Backups can’t power Missouri football to Armed Forces Bowl win against Army

For its first bowl game since 2018, Missouri football donned a different look than it did not just three years ago, but three weeks ago.

Stars of that 2018 Liberty Bowl team such as Drew Lock and Larry Rountree III departed for the greener pastures of the NFL, but the focal points of this year’s team didn’t take the field against Army in the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl for different reasons.

Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz denoted redshirt sophomore quarterback Connor Bazelak and senior running back Tyler Badie as healthy scratches, opting for redshirt freshman quarterback Brady Cook to make his first collegiate start while graduate student Dawson Downing and sophomore Elijah Young split carries at running back.

Missouri’s defensive changes didn’t come by choice. Defensive coordinator Steve Wilks knew junior safety Martez Manuel wouldn’t be part of Wednesday’s game plan, but he didn’t account for losing three staples of his secondary throughout the game. Sophomore safety Jaylon Carlies, redshirt senior safety Shawn Robinson and graduate student defensive back Allie Green IV all sustained injuries in the first half; only Robinson returned by game’s end.

The Tigers’ backups displayed flashes of potential from the underclassmen and swan-song performances from the Liberty Bowl holdovers against the 8-4 Black Knights. However, the cobbled-together lineup couldn’t withstand Army’s triple-option approach and faltered in critical moments in a 24-22 loss in Fort Worth, Texas on Wednesday.

“A lot of people [were] out — [we had] a lot of injuries — even had injuries throughout the game,” Drinkwitz said. “Our guys gave it everything they had, gave us a chance and just [came] up one play short.” 

Cook appeared more comfortable leading the offense than he did in his last meaningful action against then-No. 1 Georgia in early November from the game’s first drive. He improvised on a third-down pass as he flicked the ball to Downing on a checkdown for a 14-yard pickup. A few plays later, he called his own number for a 30-yard touchdown run on an RPO play. 

Downing and Young compounded Cook’s success as Badie’s replacement. Both picked up rushes for a dozen yards on the drive in as the two-man rotation pooled together 144 rushing yards against the Black Knights’ that entered the contest ranked No. 12 in the nation.

While Missouri entered the half leading 16-7, the margin could’ve been vastly larger. 

After Army missed a field goal on its opening possession, Missouri worked up to the goal line quickly on a drive buoyed by two 20-yard plays by Young and graduate-student wide receiver Keke Chism. However, back-to-back negative yardage plays forced a 22-yard chip shot for sophomore kicker Harrison Mevis.

Missouri’s offense moved the ball at a slower pace on its next drive, running almost eight minutes off the clock on the 16-drive, but the drive once again petered out inside Army’s 10-yard line after Mevis split the uprights once again. 

The Tigers needed all the points they could get as Army’s banal, run-heavy triple-option offense functions like a world-class magician: The Missouri defense knew the offense authored by Army head coach Jeff Monken was going to pull a rabbit out of its hat, but it couldn’t often predict where it came out. 

“A lot of it I think just came down to some one-on-ones that we lost,” graduate linebacker Blaze Alldredge said. “We divided up too many leaky yards and too many missed tackles.”

Army’s offense ran the ball 14 times on its 17-play, 8:25-consuming drive to open the second half, and Missouri never forced a stop as junior running back JaKobi Buchanan rumbled in from 10 yards out to make it cut the deficit to two.

On the next possession, which chewed 6:29 off the clock, the Tigers thought they figured out Army’s fourth down attack inside the red zone, but junior quarterback Tyhier Tyler tricked the defense, faking a pitch to his left before hitting senior running back Brandon Walters on a crossing route to give the Black Knights their first lead of the game.

The difference between the two drives each offense is the Tigers committed costly turnovers while the Black Knights kept a clean sheet in the turnover column. While Army converted all five of its fourth down attempts, Missouri turned the ball over on downs at the Army 44-yard line when Downing couldn’t surge through the mass of men up front. On the ensuing drive, he fumbled immediately after the Tigers crossed midfield.

Cook led the offense past midfield on all but one of the team’s eight drives, but converted only one of them into touchdowns.

“Obviously in the second half, the turnover was huge,” Drinkwitz said.

Despite all those missteps, the defense gave Cook one final chance to play hero. Two consecutive three-and-outs from the Army offense took only 3:13 off the clock and allotted 2:44 for the offense to work with no timeouts.

Cook wasted no time working the offense up the field by making smart, high-percentage throws to gain first-down yardage on his first three pass attempts of the drive. On his ninth pass attempt, Chism hauled in a pass in the back of the end zone to secure the all-elusive touchdown and put the Tigers ahead.

Drinkwitz kept the offense on the field in an attempt to give the defense a field-goal cushion, but Cook’s accuracy failed him in that critical juncture as Downing’s arms were a couple inches too short to haul in a wide-open speed out route. 

Even as Cook played error-free football with 291 total yards, two touchdowns and zero turnovers, the missed 2-point conversion proved to be Missouri’s downfall.

“Obviously [I] made some costly mistakes and I missed the throw when it mattered most,” Cook said.

Senior quarterback Jabari Laws took the field with 71 seconds remaining and carved up the Tiger defense. A rush, pass and facemask penalty on freshman defensive back DJ Jackson on the drive’s first three plays placed Army at the Missouri 37-yard line with 40 seconds and two timeouts. Four plays later, Monken gauged that the offense moved close enough for Talley to attempt his 41-yard game-winner.

If you’ve watched enough Missouri football, the outcome almost seemed predetermined as Talley drilled the kick and the Tigers incurred an illegal substitution penalty to boot.

Missouri picked up the amount of wins required to secure a bowl bid, but the most important wins this season came off the field. The groundbreaking of a new indoor football-only practice facility on the Faurot Field footprint and the program’s best recruiting class ever signifies an upward trajectory for years to come so the wait for the next bowl game won’t be quite as long.

“This team will never be the same again, just losing the seniors, losing people to transfers, incoming recruits coming in,” Drinkwitz said. “So I think there is some preview of what the future holds.”

Edited by Kyle Pinnell | kpinnell@themaneater.com