At first glance, the call made little sense.
When senior running back Tyler Badie scored on Missouri football’s first overtime possession to bring its deficit to within one, many coaches would’ve taken the extra point and sent their defense back onto the field.
But Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz decided to go for two.
It didn’t matter that his defense held Florida’s offense to just 16 points in regulation, the fewest points it has allowed all season. It didn’t matter that the defense allowed just 5.1 yards per play or that it held the Gators under 100 yards on the ground. Drinkwitz didn’t want to wait and hope for Florida to make a mistake.
So he sent his offense back onto the field. One play, three yards. Either score and win, or fail and the game ends in heartbreaking fashion.
Missouri chose jubilation.
With defenders quickly closing in, redshirt sophomore quarterback Connor Bazelak dropped back and floated a ball that dropped into the waiting arms of senior tight end Daniel Parker Jr, the third option on the play.
The catch gave Missouri a 24-23 win –– its first victory against the Gators since 2018 –– in front of 47,818 raucous fans on senior night at Faurot Field Nov. 20.
“It’s all a blur,” Drinkwitz said about the moments following the successful two-point conversion.
The Tigers’ offense made the requisite plays to win late, but for a large portion of the afternoon, the defense kept Missouri in the game. Defensive coordinator Steve Wilks’ unit held the Gators to just six points in the entire first half.
Florida redshirt junior wide receiver Jacob Copeland finished with 102 total yards, but 49 came on one play. Redshirt junior quarterback Emory Jones, one of the more mobile quarterbacks in the SEC, rushed for 45 yards, but it took him 17 attempts to do so.
“I think it says a lot about our maturity and our mentality,” graduate linebacker Blaze Alldredge said. “Throughout the whole year, nobody has ever shut down or quit. I don’t think you can ever say the fight left us.”
Missouri nearly closed the game out in regulation, but sophomore kicker Harrison Mevis’ 46-yard field goal with 1:04 remaining sailed just to the right of the goalpost. The missed field goal was Mevis’ second in his 18 attempts in the 2021 season, but his leg also helped Missouri muster nine points in a first half where nothing clicked offensively.
The Tigers’ offense gained 118 yards of total offense in the first 30 minutes, but three plays –– completions of 22 and 50 yards to redshirt junior wide receiver Tauskie Dove and a 26-yard completion to junior tight end Niko Hea –– accounted for 98 of those yards.
Missouri’s best drive of the half went for nine plays and 74 yards, more yards than the previous four drives combined — but even that possession ended with a Mevis field goal. Still, that didn’t deter Drinkwitz from sticking with his starting quarterback.
“I think everyone has the right to express their opinions, but these young men are playing as hard as they possibly can,” Drinkwitz said. “They’re not perfect, none of us are.”
Bazelak and the Tigers’ offense regressed even further in a third quarter that started with three consecutive three-and-outs. Matters quickly descended from bad to worse when Florida senior running back Dameon Pierce scored the game’s first touchdown a minute into the second half.
Eventually, though, Missouri woke up. A pair of Badie runs that spanned the third and fourth quarter set up a 41-yard touchdown pass to Hea down the right sideline. After the game, Drinkwitz said that Badie called the play.
Badie said he just relayed an observation he heard from redshirt senior wide receiver Barrett Banister, who noticed that the Gators were watching for the screen pass.
“The best way to help the team was to be a decoy, and that’s what I did,” Badie said. “I think I did a good job acting, and he scored the touchdown, which helped change the momentum of the game.”
The win was the final game at Faurot Field for 2021 and the second home win in a row after Missouri beat South Carolina at home 31-28 on Nov. 13. It’s the Tigers’ third win in their last four games.
Missouri’s final game of the regular season comes in Fayetteville, Arkansas, on Nov. 26 against a 7-4 Razorbacks team coming off a seven-point defeat against Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
The Tigers didn’t play their best game, but won on a two-point conversion called out of pure confidence. And, how fitting is it that on senior night, two seniors made back-to-back plays to help Missouri beat Florida and become bowl-eligible?
“There’s a lot of seniors on this team who haven’t been to a bowl game,” Hea said. “You’re clawing, fighting and scratching to get that last win, and when you finally get it, there’s relief off your shoulders.”
Edited by Mason Arneson | marneson@themaneater.com
