Ten minutes into Missouri’s matchup against South Carolina, the 44,092 Missouri fans inside Faurot Field likely experienced deja vu — and not the pleasant variety. The Tigers, who had gotten off to slow starts in both of their previous home SEC contests, being outscored a combined 42-3 in the first quarter by both Tennessee and Texas A&M, appeared destined for another early two-score deficit.
Quarterback Connor Bazelak, back in his starting spot after missing last week’s game at Georgia due to an injured hamstring, showed some of the same ball security issues that have plagued him this season, throwing an interception on Missouri’s first possession. That led to a South Carolina touchdown. The Tigers then went three-and-out on their second possession, which elicited some boos from the home fans. A shanked Grant McKinniss punt gave South Carolina good field position, and the Gamecocks advanced the ball inside the Missouri 20-yard line.
Then, on second down and eight, South Carolina quarterback Jason Brown handed the ball to tailback Marshawn Lloyd. Missouri defensive end Isaiah McGuire knifed into the backfield and arrived at the same time as the handoff. As he tackled Lloyd, McGuire ripped the ball out of his grip, forcing and recovering a fumble in one motion.
“I don't know how many times I've seen somebody make a tackle and a fumble in the same play,” Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz said of the play. “I mean, it was pretty impressive.”
The takeaway provided a much-needed jolt of adrenaline to the Missouri sideline. The Tiger offense responded by marching 79 yards in 12 plays, the drive capped by a two-yard touchdown pass from Bazelak to tight end Daniel Parker Jr. After the game, several players said McGuire’s strip of Lloyd served as a momentum shift that changed the complexion of the game.
“I could see from the sideline, it definitely gave an energy boost,” McGuire said. “I’m glad I could help serve my team in that way, so we could get momentum.”
Missouri’s much-maligned defense would come up with several more momentous plays that helped the Tigers build a 17-point fourth quarter lead. Even though two fourth-quarter turnovers allowed South Carolina to pull within a field goal, the cushion proved to be enough for Missouri to improve to 5-5 on the season with a 31-28 win.
“They held their side of the ball down,” Drinkwitz said of the defense. “I mean, every time I looked up the quarterback was scrambling one way or the other. Got negated on some big plays with some penalties that we’ve got to clean up. But really proud of the way they performed.”
For much of the season, Missouri’s defense has been gashed on the ground. The Tigers entered Saturday having allowed an average of 271 rushing yards per game, second-worst in the country. That figured to be a point of emphasis against a South Carolina team that racked up 284 yards on the ground in its 40-17 beatdown of Florida last week.
For the second week in a row, Missouri’s defensive front held its own at the point of attack and slowed down the run. South Carolina mustered just 57 rushing yards on 35 carries (105 rushing yards after adjusting for sacks). Drinkwitz complimented starting linebackers Blaze Alldredge and Chad Bailey for their contributions.
“I think our linebackers are playing downhill and fit gaps really well,” he said. “I think we're being more structurally sound with how we play the running game and keeping contain and leverage, and I think we’re tackling better.”
Bottling up the ground game put South Carolina in frequent obvious passing situations, which allowed Missouri’s pass-rushers to tee off. The Tigers sacked Brown four times and hurried him seven. McGuire recorded a pair of sacks to go along with his fumble.
“It helps everyone,” defensive end Trajan Jeffcoat said of stopping the run. “All of us getting after the quarterback, getting the hurries, getting the tackles for loss. It definitely put us in a great positon as a defense.”
For a while, it looked like South Carolina would be able to survive without its running game. The Gamecocks converted four different third downs on a scoring drive in the second quarter, all through the air. And the Tiger defense had a series of near-misses. Safety Martez Manuel got to Brown on a safety blitz in the first half and delivered a big hit, but Brown got the pass away for an incompletion. Missouri appeared to force a South Carolina punt from its own end zone in the third quarter, but an illegal hands to the face penalty on third down gifted the Gamecocks a first down. The Tigers also had two interceptions negated by flags. Kris Abrams-Draine picked off Brown for a second time in the first half, but the play got wiped away due to a holding call on Akayleb Evans. In the third quarter, Evans appeared to have a pick but got called for holding again. The penalty visibly upset Drinkwitz, who gave the officials an earful on the sideline.
But on the following snap, the Tiger defense finally broke through. Manuel came unblocked on another blitz, as South Carolina tried to set up a screen pass. This time, he got to Brown and jarred the ball free. Jeffcoat, a Columbia, South Carolina native, fell on the ball in the back of the end zone. For the second time this season, Missouri lived up to defensive coordinator Steve Wilks’ mantra of “Score on D.” Jeffcoat described it as a “hella fine play.”
“It was really big,” said Manuel. “I take a lot of pride in playing for Mizzou and playing for the city of Columbia, just because I was on the hill just a couple of years ago watching the game. It just really means a lot, it’s just a dream come true to be able to make plays like that. And this week in the game plan, I didn’t have a lot of blitzes drawn up, so for me to capitalize on the few that I had was pretty big, in my opinion.”
Like the team as a whole, Missouri’s defense wasn’t perfect. The unit couldn’t keep South Carolina out of the end zone after a pair of turnovers in the fourth quarter, which made the final 4:30 of the game uncomfortable.
But the unit continued to show progress and did enough to put the team in position to pull out a much-needed victory. Afterward, Drinkwitz and his players repeatedly said that needing just one more win to achieve bowl eligibility will serve as a major source of motivation.
“We are still an incomplete team,” Drinkwitz said. “So to find a way to win these games is really big, and put us in a position in these last two games to find a way to go to a bowl game.”
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