LARAMIE, WYOMING — At the end of the first quarter, Missouri’s season-opener against Wyoming felt, in linebacker Cale Garrett’s words, “how it was supposed to be.” The Tigers, who dispatched Wyoming 40-13 last season, had stopped the Cowboys on each of their first three possessions, allowing only one first down in the opening quarter. Meanwhile, new quarterback Kelly Bryant looked sharp, and the offense scored touchdowns on each of its first two possessions.
In a two-minute, 54-second stretch in the second quarter, everything changed. Wyoming got on the scoreboard, though only with a field goal after quarterback Sean Chambers missed a wide open receiver in the end zone. Two plays later, though, Bryant took a hard hit on a designed run and dropped the football. Wyoming’s C.J. Coldon scooped it up and ran 30 yards for a touchdown. Following a three-and-out from the Tigers, tailback Xazavian Valladay broke a tackle and raced 61 yards for a touchdown. Wyoming had its first lead. The Cowboys would never trail again, stunning Missouri in a 37-31 upset.
Asked what went wrong, how Missouri surrendered its momentum, nearly every player that spoke after the game echoed the same refrain. “We were just shooting ourselves in the foot,” wide receiver Jonathan Nance said.
Those were far from the only errors that plagued Missouri in sloppy second and third quarters, in which the Tigers were outscored 34-3. Missouri answered the Valladay score with a field goal that tied the game, but on Wyoming’s following offensive snap, the Tigers surrendered another long run, this time to Chambers. Chambers kept the ball on a read-option and took off down the sideline for a 75-yard score. A Missouri defense that gave up just one 60-plus yard running play all of last season had just given up two in two plays.
Then came perhaps the most costly mistake. Missouri ran a crisp two-minute drill and advanced all the way to the one-yard line, where it handed the ball to junior running back Larry Rountree III. Rountree was met behind the line of scrimmage and fumbled. Wyoming’s Alijah Halliburton picked it the ball and raced down the field. Bryant eventually caught him, saving a touchdown, but due to a horse-collar tackle penalty on Bryant, Wyoming was able to kick a field goal on the final play of the first half. What had looked like at least three sure points for Missouri became three for Wyoming.
“We shot ourselves in the foot most of the game,” left tackle Yasir Durant said.
Still, the Tigers weren’t out of chances. On the opening drive of the second half, the offense again drove into the red zone, advancing to the Wyoming two-yard line. It even looked like tight end Albert Okwuegbunam caught a touchdown from Bryant on third and goal, but an offensive pass interference penalty on Okwuegbunam pushed the ball back to the 17-yard line. The next play, Bryant scrambled and attempted to throw an off-balance pass across the field to slot receiver Barrett Banister, who stood open in the back of the end zone, but the ball didn’t make it, instead finding the hands of safety Cassh Maluia. Once again, Wyoming scored on its following possession.
“We just kept shooting ourselves in the foot,” Bryant said. Asked about the interception, he added “When you roll left, try to throw right, … I shouldn’t have did it.”
Head coach Barry Odom agreed with his players’ assessment that the team has itself to blame for the loss. He pointed out that teams rarely win games in which they finish minus-three in the turnover margin — especially when two of those turnovers occurred in the red zone, and all three led to points for Wyoming.
“We stopped ourselves,” Odom said. “Got down inside the red area a couple times and came away with no points. That’s hard to do. And you turn it over going in for a touchdown, that’s hard to do.”
Missouri battled back, ultimately advancing to the Wyoming 15-yard line with a chance to erase its six-point deficit in the final minute. A sack derailed the drive, then long passes on third- and fourth-down and long fell incomplete. It was the team’s seventh offensive possession to pass the Wyoming 20-yard line. Only three of those drives resulted in touchdowns.
“You look at it, in the red zone, like three or four times, turned it over, field goal, and that’s not what we need,” Durant said. “We need to go down there and score touchdowns. And that’s just as a whole offense. We gotta get better when we get down there knowing that our one job is to score, to put seven points on (the scoreboard).”
Following the final snap, Wyoming fans rushed onto Jonah Field. The demeanor of the Missouri players in postgame interviews illustrated the stunning nature of the upset. Garrett never raised his voice above a whisper. Nance blinked back tears. After an entire offseason of optimism, few could have envisioned losing to an 18-point underdog. The Tigers had won at least 30 games in a row as that large a favorite. To once again quote Garrett, that’s not how it’s supposed to be.
The fourth-quarter rally offered little consolation, especially for a team that felt it only had its own mistakes to blame for the loss.
“It’s a gut-check, wake-up call, slap in the face,” said Garrett.
“They showed some resolve,” Odom added. “But, I mean, I hate it. It’s awful. We lost the game.”
Tackling blamed for defensive woes
A season ago, Missouri’s defense largely stifled opposing rushing attacks. The Tigers ranked No. 22 nationally in run defense, allowing an average of 126.5 yards per game on the ground. They held Wyoming to 88 yards rushing in last season’s matchup. Even after the losses of defensive tackles Terry Beckner Jr. and Walter Palmore and linebacker Terez Hall, the unit figured to match up well against Wyoming’s run-heavy attack.
Instead, Wyoming racked up nearly 300 yards on the ground, aided in large part by the two rushes of more than 60 yards. Missouri only gave up more than 200 rushing yards once last season. The last time they surrendered as many as Wyoming’s 297 came in a 2017 loss to Georgia.
After the game, Missouri’s players said they knew the Cowboys would run early and often — in the three games Chambers played last season, they averaged 57 rushing attempts and 14 passes per game. Still, they struggled to stop it. Garrett and defensive tackle Jordan Elliott placed most of the blame on missed tackles, especially on the two long touchdown runs.
“They had a good game plan and executed well, but at the end of the day, we didn’t tackle well,” Elliott said.
“Tackling is always going to be a big thing in Week One,” Garrett said. “But you don’t want it to be that bad — myself, mainly, included on that.”
Garrett also said Wyoming took advantage of the aggressive playing style of himself and fellow linebacker Nick Bolton. Garrett relies on instinct and anticipation to make up for his lack of speed, so when Wyoming featured misdirection in its rushing attack, he and Bolton at times found themselves out of position.
“They kind of played on our over-aggression, with Bolt and I usually able to see things a little bit quicker,” Garrett explained. “Sometimes we would over play it a little bit and it would head back door, or something like that.”
Badie featured in second half
After rushing for more than 1,200 yards a season ago, Rountree spent the offseason touted as Missouri’s bell-cow in the backfield — a potential all-conference performer now that he wasn’t splitting carries with Damarea Crockett. Instead, in the second half of Saturday’s game, Rountree hardly saw the field. He carried the ball just twice in the third quarter and zero times in the fourth.
In his place, sophomore Tyler Badie played the first series of the third quarter and proceeded to handle nearly all of the snaps in the second half. Badie finished the contest with 16 carries for 53 yards and seven catches for 49 yards.
Rountree’s fumble might have factored into the coaches’ decision to feature Badie, but if it did, Odom didn’t admit it. Instead, he said after the game that the staff thought Badie provided a more favorable matchup due to his receiving ability.
“I think some of things Tyler was giving us out of the backfield, catching the ball and some of the things he was trying to do matchup-wise, he was better, we thought, at that point,” Odom said. “A better matchup with some things in coverage.”
Nance impresses in debut
One silver lining from the contest for Missouri fans was the performance of Nance. The former Arkansas announced his decision to come to Missouri as a graduate transfer on the same day as Bryant. While the coaching staff has praised his leadership and maturity all offseason, questions persisted about his production, due in large part to the fact that he caught just one pass in four games before deciding to transfer last season.
Nance answered those questions by catching three passes for 63 yards and two scores Saturday. His second touchdown was particularly impressive. With Missouri needing a quick score to cut its deficit to one possession in the fourth quarter, he came open on a deep curl, caught a pass from Bryant, juked a defender and raced down the sideline for 53 yards.
Injury report
We knew entering the contest that Missouri would be without linebacker Cameron Wilkins and defensive end Trajan Jeffcoat due to injury. A more surprising absence was slot receiver Dominic Gicinto, who didn’t make the trip. A team spokesperson said Gicinto is nursing an injured groin.
The Tigers also saw cornerbacks Christian Holmes and Jarvis Ware go down with injuries during the game. Odom didn’t provide an update on either player afterward, saying he hadn’t yet talked to the trainers.
