Touchdown Luther emerges in Mizzou's 27-21 win over No. 24 Boston College

COLUMBIA, Mo. --- Luther Burden is one of college football's biggest stars. It doesn't take much to motivate him, whether that's not being rated as EA College Football 25's highest-rated receiver at launch or feeling like he needs to prove he's the nation's top player. It doesn't take much to get him going.

In Week 3 versus No. 24 Boston College the receiver had his best game of the season, recording game and season highs in receptions (six) and receiving yards (117) to go along with a touchdown in No. 6 Missouri's 27-21 win over the Eagles.

So what was the chip on his shoulder this time?

ESPN's College Gameday chose to go to Columbia, South Carolina to cover the Gamecocks and No. 16 LSU.

"To me, it's disrespectful to not have the big stage with the big TV cameras and stuff," Burden said. "So, I took that personally, and I'm pretty sure everybody else in that locker room took that personally. So, we ain't going nowhere. We will be here to stay."

That wasn't Burden's only motivation. The Tigers have legitimate College Football Playoff aspirations and wants to keep the momentum going into league play next week.

The third-year receiver had been quiet through the first two games, mainly because Burden wasn't needed in shutout wins over Murray State and Buffalo, but he entered Week 3 with just seven receptions for 64 yards and a touchdown. So, plenty of things motivated Burden on Saturday, and that was evident.

He got off to a slow start by not recording a target in the 21 minutes of the game. Then, he got a 44-yard reception on what is the Tigers’ most explosive play of the year in the middle of the second quarter.

"When I get the ball I'm just trying to make a play," Burden said. "I'm trying to make the best play for my team. Whatever that is, however, I get the ball, it's just time to go to work."

Burden had his fingerprints all over this game, but not all of it was good.

With one minute and 53 seconds left In the third quarter, Missouri reached Boston College’s 38-yard line on a 22-yard reception by Mookie Cooper. Then, Mizzou would commit four penalties in five plays and Burden was responsible for two of them.

The play after Cooper's reception, Brady Cook threw a pass Burden's way that fell incomplete. After the play, Burden was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct for throwing another player’s mouthpiece.

On the next play, right guard Cam'Ron Johnson was flagged for being an ineligible man downfield on a 23-yard reception by Joshua Manning.

After that, Burden caught a pass for six yards and was flagged for unnecessary roughness for throwing the football at a player on Boston College’s bench.

Since it was ruled unnecessary roughness and not unsportsmanlike conduct, Burden got to stay in the game.

After all those penalties, Mizzou went from the Eagles’ 38-yard line to its own 14-yard line trying to convert a second and 58.

Missouri would punt on fourth and 28, where it would commit its fourth penalty for an illegal formation on a 26-yard Luke Bauer punt.

"The penalties, those are on me," Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz said. "At the end of the day, those are on me. They said they captured me getting on Luther pretty good about it and that's the bottom line. That was selfish football, and it's got to get cleaned up. But sure glad he's on our team for 100-something yards."

"I've just got to cut the nonsense out," Burden said. "Stay composed, and I don't want to put my team in that position anymore. So, I'm glad to learn from it."

Burden bounced back with the most clutch play of the game. On third and seven, with two minutes and 17 seconds left in regulation and the ball at Mizzou's 28-yard line, Cook connected with Burden on an 11-yard out route for the first down. The Eagles only had two timeouts and let the clock run to the two-minute timeout. Meaning Mizzou got to run the clock out.

"We needed the play, we needed a first down. I think I've earned that respect and trust," Burden said. "My teammates count on me. So, it was good."

Missouri finally gets some chunks plays

Missouri entered Week 3 with the nation's fourth-best third-down offense at 60%, fifth in first downs with 58, 16th in scoring offense at 44.5 points per game and 19th in total offense at 503.5 yards per game. Most of that had been done without the deep ball.

Entering this game, Mizzou had six plays of 10+ yards and two plays of 20+ yards all season. On Saturday, it had 12 plays of 10 or more yards with four of them going for 20 or more yards.

"I thought we did a better job of creating some explosives in the past game," Drinkwitz said. "Obviously, Luther had the big one. Mookie had two, and then some of the run lanes. So, those are always important. (We've) got to keep searching for them."

Five of the chunk plays came via the ground game. Running back Nate Noel had four of those runs for 13, 13, 16 and 24 yards, respectively, and finished with 22 carries for 121 yards.

"I think he got really hot on the outside zone, and he's just got so much experience carrying that play, we felt like it was going to be an outside zone game, and so that's kind of where we were going with him," Drinkwitz said.

Noel couldn't take all the credit for the work he did. The former Appalachian State Mountaineer credited his offensive line for paving the lanes for him to record his first 100-yard rushing game as a Tiger.

"I was smiling going through the hole, Noel said with a smile. "I was just like, 'Oh, my. I got all this space.' I was just thinking of my next moves, really. It was nice."

This was Noel's first 100-yard game since Week 5 of last season, and it's the most carries he's had since Week 4 of last year when he had 30 against Wyoming. To start 2023, he racked up five straight 100-yard games and had 24 carries or more in four of them. So, it wasn't a big deal for him to reach those numbers again.

"I really didn't notice it until after the game, like just hearing it after, but during the game it was (about focusing on) just this play," Noel said. "I didn't know my stats or anything, but I knew that we needed to win. I knew that we needed to finish the game. I just knew that we were down at one point, and now we're up. Now, we need to keep the lead."

The Tigers kept the lead, and it was Marcus Carroll who helped do it. The former Georgia State Panther had 12 carries for 57 yards and got some tough yardage after the last two-minute timeout to set up a third and short for Cook to pick up with his legs to effectively end the game.

"Marcus did a really good job of getting his shoulders down, and I believe that last drive of the game was Marcus getting us the dirty eight yards," Drinkwitz said. "Then, Brady finishing off right there."

"(I'm) really proud of the football team today. It was not pretty. It wasn't our best performance top to bottom, but really responded. We hadn't been challenged all year, and it was concerning with so many new faces about what that response would be, and today, I think you saw a team that's committed to each other. A team that responds, a team that's never out of the fight."

Eli Drinkwitz on Missouri's resiliency versus No. 24 Boston College

It’s not how you start it’s how you finish.

That was what this game was about. The Tigers quickly went down double digits in the first half before going on a 24-7 run to end the game. It wasn't the best way to win. But a win is a win.

"(I'm) really proud of the football team today. It was not pretty. It wasn't our best performance top to bottom, but really responded," Drinkwitz said. "We hadn't been challenged all year, and it was concerning with so many new faces about what that response would be, and today, I think you saw a team that's committed to each other. A team that responds, a team that's never out of the fight."

The Eagles opened the game with the game's longest drive, a 14-play, 75-yard touchdown drive. It would have ended much sooner than that had defensive tackle Chris McClellan not been flagged for hands-to-the-face on a third and 15 that Boston College didn't pick up. Instead, it was an automatic first down.

Later in that drive, Missouri would force a fourth and four on its 12-yard line but to no avail because the Eagles would convert via a 12-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Thomas Castellanos to receiver Jerand Bradley on what looked like a defensive communication breakdown.

"(The) first fourth down of the game, we're in zone. It's inexcusable for that ball to even be completed," Drinkwitz said.

Two Boston College possessions later, the Eagles converted a third and six from Mizzou's 18-yard line on what seemed like another communication breakdown. On the next play, Castellanos would take a muffed snap and launch it 67 yards to Reed Harris for a touchdown and the Eagles would go up 14-3 after the PAT.

When Castellanos fumbled the snap, safeties Marvin Burks and Joseph Charleston left their assignments and started to pursue the ball from 20 yards away leading to the blown coverage.

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However, Missouri never ran away from the fight and the offense and defense would go on a run that saw the offense score on four consecutive possessions (field goal, touchdown, field goal, touchdown) and at the same time, the defense forced three punts sandwiched between two interceptions.

"Just don't flinch (was the message to the team after going down 14-3)," safety Tre'Vez Johnson said. "It was going to be a fight. Just don't take too many blows. But if you do, you know we're throwing it back. We knew it was going to be a fight. We knew what kind of game it was going to be. So, kind of just a don't flinch mindset."

Johnson had a huge hand in the rally. After Mizzou narrowed the lead to 14-6, Johnson would get an interception and return it 22 yards to Boston College's 25-yard line.

Three plays later, Cook connected with Burden on a 19-yard pass for a touchdown and then Noel would get the two-point conversion to tie the game at 14.

Missouri wouldn't trail again.

"I didn't really find out nothing," Burden said. "Everybody else really found out (about the team's resiliency). I knew we were going to keep swinging no matter what. So, I already knew that.

"It's a great test. It's great for our team and I think it's going to help us in the long run."

The defense did have another blown assignment late in the fourth quarter up 27-14 allowing Castellanos to connect with tight end Kamari Morales for a 38-yard touchdown. After the PAT, Boston College was down 27-21, but Drinkwitz was happy the offense got to close the game out on the field.

"We talked about the swing eight (and) we end up winning the swing eight 10-0 right there. Talk about forcing turnovers, obviously, two to nothing. And then we talked about, as an offense, you always want to finish the game with the ball in your hand.

"Today reminded me of the Middle Tennessee game last year, where if we give them the ball back, they've got all the momentum. We're not playing the way we need to on defense right there in that last instance. Brady and Luther complete a big time third down, and then Brady keeps that on the zone read at the end. So, really proud of them for those things."

It wasn't easy, but the Tigers prevailed in their hardest game of the season to date.

Missouri finishes up its four-game homestand next Saturday when Vanderbilt comes to town for Missouri's first conference opponent of the season.