The Missouri Tigers football team entered College Station with a top 10 national ranking and hopes of bolstering their resume for a potential College Football Playoff bid in December. They left licking their wounds and searching for answers after a 41-10 drubbing at the hands of the Texas A&M Aggies. The game started out well for the Tigers. On the first offensive play from scrimmage, Missouri quarterback Brady Cook hit wide-receiver Luther Burden III on a beautiful back shoulder pass for a 27-yard gain to get Mizzou into Texas A&M territory. Missouri then proceeded to run the ball on three consecutive plays to bring up fourth down and short. Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz chose to go for the first down rather than punt the ball. Cook tried to hit wide receiver Theo Wease Jr. but the pass fell incomplete with a flag down in the secondary. Theo Wease Jr. appeared to have been interfered with on the play, but the referees picked up the flag and said there was no foul on the play for pass interference. Mizzou never recovered from this misfire on the first drive and Texas A&M proceeded to score points on their next four consecutive drives while the Missouri offense stalled. The Aggies raced out to a 24-0 lead and the game felt over by half-time, if not sooner. Missouri dropped to No. 21 in the AP poll after the loss.
After needing overtime to beat perennial SEC doormat Vanderbilt, narrowly defeating Boston College at home, and now getting blown out in their first real test at Texas A&M, Missouri faces an uphill battle to secure a spot in the playoffs. Missouri’s next game is on the road at UMass (1-5), a team the Tigers should still handle with relative ease. After facing UMass, Mizzou gets back into SEC play and has some difficult matchups remaining against Oklahoma, Alabama and Arkansas (who also upset No. 4 Tennessee this weekend). Mizzou needs to get right offensively and get their passing game on track if they want to keep their season from spiraling. Missouri likely can only afford one more loss to have a realistic shot at a playoff spot. With several tough SEC matchups looming later in the season, Missouri will need to play much better if they want to continue to be taken seriously on a national level.