In their first road game of the season, the Missouri Tigers fell to No. 25 Texas A&M in a 41-10 blowout.

With the loss, Missouri sits at 4-1 on the year. They are now 1-1 in conference play and dropped to No. 21 in the AP Poll.

The Aggies gained momentum after they stopped the Tigers on fourth down early in the game. This gave Texas A&M the ball at their 40-yard line and eight plays later, the Aggies found themselves in the endzone. Their scoring drive was highlighted by a 25-yard run from running back Amari Daniels, followed by a punch-in by Daniels one play later to put the Aggies up 7-0.

The Aggies tacked on another 3 points when kicker Randy Bond nailed a 44-yard field goal to put Texas A&M up 10-0 in the first quarter. 

The home team did not slow down in the second quarter, racking up two more touchdowns. The first was a 1-yard run by Daniels. The second came when running back Le’Veon Moss pounded his way into the endzone to put Texas A&M up 24-0.

The efficiency of the offense was led by quarterback Connor Weigman. In the first half, Weigman had a 79% completion percentage. He ended the day with 276 passing yards.

“[Weigman is a] really good player. He was very accurate today, [and] did a great job scrambling,” Missouri Head Coach Eliah Drinkwitz said. “[He] threw the football extremely well. We weren’t ever able to make him uncomfortable.”

The Tigers were unable to match the pace of the Aggies. After an electric 27-yard pass to receiver Luther Burden III on the first play of the game, Missouri’s offense fizzled out. The first two Missouri offensive drives included a failed fourth down conversion and a sack for loss of quarterback Brady Cook.

In addition to being outplayed in the first quarter, the Tigers could not seem to get out of their own way. On Missouri’s third offensive possession of the game, a 75-yard touchdown was negated by an ineligible receiver downfield penalty.

“[It was] just a really poor performance by my football team, and it starts with me, and I apologize to our fans,” Drinkwitz said. “It’s my responsibility for us to be better.” 

The second half was more of the same, with the Aggies running all over the Tigers.

On the very first play of the half, Moss broke loose and rushed 75 yards to the endzone, extending the Aggies’ lead to 31-0. Bond made a 38-yard field goal to add three more to the scoreboard later.

It was an ugly performance by the Tiger defense, which seemed unable to come up with much-needed stops.

“In my opinion, we’re going to respond. We’re going to keep going [and] growing,”  defensive tackle Kristian Williams said. “At the end of the day, to us, our season just started.” 

The Tigers put their first points on the board with 5:06 left in the third quarter. The score came from a 59-yard reception by Theo Wease Jr, making the score 34-7.

The Aggies were unphased and continued to put points on the board. Moss scored his third rushing touchdown from 18 yards out to give the Aggies a 41-7 lead.

Missouri’s Blake Craig ended up kicking a 23-yard field goal with 10 seconds left in the game to make the final score 41-10.

The mere 10 points Missouri put up were indicative of the Tigers’ overall performance. The offense had five three-and-outs and was 5-for-15 on third-down conversions. They also went 1-for-4 on fourth-down conversions. 

Cook played poorly, completing 13 of his 31 passes on the day and taking six sacks. The run game was completely shut down as well, with running back Nate Noel held to only 30 yards on 10 carries. 

The two receiving leaders showed more promise for Missouri, with Burden and Wease combining for 154 yards on nine catches. Still, the offense did not play to its standard.

“I take full responsibility for this. I’m a captain; I’m supposed to lead the team,” Wease said. “There’s no bad teams, there’s bad leaders, so I’m going to go back to the drawing board and do as much as I can.”

The Tigers have the opportunity to bounce back from this loss when they travel to Amherst, Mass. to face the UMass Minutemen next Saturday at 11 a.m. 

Edited by Michael Stamps | mstamps@themaneater.com

Copyedited by Natalie Kientzy | nkientzy@themaneater.com

Edited by Annie Goodykoontz | agoodykoontz@themaneater.com