ATHENS, Ga. — For about a half, there was a chance for Missouri to create a bright spot in a thus-far abysmal season. The offense was scoring touchdowns on the nation’s No. 3 ranked defense, and the Tigers had created a turnover on defense that led to an early score.
Late in the second quarter on Saturday, the Tigers were tied, 21-21, with No. 4 Georgia. An unexpected weekend in college football looked like it might spread to Sanford Stadium. But Missouri (1-5, 0-4 SEC) ended up losing 53-28 as the offense sputtered out and the defense gave up more than 30 points for a school-record sixth straight game.
“If you're playing a team that's as good as they are, you don't have to be perfect, but you have to be pretty solid in every area,” head coach Barry Odom said.
For a while, Missouri was, particularly on offense.
The Tigers' first two possessions ended in punts, and when Mizzou took over on offense for the fourth time, Georgia led 14-7.
On third-and-11, with the pocket collapsing around him, quarterback Drew Lock connected with a wide-open Emanuel Hall for a 63-yard touchdown. On the ensuing extra point, Missouri tied the game at 14. It was the longest play Georgia’s defense has given up this season.
Georgia scored on its next drive, but Missouri responded with another 63-yard pass from Lock to Hall. With 11:34 left in the second quarter, Missouri and Georgia were tied. However, Missouri’s defense could not force the Bulldogs to punt as Georgia scored on all but three of its drives, one of which ended with the Bulldogs taking a knee to run out the clock.
“We stayed in it then guys tried to make all the plays,” linebacker Terez Hall said. “You just got to know your assignment. You got to do what the coach puts out there for you.”
After Georgia took a 24-21 lead, it was becoming increasingly apparent Missouri’s offense would need to score almost every possession to keep up. Then Lock threw an interception into triple coverage. Georgia scored 13 unanswered points to end the half. Lock completed one of his next four passes.
On Missouri’s first drive of the second half, Lock threw an incomplete pass to avoid a sack and threw an uncatchable pass over the head of J’Mon Moore on third down. Then punter Corey Fatony dropped a snap. The offense would not score again until the fourth quarter.
“We were hurting ourselves,” Lock said.
Lock finished the game 15-of-25 passing for 253 yards and four touchdowns. He completed just six of those passes for 80 yards in the second half. Missouri rushed for 59 yards the whole game.
“That run game was unacceptable,” offensive lineman Paul Adams said. “I put that on the front five, put that on myself.”
Though Missouri scored more points on Georgia than any other team had this year, Lock said the offensive players would not take that out of the game as a silver lining. He “fully expected” Missouri would be able to move the ball on offense against Georgia. For a half, it did. But when the Bulldogs pulled away, the Tigers couldn’t keep up.
“We want to play better than that,” Lock said. “That's not good enough for us. We're definitely not satisfied.
"I'm not happy with how we played.”
