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Friday night, Nick Bolton called a meeting with the Missouri defensive line — or what was left of it. The Tigers had lost three of their top four defensive tackles in the past few days. Kobie Whiteside, Darius Robinson and Akial Byers — three-quarters of the regular rotation on the interior of the line — wouldn’t play against defending national champion LSU, Whiteside and Robinson due to injury, Byers because of COVID-19 quarantine.

Their absences turned the outlook for Missouri’s front four from bad to worse. The reason Bolton had called the meeting, after all, was because he had found a clip of a Tennessee running back talking about how easy it had been to gain yards on the ground against the Tigers. Tennessee ran the ball 47 times with no negative plays, racking up 232 yards on the ground against the Tigers. A week later, Missouri had just two scholarship players listed as defensive tackles on the team roster available against LSU, one of whom had never taken a Division I snap.

“I challenged them yesterday night,” Bolton said. “I heard an interview with the running back from Tennessee talking about how easy it was to get easy yards. Challenged the d-line to get a push, see if we could get some TFLs this week.”

If someone had revealed before the game that Missouri’s matchup would come down to LSU having four plays to gain one yard, the smart money would have been bet heavily on the defending champs. That’s exactly what happened. LSU wideout Terrance Marshall went out of bounds at the one-yard line, giving LSU, which trailed by four, first down and goal. Head coach Eli Drinkwitz had declined to use his two remaining timeouts to stop the clock earlier in the drive, all but ensuring that the goal-line series would decide the outcome.

The Missouri defense held up. On first down, LSU tried to run up the middle with running back Tyrion Davis-Price. No gain. Same play call on second down, same result. Quarterback Myles Brennan tried to hit Marshall on third down, but Bolton broke up the pass. Finally, Brennan rolled right and threw for Marshall again on fourth down, but safety Joshuah Bledsoe soared in to knock the ball to the turf, sealing a 45-41 win. Missouri’s sideline spilled onto the field, celebrating the first victory of the Drinkwitz era.

“I’ve never gotten shocked by lightning,” Tre Williams said of the celebration, “but this is sort of what it feels like.”

It took big games from nearly every position for Missouri to overcome three lost fumbles and upset two-touchdown-favorite LSU, but the defensive linemen served as the most unlikely heroes. Prior to the injuries to Whiteside and Robinson, the group lost projected starter Jatorian Hansford for the season with an injury. Chris Daniels opted out of the season, while freshman Montra Edwards entered the transfer portal earlier this week. As a result, players had to shift to unfamiliar roles and Missouri had virtually zero depth behind them.

Fifth-year senior Markell Utsey manned Whiteside’s nose tackle position. Defensive ends Isaiah McGuire and Chris Turner played most of the game lined up on the interior. Williams and Trajan Jeffcoat took turns lining up with their hand in the dirt at the position normally filled by McGuire and Turner instead of playing their customary stand-up outside linebacker position.

The makeshift group more than held its own. LSU’s running backs didn’t gain a yard on four carries during the first half. For the game, LSU ran for 49 yards on 20 carries. Missouri finished with four tackles for loss and two sacks.

“Just a lot of heart and effort, toughness,” Drinkwitz said of the defensive line. “I mean, (defensive line coach Brick Haley) needs to be considered like Dr. Phil this week for all the things he was having to do to try to get people available to play, and just proud of our football team. That’s the job of a team is to step up when somebody else is down, and they sure did it today.”

Perhaps because of all the shuffling, Missouri’s defense as a whole started slow Saturday. LSU drove 75 yards for a touchdown on its opening possession and scored from 47 yards out the next time it touched the ball. Brennan completed his first seven passes and 10 of his first 13. But after that, Missouri started to settle in. LSU didn’t have a sustained touchdown drive after the first quarter, with its three scores coming on drives of one, two and one plays. Two of those scores came following lost fumbles by Missouri. Missouri kept LSU from cutting its four-point lead to one when Williams came up with a huge block on a Cade York field goal attempt, which Williams said hit his helmet.

Perhaps the most impressive defensive stat: Missouri didn’t allow LSU to convert a third down on 10 attempts. Getting off the field had been an area of weakness during the first two weeks of the season.

“I thought we did a nice job getting pressure,” Drinkwitz said of the third-down defense. “Our man to man coverage held up. Coach (Ryan Walters) did a nice job mixing in man, zone, keeping them off balance.”

As a result, even though LSU had scored 41 points when it entered Missouri territory in the final minutes, Drinkwitz trusted his defense. He had multiple opportunities to stop the clock with a timeout, thus ensuing that Missouri would have more time to try to answer in case LSU found the end zone, but Drinkwitz said he felt like all the pressure was on LSU and he didn’t want to give them time to go to the sideline and catch their breath.

But when a replay review of Marshall’s catch on the one-yard line upheld the call and gave LSU a free timeout, Missouri’s defense found itself with its backs against the wall. Bolton said there were not fiery pep talks on the sideline. The defense understood the challenge.

“It wasn’t really a message, it was just understanding that if they score, we lose, we go 0-3,” he said. “... It wasn’t really a message to be said there, we just know that going 0-3 in the SEC is not going to be good. So it was just time for us to bow down and make a play to the best of our abilities, do our job and do our assignments, and we did.”

On first and second down, the defensive line knocked LSU’s blockers off the ball, clearing the way for Bolton and the rest of the back seven to make tackles. On third and fourth downs, film study and recognition paid off for two of the defense’s most experienced leaders.

“It was our will versus theirs,” Drinkwitz said, “and we wanted it more.”

Each of Missouri’s first two games, the Tigers had won the opening coin toss. Each time, they elected to defer to the second half, sending the defense onto the field first. And each time, Missouri found itself trailing by at least two touchdowns before it scored its first point, unable to erase the early deficit in either game.

So Saturday, Drinkwitz had a new gameplan: Take the ball and go deep. Missouri once again won the toss and elected to receive. On the fourth play of the drive, new starting quarterback Connor Bazelak handed the ball off to Larry Rountree III, then Rountree pitched it back to Bazelak and he threw deep downfield for Tauskie Dove. The flea-flicker worked to perfection, with Dove getting behind the LSU secondary, catching the pass and shaking a defender free for a 58-yard touchdown.

“We had noticed that their corner, safety combination, if you tried to push crack, both had bad eyes, and as soon as the ball is handed off, both going to drive down,” Drinkwitz explained. “... So you know it was a great job by the offensive staff and great execution. The corner ended up coming all the way, and Larry turned around and took the hit off the quarterback, and the backside safety came around and Tauskie had to make a great catch and finish in the end zone.”

The play was part of an aggressive start to the game for Drinkwitz. Earlier in the drive, he sent both Bazelak and fellow quarterback Shawn Robinson into the game. Both then motioned out wide, and Rountree took a direct snap. Later in the first quarter, Drinkwitz dialed up another trick play, on which Bazelak narrowly overthrew an open Daniel Parker Jr. He also attempted a fake punt on Missouri’s side of the field.

While not all the trickery paid off, Drinkwitz and his players both said the fast start provided by the successful flea flicker set the tone for the offense’s breakout performance. After scoring just 31 total points in the first two games, Missouri scored 45 while racking up 586 total yards, the team’s most since the 2018 Liberty Bowl, Drew Lock’s final game at quarterback.

“I think it gave us the confidence that we can move the ball whenever we want on these guys,” Bazelak said. “Just gave everyone confidence. And we got out to a lead early. We always talk about starting fast, that’s what we did.”

“I feel like that opened up everything, because once we start putting that pressure on them that we can go deep, now they’re scared about, alright, what can they do deep?” wideout Jalen Knox said. “And then we start coming with all the underneath stuff, from our good runs and all the jet sweeps and everything, it’s just too much stuff to try to pay attention to, so it keeps the defense on their heels.”

The other obvious difference from Missouri’s first two games: quarterback play. Bazelak thrived in his first start of the season, completing 29 of 34 passes for 406 yards and four touchdowns. At one point, he completed 15 passes in a row. While he did lose one fumble, he never threw a pass that even looked like it might be intercepted.

“I think his poise in the pocket is phenomenal,” former quarterback-turned-receiver Micah Wilson said of Bazelak, “and obviously he’s very accurate and he’s got something to him that he delivers the passes whenever the pressure is on, which is a great quality in a quarterback.”

“Poise” was the word most often uttered by teammates and coaches about Bazelak after the game. Even when LSU capitalized on Missouri’s fumbling woes, he and the offense never got rattled. The final answer came when he threaded a dart through traffic to tight end Niko Hea for a five-yard touchdown, which gave Missouri its first lead since the first quarter with 5:18 to play.

“Honestly, Connor don’t even talk,” Knox said. “Connor just goes out there and just plays football. Like poise is just the biggest word for him because nothing’s going to faze him. He’s going to go out there, and until the game is over he’s going to play his hardest and give us everything he has.”

“He’s mentally tough, he’s physically tough, he wasn’t rattled by the fact that he was getting pressured,” said Drinkwitz. “He prepares the right way, he knows exactly what to look for in any situation. He’s got great decision-making ability. Plays broke down, he knows how to throw it away. Play’s perfect, he knows where to go with the football. He’s accurate with the football, he puts it where our guy can catch it or nobody can catch it. I mean, he’s a leader. He doesn’t get rattled. I mean, he’s over there on the sideline telling these guys, ‘we’re fixing to go score again, we’re going to do this on third downs.’ I mean, he knows what he’s doing, and I’m just really proud of him.”

Aside from defensive tackle, the other position group to be hit hard by absences Saturday was the receiving corps. Like the interior of the defensive line, the wideouts hadn’t exactly excelled against Tennessee, even when everyone was healthy. Missouri dropped six passes against Tennessee, according to Pro Football Focus.

But with graduate transfers Damon Hazelton and Keke Chism as well as junior Dominic Gicinto all in quarantine Saturday, several rarely-used pass-catchers stepped up. Eight different Missouri players caught a pass, and Bazelak’s four touchdowns went to four different players. Dove caught his first career touchdown on the flea-flicker. Dionte Smith, Chance Luper and Micah Wilson all caught the first passes of their career, including a 41-yard touchdown reception for Wilson. Luper’s 69-yard catch set up the go-ahead touchdown. The receiving corps didn’t appear to drop a pass.

“I’m so proud of them,” Bazelak said. “They got their opportunity and they stepped up in big moments, and they made plays. Just super proud of them and how they played, and they deserve it.”

“It’s not about the talent, it’s about how you function as a unit,” Drinkwitz said, “and our unit decided to function at a high level today.”

Not only did Bolton come out of nowhere for a huge break-up on the third play of Missouri’s four-down goal line stand, he once again led the team in tackles with 11 and had two other pass break-ups. And he did so while playing at less than 100 percent. Drinkwitz revealed after the game that Bolton wore a green, no-contact jersey during practice all week. He also left the game briefly on Saturday to visit the locker room.

Bolton declined to reveal what had ailed him, leading up to the game, but said he had to battle through some leg cramps during the second half.

“That dude’s a straight warrior,” Drinkwitz said. “He’s been beat up, he was beat up last game. He wore a green jersey all week because he was dinged. About 90 percent today.”

Drinkwitz credited Bolton’s “incredible football smarts” for his break-up on the goal-line stand.

“I saw number 6 lined up in the tight end flanker position,” Bolton said. “Six is an outside receiver, so I had kind of assumed pre-snap that they were going to get him the ball some type of way, whether it be a pop pass, an out route, they were going to try to get him on a flip or something like that. And I saw him fake inside and go back outside, I already knew automatically what it was.”

-- With his 119 rushing yards Saturday, Rountree moved past Devin West into fourth place on the program’s all-time rushing list. He also surpassed the 3,000-yard mark for his career.

-- Bazelak’s four touchdown passes were the most by a Missouri freshman quarterback since 2013.

-- Drinkwitz didn’t only have praise for his starting quarterback after the game. He also credited Shawn Robinson, who started the first two games of the season, for his attitude after losing the top spot. “I’m frickin really proud of Shawn Robinson,” he said. “There couldn’t have been a better teammate this week. Could not have been a better teammate this week. He was the most excited person all week, just encouraging our team, and I really think the team saw that. Because it can go one of two ways in these kind of situations, and Shawn Robinson is a heck of a young man, he’s a heck of a leader.”