Missouri football’s offense failed to give its defensive counterpart the needed scoring support in a 34-17 loss against No. 25 Arkansas.

“It was a lot of plays out there that we missed from an execution standpoint or maybe it was penalties and things like that,” graduate wide receiver Keke Chism said. “Just kind of shooting ourselves in the foot at the wrong time just was kind of the biggest thing that held us back.”

While the Tigers (6-6, 3-5 SEC) held an advantage in both first downs and time of possession against the Razorbacks (8-4, 4-4 SEC), Missouri’s inability to finish drives continued to plague them on Friday night at Razorback Stadium. Even though the offense found many opportunities in Arkansas territory, there appeared to be an invisible force field keeping Missouri out of not just the end zone, but the red zone as well.

Missouri’s first drive started off promising enough. Freshman wide receiver Dominic Lovett drew a pass interference call on the first play of the contest, which gave the Tigers a free 15-yard gain. Redshirt sophomore quarterback Connor Bazelak then had an opportunity to take advantage of the field position by calling senior wide receiver Boo Smith’s number on a third-down seam route, but Bazelak overthrew his man by 2 yards. 

The throw foreshadowed the quarterback’s season-worst performance in which Bazelak finished with 65 yards and an interception and missed more throws than he made.

“We missed a wide open pass down the middle that we felt we had dialed up,” Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz said. “After that we weren’t able to really get into a rhythm consistently completing footballs down the field.” 

With Drinkwitz not turning to his QB1 as much, he called senior running back Tyler Badie’s number for a career-high 41 carries with 219 yards and a touchdown as he eclipsed the program’s single-season rushing record.

“He did his thing all season and you know what he did was amazing and it was great to get the chance to witness that,” graduate linebacker Blaze Alldredge said.

But even as Badie capped off a stellar regular season with his fifth performance over 200-yard rushing yards performance, he couldn’t get much help when the Tigers threatened in enemy territory. 

Just inside the Arkansas 40-yard line, Badie picked up 6 yards on a second-and-5 to give the Tigers a first down. However, an illegal block from graduate center Michael Maietti negated the play and pushed Missouri back near midfield, where the Tigers settled for a punt.

A few drives later, Badie picked up 17 yards with a carry along the Missouri sideline as the Tigers tried to squeeze some points out of a final first-half drive. But the officials called redshirt junior guard Connor Wood for holding that turned the big gain into a 10-yard loss. 

“[We] kept getting big penalties that were putting us way out of whack on second and longs and third and longs and we were unable to sustain drives,” Drinkwitz said

Outside of penalties and missed plays, play-calling decisions also hampered Missouri’s ability to build steam into the red zone. 

At the start of the second quarter, Missouri had a third-and-11 at the Arkansas 28-yard line. Instead of trying to stretch the field, Bazelak attempted to work the boundary with a screen pass to Chism. Arkansas redshirt senior linebacker Hayden Henry snuffed out the play at the line of scrimmage, forcing a field goal.

On the drive prior, the Tigers found themselves in position for a scoring drive after a Badie 12-yard rush was compounded by an Arkansas personal foul call. But Missouri only picked up 5 yards in its next four plays, including a Bazelak throw that sailed too far behind redshirt senior wide receiver Barrett Banister on fourth down.

Most of Missouri’s opportunities came in the first half, when the defense held Arkansas to 10 points and 167 total yards. But the first-half gridlock that kept the Tigers in the game gave way, as the Razorbacks outgained Missouri 258-129 in the second half, with nearly half of the Tigers’ yards coming on the team’s lone touchdown drive with the game already out of hand.

After Missouri’s offense proved to be a strong suit in the first part of the season, the Tigers finished their regular season with just two touchdowns in their final eight regulation quarters. 

“Today’s about us not finding a way to get it done, me not doing a good enough job having my team prepared, [and] not doing a good enough job offensively having us ready to go,” Drinkwitz said.

The Tigers wrapped up their bowl berth with a win over Florida on Nov. 20, and the loss wraps up Missouri’s third consecutive .500 season. But with most of the talent being from former Missouri head coach and current Arkansas defensive coordinator Barry Odom’s recruiting classes, the Tigers are pleased to have the chance to play football past Friday while continuing to build in Drinkwitz’s second season as head coach.

“At the end of the day, you just take your lemons and you make lemonade,” Alldredge said. “We’re going to keep pushing and hopefully get a good bowl and go out there and get a nice win and just keep building on that. It’s only a year or two. It’s a process to build a program, especially in the SEC, and not a lot of people really obtain overnight success.”

Edited by Kyle Pinnell, kpinnell@themaneater.com