Finally pushed, Missouri finds an answer
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It wasn’t just that Missouri hadn’t lost a game since the season opener against Wyoming. It was that the Tigers hadn’t even come close. Every week, Barry Odom would tell his team they were going to face adversity, they were going to be in a game in the fourth quarter. And then four games in a row, the Tigers went out and blew the opposition off the field.
Over its last four games, Missouri had outscored the opposition 127-14 in the first half. Minus a couple of semi-stressful series against South Carolina prior to Ronnell Perkins’ 100-yard interception return, the third and fourth quarters had been nothing more than a rush to see how fast the Tigers could get the clock to triple zero.
“We spent a lot of time talking about that this week,” Odom said. “Our past games, they’ve kind of been over and we’ve just been trying to run the clock out in the second half. I’ll take that anytime we can get it, but we also know the truth of what it’s going to take to win down the stretch.”
Odom said he knew it was coming. He said he knew it was coming this week. To be fair, the Missouri coach says that every week. But given the explosive nature of the Ole Miss offense, Odom said he wasn’t surprised Mizzou gave up 27 points and found itself needing to fight a little bit in the second half.
“Had to win it in the fourth. Anticipated that happening as we went into the week,” he said. “Proud of our team on the resolve and the resiliency and the toughness and the grit and all the things that we continue to try to build this program on. I saw it tonight.”
The best news coming out of Saturday’s 38-27 win over Ole Miss is that it was a win. But equally as good might be that it was a win that wasn’t easy. After a goal line stand on the Rebels’ final series of the first half sent the Tigers to the locker room with a 12-7 lead, Missouri scored on three straight possessions to push the lead to 21 points. It looked like it was going to be another fourth quarter full of handoffs to backup running backs.
Except Ole Miss woke up.
The Rebels scored to make it 28-14. Missouri answered with a touchdown. The Rebels scored to make it 35-21 and Kelly Bryant threw an interception at his own 46-yard line. Taking its turn at answering the bell, the defense got a turnover on downs. Bryant took the Tigers 40 yards in seven plays for a field goal that made it a three-score game and Ole Miss never really had a chance to make it interesting again.
“We didn’t really play the way we wanted to, but we knew there was going to be adversity somewhere along the line in a game,” the quarterback said. “I threw the interception, defense come out and get a stop. It’s good. We played good complementary football tonight.”
“We haven’t really done that for a minute,” safety Joshuah Bledsoe said. “We had our back against the wall a couple times, but we stuck it out and dealt with it and we came out with the win."
Missouri has said it is a resilient team. But every team says that. The Tigers had somewhat proven it with four straight wins after the 37-31 thud of an opener. But as far as adversity on the field, Mizzou really hadn’t faced any in more than a month. They did on Saturday and they answered the bell.
“You kind of got to be in that situation to be able to see how you’re going to respond,” wide receiver Johnathon Johnson said. “We always go through the week saying if adversity hits we’ve always got to try to overcome it and that’s what we’ve been trying to do.”
No player more exemplified the bounce back ability on this night than Johnson. He put the Tigers in a hole with a muffed punt that set Ole Miss up on a short field for its lone first half touchdown. But he also caught six first half passes for 73 yards.
“I knew I messed up,” Johnson said. “I knew I probably wouldn’t be playing punt returner for the rest of the game so I knew I needed to step up in other ways to get our offense going.”
In the second half, Johnson mistakenly downed a kickoff at his own two-yard line thinking he could fair catch a ball that had already hit the ground. But it was the Missouri senior who had two first down catches for a combined 37 yards that allowed the Tigers to run the final 5:51 off the clock and put their fifth straight win on ice.
"He was special tonight,” Bryant said. “That’s just who he is. He made a bunch of great grabs downfield.”
“His toughness, his resolve to be able to bounce back,” Odom said. “Big time performance. He had a huge performance.
“He’s made a lot of plays for Mizzou over the years and tonight was one of his biggest nights.”
Missouri had been dominant for a month. On Saturday, it wasn’t really dominant and it definitely wasn’t perfect. But it won again. Now the Tigers hit the road for the first time since the last day of August to face a Vanderbilt team that was throttled 34-10 by UNLV on Saturday. And, just like he has every other week, Odom had a message for his team.
“We’ll be in a fourth quarter game next week would be my guess,” he said.
After Saturday, they have some confidence they’ll be able to respond if he’s right.