When sophomore kicker Harrison Mevis willed a 56-yard field goal through the uprights to send Saturday afternoon’s game between Missouri football and Boston College into overtime, it felt as if the Tigers had new life. Down by 10 points at the end of the third quarter, they fought back to tie the score at 34.
Instead, Missouri only ran one offensive play after regulation: a deep ball that Boston College redshirt senior cornerback Brandon Sebastian intercepted to seal the Eagles’ 41-34 win and prevent Missouri from completing a late-game, double-digit comeback at Alumni Stadium.
“I just wanted to give my team the opportunity to go and win the game,” Mevis said. “That’s all I was focused on. I just wanted to win.”
Boston College held the ball for all but 78 seconds of the third quarter and strung together two third-quarter drives over six minutes each to build what, at the time, felt like an insurmountable advantage. Exhausted on the sidelines, the defense knew if they could just string together one or two more stops, the offense would give the Tigers a chance.
“When you have the offense that we have, you’re still in it,” graduate linebacker Blaze Alldredge said. “We just got to get the one stop. That’s been an emphasis in these past two losses. We feel like we got to get the one stop, and it’s hard to do in college football.”
The offense proved Alldredge right, putting up 14 unanswered points to give Missouri a 34-31 lead. Even after the Eagles retook a three-point lead through graduate running back Travis Levy’s 5-yard touchdown with 25 seconds to play, the Tigers didn’t go out quietly. Instead, redshirt sophomore quarterback Connor Bazelak orchestrated a 36-yard drive in 25 seconds to set up Mevis’ field goal.
But for as good as Bazelak performed on the final drive in regulation, his one pass in overtime negated it. Missouri had at least four shots at the end zone to match Boston College’s overtime-opening touchdown. Instead Bazelak decided to go for it all with his very first play.
“We had to score a touchdown,” Bazelak said. “We were going to go, for two, too.”
Missouri couldn’t have asked for a better start to the afternoon. After a running into the punter penalty on Boston College turned a punt into fourth-and-1, Bazelak moved the chains with a short pass to graduate wide receiver Keke Chism, senior running back Tyler Badie rushed for 24 yards and redshirt senior wide receiver Barrett Banister hauled in the touchdown pass.
Then, the Eagles found out that they could run on the Tigers’ defense.
Pinned on their 2-yard line, redshirt senior quarterback Dennis Grosel led Boston College on a four-play touchdown drive that culminated in a 67-yard run by redshirt sophomore running back Pat Garwo III, who evaded multiple defenders and sprinted past a screaming Boston College student section to the house.
Garwo III finished with 175 yards and two touchdowns Saturday, becoming yet another running back to have a career day against the Tigers’ defense.
On Tuesday, junior safety Martez Manuel talked about the defense wanting to “shut people up,” and the unit came out with that mentality, starting with an interception by redshirt senior safety Shawn Robinson on the first defensive snap of the game. But only so many positive things can be said about a unit that allowed 41 points and 450 yards of total offense.
“We have who we have and we have to adjust our scheme to make it match,” Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz said. “But you can’t repeatedly give up 275 yards [on the ground] and be successful.”
Earlier this week, Banister emphasized the importance of turning defensive stops into points on offense. But when the Tigers did force the occasional punt or come up with a takeaway, they never made the Eagles pay.
Missouri’s defense forced just one turnover, while Boston College only had to punt the ball twice. Every other one of the Eagles’ drives ended with more points on the board.
Defensive stops, whether through forced punts or takeaways, hold even more importance when Missouri struggles to keep opponents out of the end zone. When they can’t stack points, it’s hard to mount a comeback or pull away from any competition.
“[Robinson’s interception] was an opportunity to really establish our will in this game,” Drinkwitz said. “We go up 14-0, but we didn’t do it or take advantage of the opportunity. We punted and that gave them momentum again.”
Despite the loss, there was still plenty Drinkwitz can leave Boston pleased about. The Tigers’ fourth quarter comeback and resiliency, especially after a difficult third quarter, was impressive. Badie also continued his strong start to the 2021 season. The senior carried the ball 18 times for 72 yards and two touchdowns, and his one-handed snag on third-and-9 kept one of the Tigers’ late drives alive.
The Tigers late rally fell short, a loss made more painful because of how close they came. Still, it was only one non-conference game on the road a month into the season. That’s at least the feeling players have leaving Boston.
“We got a lot of games left so we have to move on,” Bazelak said. “We’re starting SEC play, so we got to put our big boots on and figure it out.”
That SEC play begins against Tennessee at Faurot Field 11 a.m. next Saturday.
Edited by Mason Arneson | marneson@themaneater.com
