The No. 23 Missouri Tigers trailed 21-6 at halftime to South Carolina. It looked like every other first-half performance in the Tigers’ other two losses that resulted in blowouts and in each one of those games, the second half only got uglier.

Fortunately for Missouri, a different story unfolded against the Gamecocks in the second half. Missouri got a stop on its first defensive possession and the first offensive drive resulted in a Marcus Carroll rushing touchdown. The so-called grittiness of this Missouri team that head coach Eli Drinkwitz references so often was in full effect in Columbia, S.C. Unfortunately for the Tigers, they came up just short.

“[I] just think there’s a relentlessness that our team plays with and believes in and [we] just didn’t have enough tonight,” Drinkwitz said.

A few select moments in the first half ended up directly impacting the final score. Missouri kicker Blake Craig was called upon multiple times in the first half because of the Tigers’ inability to score touchdowns in the red zone, but his one miss on four attempts would have narrowed the score.

Trailing 7-6 with seven minutes remaining in the first half, Gamecock quarterback LaNorris Sellers was picked off by Tiger defensive back Dreyden Norwood. An opportunity to take the lead was right in the hands of the Missouri offense, but an incompletion to receiver Marquis Johnson, a short toss to Luther Burden III and an eight-yard sack in which Cook was the victim shut down the drive quicker than it started. Craig then missed the field goal the following play and the Tigers failed to capitalize on a great early scoring opportunity.

“I think that’s the difference in the game,” Drinkwitz said. “In the first half, we had the fourth down stop and we had the turnover and didn’t get any points off the turnover.”

Third downs were an issue all night too. Three of Craig’s four attempts came in the first half and were a symbol of the Tigers’ inability to score touchdowns. If one of those field goal attempts was a touchdown instead, again, the final score is completely different.

“Our inability to convert third downs in the red zone in the first half was it was why we were behind,” Drinkwitz said.

Cook did not have an awful first half, but he too missed opportunities the Tigers could have capitalized on.

“I mean, it’s those third downs in the first half that we were not able to convert on and we had to kick it,” Cook said. “That’s a huge deal.”

There were moments in the game where the energy levels faltered. At some points, Cook was a part of that bad energy. Coming back after being down 21-6 would never be easy and a hot start to begin the second half and everyone needed to be ready to go. Cook started slow, but thanks to his teammates, he was revitalized.

“I’ll say the team picked me up and I was even feeling a little flat coming out at halftime and immediately I realized the energy’s up,” Cook said. “We’re in a good spot.”

After the third loss of the season, the Tigers travel to Starkville, Miss to take on the Mississippi State Bulldogs. Kickoff is slated for 3:15 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 23.

Mizzou Falls to South Carolina in Back and Fourth Battle
Mizzou Tigers Football Schedule, Results, Bowl Possibilities
Instant Takeaways From Mizzou’s Climactic Loss to South Carolina

When the chips were down, the superstars stepped up.

After blowing a 21-6 lead against Missouri with a nightmare second half, South Carolina football found one late answer to re-take the lead, and do so with its two best players.

With the ball at the Missouri 15-yard-line in the final seconds, an agonized Williams-Brice Stadium crowd watched LaNorris Sellers complete a shovel pass to Rocket Sanders, and the star running back did the rest with a bobbing and weaving run over the goal line.

It was the fourth — and final — lead change of a frenetic last five minutes and change, the last note of an instant classic at Williams-Brice Stadium as No. 21 South Carolina beat No. 23 Missouri 34-30, snapping its five-game losing streak against the Tigers in the most dramatic way possible.

Missouri (7-3, 3-3 SEC) had taken the lead thanks to its own superstars just moments earlier when Brady Cook connected with Luther Burden III on a fourth-and-5 touchdown pass from 37 yards out, driving a dagger into the hearts of South Carolina (7-3, 5-3 SEC) fans after the home team blew a 21-6 halftime lead.

But Sellers and the offense answered with a masterful drive, doing exactly what it could not in close losses earlier in the season: answer the bell and follow it with a stop. Sellers hit Jared Brown and Daleveon Campbell for key passes to set it up, before hitting Rocket on the shovel pass heard ‘round Columbia.

South Carolina’s defense found one final stop in the closing seconds when Jalon Kilgore intercepted an errant Cook pass over the middle, and the Gamecocks prevailed with the win of their season, and one of the best wins of the Shane Beamer era. The win also clinched Beamer’s first SEC-winning season at South Carolina and the program’s first since 2017.

Missouri erased the initial 15-point deficit mostly thanks to running back Nate Noel, who became the first player to rush for over 100 yards against the Gamecocks this season and had the mark before the end of the third quarter. The South Carolina spiral started when a 3rd quarter fourth-and-4 attempt fell incomplete, and the Tigers ripped off a drive the other way to find their first touchdown of the night.

There were warning shots earlier — Missouri had two 10-play, 57-yard drives that ended in field goals plus another long drive which ended in a missed field goal.

But as the South Carolina offense fizzled in the second half following a hot three-touchdown first half, Missouri’s ground-and-pound scheme started to take a toll on the Gamecock defense. Creases opened up, Noel found them, and hands on hips were apparent all over the defensive line.

When quarterback Brady Cook connected with Marquis Johnson for a gain of 49 yards over the top, it set up Noel for a one-yard touchdown run which with the ensuing extra point, gave Missouri the lead.

That was the first of the four fourth-quarter lead changes, and the second came after Sellers connected with fellow freshman Michael Smith on a five-yard pass. It was the second time you could reasonably think someone just picked up the game-winning score, and there were still over five minutes left.

Then came the Cook and Burden show, which looked like enough to get Missouri out of jail after its poor first half.

But not against Sellers and Sanders, though.

No Missouri misery this time.

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Looking to continue the conversation? Join us on the insider’s forum to talk all things South Carolina football.

The Mayor’s Cup is on the line as South Carolina welcomes another top 25 team in Missouri to Williams-Brice Stadium.

ESPN’s College Gameday is in Athens, Ga for the Georgia-Tennessee matchup. During their picks segment they made sure to focus on a key SEC rivalry.

Missouri has a 9-5 series lead in the Mayor’s Cup, winning five consecutive games. The Gamecocks will look to end that trend riding high after wins over Texas A&M and Vanderbilt. The Gameday hosts gave their thoughts on who wins this key battle.

ESPN College Gameday Picks:
Desmond Howard: South Carolina Gamecocks
Nick Saban: South Carolina Gamecocks
Cody Rhodes: South Carolina Gamecocks
Pat McAfee: South Carolina Gamecocks
Lee Corso: South Carolina Gamecocks
Kirk Herbstriet: South Carolina Gamecocks

Kickoff is set for 4:15 between the Gamecocks and Tigers. Follow us here for live coverage of the game.

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