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Entering Saturday, at least on paper, Missouri’s offense appeared poised to roll over Vanderbilt’s defense. The Tigers came into the game ranked No. 17 nationally in scoring offense, averaging 38.8 points per game. They had scored 30 or more points in 11 consecutive contests. The offense put forth arguably its best effort of the season in the last Saturday against Ole Miss, racking up 562 total yards and, at one point, scoring on six possessions in a row.

Vanderbilt, meanwhile, ranked among the bottom 25 teams nationally and dead last in the SEC in every major defensive category: scoring defense, total defense, rush defense and pass defense. A few hours before Missouri beat Ole Miss for its fifth win in a row, the Commodores surrendered 34 points in a home loss to lowly UNLV.

Perhaps the Tigers bought into the widely-held expectation that they should roll over the Commodore defense. That seems as likely an explanation as any for what actually unfolded in Nashville Saturday, as Vanderbilt stifled the Missouri offense en route to a stunning 21-14 upset.

“We just can’t go out here and just think that, oh, 5-1 and ranked 22, people are just going to lay down for us,” left tackle Yasir Durant said. “That’s not the case.”

It sure wasn’t the case Saturday. Missouri punted eight times on 13 possessions. Vanderbilt held the Tigers to their lowest total yardage (293) and passing yardage (140) figures of the season. The Tigers scored just twice, and one of those came a play after linebacker Cameron Wilkins returned an interception to the Commodore six-yard line.

After the game, head coach Barry Odom and his players seemed to still be searching for answers about why the Tiger offense struggled so mightily. “I’ll have to watch the film” became a familiar refrain as the team answered questions about the performance.

“I just think it was down to us, just executing every play and just winning our one-on-one matchups,” tight end Albert Okwuegbunam said. “Whether it was the running game, making our blocks, or winning downfield, it’s tough to answer that question. That’s why I’m really looking forward to tomorrow, just watching everything on film and really learning what was wrong with this game.”

Even without rewatching the game, a few aspects of Vanderbilt’s successful game plan are clear. First and foremost, the Commodores stopped the run, especially on early downs. Missouri averaged just 3.8 yards per carry as a team. The Tigers’ three tailbacks, Larry Rountree III, Tyler Badie and Dawson Downing, gained just 81 yards between them and averaged under 3.4 yards per tote. The Tigers entered Saturday averaging just over 4.5 yards per carry on the season.

Stopping the run put Missouri in obvious passing situations, which is where the Tiger offense tends to struggle most. The Vanderbilt defense exacerbated those struggles by dropping eight players in coverage most of the time Missouri got behind the chains. Quarterback Kelly Bryant often found himself scrambling around the backfield, looking in vain for someone to come open. The eight players in coverage also allowed Vanderbilt to collapse on Bryant and stop him for a short gain when he tried to scramble.

“You get on those third and long situations, it’s basically the whole defense knows it’s pass, the whole stadium knows it’s pass,” said center Trystan Colon-Castillo. “They’re ready to tee off and try to get after the quarterback. So not being able to run the ball on first and second down, especially early on, was really a big problem for us.”

Ultimately, Missouri couldn’t sustain drives, as nine of their possessions covered less than 20 yards. Their only two touchdowns were set up by explosive plays, one by Wilkins’ interception and the other by a 55-yard catch and run by Kam Scott. Yet the offense couldn’t generate explosive plays, either. Only two Missouri snaps produced gains of more than 20 yards.

“It was just a matter of not executing,” Durant said. “Vanderbilt, they were a better team than us. They came ready to play. And tonight they were just the better team.”

Some of the issues can be traced to Missouri’s offensive line, which saw a fair amount of rotation during the first half of the season but featured the same five starters in the same spots for the second week in a row against Vanderbilt.

A week after Odom said the line had its best game of the season, it might have had its worst performance. A Vanderbilt defense that entered Saturday No. 108 nationally in sacks and No. 103 in tackles for loss finished with three sacks and eight tackles for loss. Even while rushing just three players on most of Missouri’s obvious passing downs, the Commodores frequently forced Bryant out of the pocket.

“If we were playing pretty well, then the scoreboard would be a little different,” Colon-Castillo said of the line’s performance.

While Missouri’s players offered credit to Vanderbilt’s defense, the Tigers have themselves to blame for some of their offensive woes. The team committed a season-high 12 penalties for 120 yards. Those penalties, as often as the Commodores’ success against the run, put the offense in unfavorable downs and distances.

The Tigers also saw three trips into Vanderbilt territory produce no points. Tucker McCann missed two field goals and Bryant threw a costly interception when he tried to force a pass to Okwuegbunam in the corner of the end zone.

“It was a bad read by me,” Bryant said. “Just as simple as that. Shouldn’t have forced it, just check it down.”

Ultimately, Odom spread the blame to every offensive position, including himself and coordinator Derek Dooley.

“I think it’s a combination of all guys,” he said. “I’d be foolish to make a lot of comments right now without understanding what I saw, but I think it was all involved, including coaching. Obviously we’ve got to be a lot better.”

One of Missouri’s 12 penalties came when safety Tyree Gillespie delivered a scary hit to the helmet of Purdue starting quarterback Mo Hasan. Hasan rushed for six yards on the play before attempting to slide safely to the turf. Gillespie lowered his helmet and contacted Hasan in the head, resulting in a targeting penalty.

Odom said after the game that he agreed with the call.

“It was targeting,” he said. “He had left his feet, the quarterback went into a slide, Gillespie had already gone into the position of trying to make a tackle, and he lowered his head at the last minute, and it appeared to me just like they called it.”

As a result of the penalty, Gillespie will miss the first half of Missouri’s game at Kentucky next week. True freshman Martez Manuel played the majority of snaps in Gillespie’s absence. The Columbia native appears the most likely candidate to start in his place next week.

Against Ole Miss, McCann excelled when called upon to kick field goals. McCann made all four of his attempts, including a 48-yarder. He struggled on extra points, however, missing two of his four attempts.

Against Vanderbilt, McCann was the inverse, and his struggles certainly didn’t help the Tigers’ sputtering offense. McCann made both of his extra point attempts but missed two field goals — and really three, except one was wiped off the board due to a running into the kicker penalty on Vanderbilt.

In all, McCann, who also handles the punting and kickoff duties for Missouri, has made 11 of 16 field goals and 26 of 29 extra points on the season. Asked after the game, Odom said he didn’t yet know of any explanation for McCann’s struggles Saturday.

“I need to talk to him. I haven’t had a chance to visit with him, kind of see what he thought. Those two were momentum plays that we missed out on.”

One of the few bright spots for Missouri’s offense came when Bryant saw Okwuegbunam in single-coverage and threw a perfect fade pass to the tight end in the back of the end zone. Okwuegbunam caught the four-yard pass for Missouri’s first score of the game.

The touchdown, Okwuegbunam’s sixth of the season and 20th of his career, moved him past two Missouri greats, wide receivers Jeremy Maclin and Danario Alexander, among the school’s all-time receiving touchdown leaders. Okweugbunam now sits second on the list behind former tight end Chase Coffman, who caught 30 touchdowns in his college career.

Okwuegbunam is now averaging a touchdown per every three receptions this season and one every four catch for his career.

Missouri got one unexpected player back from injury Saturday, yet another who was expected to return did not see the field. Junior tight end Brendan Scales saw his first action of the season after breaking a bone in his foot during fall camp. At the time, Odom said Scales, who has made just one catch in his college career, had put forth a strong offseason.

Scales didn’t catch a pass Saturday. His inclusion on the travel roster meant true freshman Niko Hea, who had played in each of the first six games of the season, did not make the trip.

Meanwhile, punt returner Richaud Floyd dressed for the game but did not play. Floyd also missed last week’s game due to a hamstring injury suffered Oct. 5 against Troy. Walk-on slot receiver Cade Musser fielded punts in Floyd’s absence. He returned three of them for seven yards.