards, while Nate Noel and Marcus Carroll added runs of 6 and 7 to get Missouri into Auburn territory.

Carroll added a 20-yard run to get the Tigers to the Auburn 23 and they would end up kicking a field goal from the 21. Craig made the 38-yarder, making him 2-of-4 on the day after two first-half misses.

“I want to say how proud I am of Drew Pyne,” Drinkwitz said. “Drew came in in a very tough situation and led us down for that field goal. That was the difference in us winning.”

Cook came charging out of the tunnel after the Carroll 20-yard run and started warming up.

Auburn was able to put together a long drive, going 53 yards on 12 plays to set up a 30-yard field goal attempt, but the kick went wide left and Missouri regained the ball at its own 20.

Then Cook came back on the field.

Cheers rained down and the sideline became visibly more energized as Cook jogged onto the turf and he didn’t make the fans wait long to get even louder.

He threw a deep pass to an open Burden on his first play back, which fell incomplete when an Auburn safety was able to run in the way just enough for the pass to hit his helmet.

An incompletion on second down had Missouri at third-and-10, then Cook found Mookie Cooper open near the 37 and Cooper sprinted past his initial defender, slipped a tackle and worked his way back toward the home sideline for a 78-yard catch-and-run.

As the clock expired on the third quarter, the stadium had come back to life.

Carroll took the first play of the fourth quarter the rest of the way for a 2-yard touchdown, then Cook kept the two-point conversion, faking a pitch and running directly at multiple defenders, to cut the Auburn lead to 17-14 with 14:57 left to play.

“It was so special going out the first drive back and listening to the crowd,” Cook said. “That gave everybody juice.”

The Missouri defense forced punts on the next three Auburn possessions, but Missouri’s offense was unable to catch the same fire it had on Cook’s first drive. Leading to Missouri taking possession with 4:26 left to play on its own 5.

“The defense just keeps us in the game. Hat’s off to (defensive coordinator) Corey Batoon and that defensive side of the football,” Drinkwitz said.

Cook scrambled on second-and-10 to set up third-and-1, then Carroll took a carry up the middle for a first down.

Two plays later, the Tigers faced third-and-7 and Cook scrambled to his left to gain 14 yards, running right through the Auburn sideline and jumping into some equipment to stop himself.

Four plays after that, a quick sack pushed the Tigers into a third-and-18 from their own 46. But Cook was able to find Burden on a crossing route over the middle for 13 yards, then found him on an out route in single coverage on the next play for 16 more yards to get a first down at the Auburn 25.

“The fourth-down to Luther, the fourth-and-5, they brought cover-zero,” Cook said. “We had to check protection and it’s something you rep in fall camp, you rep throughout the week, but you don’t always get to talk about it a whole lot. It’s not something that’s in the game plan.”

Missouri faced another third-and-long, this one with 10 yards to gain from the Auburn 25, and once again Cook got the job done, finding Theo Wease for a 10-yard catch along the sideline to get Missouri in the red zone.

Cook hit Mekhi Miller for 6 yards, then Jamal Roberts ran up the middle for 5 more to get to the Auburn 4 with under a minute left.

Roberts took the next carry, too, this time pushing his way into the end zone for the go-ahead score, capping a 17-play, 95-yard drive to save the Missouri season.

“It was an amazing feeling nailing the coffin shut for the game,” Roberts said. “It was just an amazing feeling executing with my guys."

In less than 20 minutes played, Cook completed 11-of-22 of his passes for 194 yards, while Pyne was 10-of-21 passing for 78 yards.

Carroll led the Missouri rushing game with 40 yards and a score on eight carries, while Noel had 32 yards on six attempts and Roberts added 20 yards on five tries.

Burden ended with six catches for 49 yards, while Wease had four receptions for 56 yards and Cooper had two catches for 84 yards.

Thorne was 17-of-29 passing for 176 yards and a touchdown, while Missouri held running back Jarquez Hunter to just 57 yards on 19 tries.

“I couldn’t be prouder of our football team,” Drinkwitz said. “I don’t know how they found a way, but they did. … Mizzou fans, you should be extremely proud. It wasn’t perfect, it wasn’t clean, but man those guys fight together.”

Along with Cook leaving, Noel had to exit for long periods of time. Drinkwitz said he hurt his foot in the first quarter. He remained on the sideline and played one series the rest of the way.

Norfleet also exited for a while, going to the injury tent on the sideline while holding the shoulder that has hampered him throughout the season. He returned a series later and was part of the offense sparingly the rest of the way.

Zion Young also had to leave the game for a short time, but was able to return.

Missouri goes back on the road to face its toughest test of the season as it plays at No. 7 Alabama.

Head on over to the Tiger Walk to discuss the game and so much more.