COLUMBIA, Mo. _ A heavyweight shootout featuring more than 1,000 yards of offense and waged between the reigning national champions and a team desperate to finally taste victory came down a defensive stand over 3 feet of turf.
Naturally.
This time, Missouri stood taller.
Back-to-back pass breakups by linebacker Nick Bolton and safety Joshuah Bledsoe clinched Mizzou's 45-41 heart-stopping win over No. 17 Louisiana State in the final seconds Saturday at Memorial Stadium, a game that someday far more than the 10,013 in attendance will claim they witnessed with their own eyes.
Eli Drinkwitz was there and won't forget what he saw.
"It was our will versus theirs," Missouri's rookie head coach said after earning his first win. "We wanted it more. Bottom line."
This one was a originally scheduled for Baton Rouge, Louisiana, until the threat of Hurricane Delta moved the game north 700 miles. But just when Drinkwitz's Tigers thought they caught a break, injuries and coronavirus contact tracing depleted any home-field advantage.
Drinkwitz's team, 14-point underdogs at kickoff, had to play without three of its top receivers, including two starters, and three of its top four defensive tackles. Across Faurot Field stood Ed Orgeron's collection of four- and five-star athletes, the third straight nationally ranked opponent for Mizzou, something no team in school history had faced the first three weeks of the season.
But as Drinkwitz told anyone who'd listen after the victory, Saturday was about the Tigers who were available to play, not the ones who weren't.
"Our guys didn't flinch today," he said after a wild celebration in the locker room. "They didn't flinch after terrible turnovers. They didn't flinch after getting the ball on the 1-yard line. They didn't flinch being down. They just kept fighting. That's our number one core value: always compete.
"And I'm damn proud of this football team."
The win snapped a streak of 27 consecutive losses when the Tigers were underdogs by two touchdowns or more. The last win came on Nov. 1, 1997, when Larry Smith's 14-point underdog Tigers beat No. 12 Oklahoma State 51-50 in double overtime on the road.
There was plenty for Drinkwitz and Mizzou fans to savor Saturday, perhaps nothing better than the gumption his defense displayed in the deciding moments, a week after Tennessee's running game trampled the Tigers on the road. Yes, Mizzou fumbled five times, gave up 479 yards and four passing touchdowns, but it thwarted LSU on all 10 of its third downs, smothered the running game all day and broke up 10 passes.
Mizzou's offense delivered, too.
On a coming of age afternoon for quarterback Connor Bazelak, the redshirt freshman's fourth touchdown pass to Niko Hea put Mizzou (1-2) ahead 45-41 with 5:18 left _ plenty of time for LSU's prolific attack to regain the lead and crush MU's dreams. In nine snaps, Brennan Myles guided LSU (1-2) to the Mizzou 1-yard line with 44 seconds left.
Drinkwitz declined to use either of remaining two timeouts, instead trusting his defense to clinch the victory. The stakes were as clear as the blue sky on this October day.
"If they score, we lose and go 0-3," Bolton said. "This is where we're supposed to protect our house."
On first and second down, Mizzou swarmed running back Tyrion Davis-Price at the line of scrimmage. On third down, Bolton noticed where LSU stationed wide receiver Terrace Marshall Jr. before the snap and figured Brennan would target him with a quick throw. Instead, Bolton slapped the pass to the ground.
Fourth down.
Brennan rolled right looking toward _ who else? _ Marshall, who had abused Mizzou's secondary for 11 catches, 235 yards and three touchdowns. Marshall gave Bledsoe a shove in the end zone, but the senior safety held his ground and swatted away LSU's rally, setting off a not-so-socially distanced party on the Mizzou sideline. The Tigers even shot off fireworks from the north concourse _ with 16 seconds on the clock.
From the shadow of his own end zone, Bazelak lined up in every team's favorite formation _ victory offense _ and took a knee to secure the win and salvage what could have been a dreadful start to the season.
"I've never got shocked by lighting, but I think that's what it sort of feels like it," defensive end Tre Williams said after the victory. "It feels good getting out of that storm."
Throughout the day it was Bazelak delivering Mizzou's bolts of offense for an attack that piled up 586 yards. In his second career start and first at home, he connected on 29 of 34 pass attempts for 406 yards and four touchdowns. His single-game passer rating (224.4) was the sixth-best in team history. Bazelak did it Saturday with senior starting receivers Damon Hazelton Jr. and KeKe Chism both in quarantine, two of the six players unavailable as a result of one positive COVID-19 case. Instead, Bazelak made the most out of an unproven cast of receivers, led by career backup Tauskie Dove (six catches for 83 yards) and walk-on junior college transfer D'ionte Smith (six for 54) .
Drinkwitz helped his QB with a deep dive into the playbook, a dash of trick plays and his patented mix of dizzying pre-snap motions, misdirection and option pitches. Drinkwitz called a flea flicker on the game's first series, a perfectly executed handoff to Larry Rountree III, a toss back to Bazelak and a strike downfield to Dove for a 58-yard touchdown and a 7-0 lead, the first time Mizzou's led on the scoreboard all season.
Bazelak added a 41-yard TD pass to Micah Wilson, a converted quarterback getting his most action at wideout, and a 21-yard score to running back Tyler Badie. At one point in the second half, Bazelak had completed 15 consecutive passes.
"His poise in the pocket is phenomenal," Wilson said. "Obviously, he's very accurate. He's just got something to him. He delivers the passes whenever the pressure's on, which is a great quality in a quarterback."
Nobody personified the Tigers' grit more than Bolton, who was limited in practice last week with an undisclosed injury. He visited the locker room in the second half Saturday for treatment and late in the game was fighting through lower-body cramps.
But Mizzou's best player missed all of one snap in the second half, finished with a game-high 11 tackles, batted down three passes and helped will his team to a much-needed victory.
"I'm going through a little pain here and there," he said. "But pain's only temporary. Wins are forever."
