Missouri football’s fifth win of 2021 didn’t come easy — but after 60 minutes, it got the job done. Behind a solid performance on both sides of the ball, the Tigers defeated the South Carolina Gamecocks 31-28 on a chilly afternoon at Faurot Field Saturday.
The Tigers gained 438 total yards of offense, 258 of which came on the ground. Senior running back Tyler Badie gained 209 rushing yards on 34 attempts, totaling 6.1 yards per carry, and rushed for a touchdown.
“The way [Badie] runs the ball, he makes my blocking a lot easier,” senior tight end Daniel Parker Jr. said. “He makes my job a lot easier, so it makes it a lot of fun blocking for him.
Saturday night was the fourth time in 2021 that Badie eclipsed 200 yards on the ground. He’s the only running back in the country to have accomplished this feat.
“If there’s a better running back in our conference, I can’t wait to see him,” Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz said. “To find a way to eat up the clock and rush the ball the way he did was a big one for us.”
While Drinkwitz and Missouri players have been quick to call Badie a special player, he had a lot of help from his offensive line against the Gamecocks.
“As much as we are giving Tyler credit, our offensive line and our tight ends deserve a lot of credit too,” Drinkwitz said. “Those guys are blocking their butt off.”
Redshirt junior offensive linemen Bobby Lawrence started at right tackle after being on the scout team just weeks before.
This caused some in-game shuffling across the offensive line as redshirt junior guard Connor Wood moved to right tackle while redshirt freshman EJ Ndoma-Ogar filled in at right guard.
“What we did tonight was with a patchwork offensive line,” Drinkwitz said. “We were very limited with what we could call and how we could call it. Kudos to [offensive line coach] Marcus Johnson for having those guys ready and ready to play.”
Both Woods and Ndoma-Ogar contributed to Badie’s 19-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter to put the Tigers up 31-14.
“On that unbalanced score right in the fourth quarter that Tyler had, we had an outside zone to Woody’s side and he and EJ had an unbelievable combination block that really strung that,” Drinkwitz said.
Badie also made sure that his offensive line’s performance didn’t go unnoticed and was given plenty of credit after the game on Saturday for their outstanding performance.
“They played great,” Badie said. “We had a lot of adversity. A lot of people went down with injuries and a lot of people came out to perform for us today.”
On the final drive of the game, Missouri handed the ball off to Badie, who ran the football six times for 62 yards to put the game on ice. The Gamecocks knew what the Tigers were doing but didn’t have an answer.
The road to bowl eligibility now feels tangible for the Tigers. Next week, they play a Florida Gators squad that previously lost to the Gamecocks last Saturday and gave up 52 points to Samford. Missouri sits at 5-5 on the year, which is one win away from automatic bowl eligibility.
If the Tigers can replicate what they did on the ground Saturday night, they’ll have six wins heading into the week of Thanksgiving.
Edited by Kyle Pinnell, kpinnell@themaneater.com
