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As the seconds ticked away at the end of the first half of Missouri’s game against Ole Miss, the Rebels had two plays to gain one yard and retake the lead. Missouri led 12-7 and had generally looked like the better team to that point with the Rebels’ only points coming after a muffed punt, but with its best offensive drive of the first half, Ole Miss had positioned itself to enter the break with a lead.

The Rebels ended up facing third down and goal from the one-yard line. Quarterback Matt Corral handed the ball to tailback Snoop Connor. Connor ran into a wall of defenders and got stuffed. After a timeout, Ole Miss coach Matt Luke opted to keep his offense on the field and go for the touchdown on fourth down and goal. Connor once again got a handoff.

A sliver of a hole briefly appeared, but then linebacker Nick Bolton filled it. Bolton stood Connor up, then a swarm of his teammates, including fellow linebacker Cameron Wilkins, defensive end Tre Williams and safety Tyree Gillespie, arrived to stymie Connor’s momentum short of the goal line and shift the momentum of the game to Missouri’s sideline.

The play would serve as Ole Miss’ last chance to take the lead. Missouri scored on the first possession of the second half and the Tigers’ lead never dipped beneath two scores for the rest of the game. The Tigers won 38-27.

“It was crucial,” Bolton said of the stop. “It was 12-7 at the time, getting a stop right there, giving our offense momentum. They went ahead and scored two touchdowns. ...Those two plays kind of helped us out and turned the momentum for the football team.”

Head coach Barry Odom, too, called the goal line stand “huge.” He credited the entire defense for contributing to the stop, but specifically highlighted Bolton, who stepped up in the absence of middle linebacker Cale Garrett and led Missouri with 10 total tackles.

“A number of guys that made it happen, but Bolton kind of (made) a one-on-one tackle,” Odom said. “That was obviously huge for the team, having a chance to continue to win the game.”

Bolton deferred some of the credit to defensive coordinator Ryan Walters for calling the right defensive play to counter an inside handoff. Walters perhaps got a clue as to what play Ole Miss would run based on the fact that Corral lined up behind center rather than John Rhys Plumlee, who started the game. Corral showed the better arm of the two Saturday, but Plumlee looked like a much greater threat to keep the ball himself, rushing for 143 yards and two touchdowns in the game.

“They had two tight ends, a running back in the game,” Bolton explained. “We kind of figured they were gonna have a quarterback run or run inside zone and we had a good play call. Coach Walters called a good play call, our defensive line got a good push and me and Cam Wilkins, we just filled our gaps to the best of our abilities.”

Overall, Missouri’s defense didn’t quite live up to its own lofty standards set during the first four games of its five-game homestand. The Tigers entered Saturday No. 2 nationally in both passing defense and total defense. After allowing 297 yards rushing against Wyoming, the defense had held four straight opponents under 100 rushing yards and under two yards per carry.

Ole Miss succeeded in moving the ball, finishing the game with 440 total yards including 204 on the ground. Odom said he wasn’t surprised that the Rebels, who entered Saturday’s game having rushed for at least 200 yards in four of their past five games, did so, but he pointed to the goal line stand as a couple plays that made the difference between winning and losing.

“You never know what play is going to be the difference,” he said. “You can’t tell if it’s going to be play 17 or play 75. … So defensively, we’ve kind of taken the philosophy of just give us a place to stand and we’ll try to do something with it.”

On the offensive side of the ball, Missouri had its best game of the season in the running game, no matter who lined up at tailback. Regular workhorses Larry Rountree III and Tyler Badie each found the end zone, but the run that appeared to most excite the Tiger sideline came with Dawson Downing in the game.

Downing, who played as many, if not more snaps than Rountree and Badie in the second half, found a hole and raced through the line of scrimmage toward the end zone. An Ole Miss defender caught him shortly before the goal line, but as he was being dragged to the turf, Downing extended the ball beyond the goal line. The 54-yard run marked his first career touchdown.

The excitement of Downing’s teammates was visible. Several offensive linemen raced downfield and offered congratulatory hugs and helmet slaps in the end zone. When he made it to the Missouri sideline, Downing got swarmed. He said he was too overwhelmed by the support to realize the officials reviewed the play to make sure he got the ball into the end zone before being tackled.

“I didn’t even realized it was a review, honestly,” Downing said. “Everyone was hitting me on the helmet on the sidelines. I knew I was in, so I was just happy when they signaled it again.”

Odom glowed when discussing Downing in his postgame press conference. He praised Downing’s work ethic and humility, saying Downing is “one of the reasons our program is moving the way it is.” He also said that Downing could continue to see regular playing time as Missouri’s third running back moving forward.

“Throughout the work that he has done, he has earned playing time,” Odom said. “Not just mop-up duty. He’s earned time throughout the game, and he every week continues to get a little bit better. … We need him to keep coming, because he can help us. He runs hard, he runs tough, he’s assignment sound and you know what you’re going to get every day from him.”

Missouri’s first touchdown of the game raised eyebrows before the ball was even snapped. The Tigers lined up with offensive tackle Yasir Durant the second in a group of three receivers split out to the right side of the formation. Tight end Logan Christopherson manned Durant’s usual left tackle spot.

At 6-foot-7, 330 pounds, Durant cut quite a figure in a receiver’s pose. He took a step or two downfield before turning back toward quarterback Kelly Bryant and waving his arms, as if to signal that he was open. Instead of delivering a pass Durant, Bryant threw a screen pass to his left, where Badie got a couple key blocks and raced down the sideline for a 21-yard touchdown.

Durant described himself as Bryant’s check down option on the play, though he eventually admitted that the likelihood of a ball being thrown his way was slim to none.

“It was zero percent chance that I was going to receive a pass,” he said. “But if I was to catch the pass, I was going to score.”

Bryant, too, said he never would have actually thrown a pass to Durant, but having him as a surprise decoy did impact Ole Miss’ defense on the play.

“Since we haven’t done it, you just see a lot of shifts,” he explained. “They’re just trying to figure out who’s covering who, where an eligible receiver is.

“(Durant) picked on me all week, telling him I need to throw him the ball if it’s not there.”

A week ago, Missouri fans held their collective breath and feared the worst as Bryant took a hit from Troy defensive lineman Travis Sailo that caused his left knee to buckle. Bryant didn’t return to the game. Fortunately for the Tigers, the hit didn’t cause any structural damage to Bryant’s knee, and the fifth-year senior ended up practicing all week and, obviously, starting against Ole Miss.

Bryant wore a brace around the knee for the first time in a Missouri uniform, but he said the injury didn’t impact his game.

“I felt good,” he said. “I felt like I was normal. It wasn’t anything I felt like was hindering me from playing my game.”

Bryand did take a couple hard hits during Saturday’s game, but not to his legs. Two Ole Miss defenders, linebacker Jacquez Jones and defensive end Tariqious Tisdale, were penalized for late hits and ejected for targeting after striking Bryant in the head.

Odom said Bryant never showed any sign of concern after the hits. He praised his quarterback’s toughness for how he handled the week as a whole. Bryant completed 23 of 35 passes for 329 yards, one touchdown and one interception against Ole Miss.

“He didn’t miss a beat,” Odom said. “It’s a little bit amazing to me, on the injury that it was. For him to come back and not miss a rep of practice says a lot about him, the type of person that he is. … Talk about a competitive son of a gun, he’s done a heck of a job.”

Drawn by Missouri’s winning streak, ideal weather and the university’s annual Homecoming tradition, a capacity crowd of 62,621 packed into Faurot Field Saturday. It marked Missouri’s first sellout since 2014. Even though the stadium capacity has been reduced by the south end zone renovations the past two seasons, it’s the largest home crowd for the Tigers since Oct. 10, 2015, when 70,767 saw Missouri lose at home to Florida.

“Seeing the fans, it was just a really great turnout and support, and the energy they brought tonight, it just meant a lot for me as a player,” Bryant said.