Mizzou's embarrassing loss revealed the Tigers' possible true colors

COLLEGE STATION, Tx. — Cries of “overrated” filled Kyle Field in the fourth quarter as the No. 25 Texas A&M Aggies hosted the No. 9 Missouri Tigers.

It's difficult to argue against Aggie fans' assessment.

In a crucial game planned for Missouri in the middle of the season, the previously undefeated Tigers were unable to play in a 41-10 defeat.

Missouri could have suffered a narrow loss against Texas A&M and its goals for the 2024 season would be just fine.

But an embarrassing, lifeless loss is a blow to the chest to Missouri's postseason hopes.

There were legitimate questions about the top-10 Tigers after they needed two overtimes to knock off Vanderbilt in Week 4. But the only number that mattered was the Tigers' 4-0 record entering the bye-bye week.

The lifeless performance in the first away game of the season answered these questions completely wrong for the Tigers.

The problems that Missouri caught on tape early in the season — the inability to generate explosive passes, convert third downs and penalties — were exposed and laid bare for all of Kyle Field to see.

Missouri entered the game confident after a bye week.

Quarterback Brady Cook provided bulletin board material and said the speakers at practice would be louder than the crowd at Kyle Field.

Head coach Eli Drinkwitz cited the “semantics” of even considering Conner Weigman starting quarterback for Texas A&M.

But the referees apparently didn't have adequate preparation and Weigman was announced as the starter ahead of Marcel Reed just a few minutes before kickoff.

Even after the completely menacing production of Texas A&M's painfully loud Power exit, Missouri took an aggressive approach.

On the first play from scrimmage, Cook threw a 27-yard reception down the right sideline to wide receiver Luther Burden III, marking Cook's fourth completion of 20-plus yards this season.

Even after the first drive stalled past midfield, Missouri remained aggressive and attempted to convert a 4th-and-2 at the Texas A&M 40, which resulted in a turnover on downs after the officials called a defensive pass interference -Call had been picked up.

Things went downhill for Missouri from there, finding themselves trailing 24-0 at the end of the first half.

Cook's long reception to Burden seemed to give Cook and the offense false hope that their deep passing woes were behind them. With the deep pass becoming a staple of the Missouri offense in 2023, Cook was largely unable to hit his receivers quickly.

Even on one of Cook's few successful deep passes, a 75-yard reception that Burden took into the end zone, another lingering problem for the Missouri offense emerged.

An ineligible downfield receiver penalty on offensive lineman Mitch Walters pulled the Tigers back to their own 25-yard line.

Even when Missouri played FCS Murray State in Week 1 or Buffalo in Week 2, penalties were a constant problem. Drinkwitz continued to take responsibility for alignment penalties – like the costly ineligible receiver downfield – through the first four weeks. Holding and other execution penalties were a constant focus of practice for the Tigers, collecting 21 penalties in the first four weeks.

But in addition to the call on Walters, the Missouri offense was accused of a delay of game, an illegal formation and two false starts.

The delay in play and false starts can be attributed in part to the disgusting standard environment at Kyle Field. Missouri's offense appeared exhausted early in the game.

Texas A&M's offense took advantage of the Missouri offense's slow start for the third straight game and took an early lead to put the Tigers in a hole they couldn't get out of.

When running back Le'Veon Moss opened the second half with a carry 75 yards to the end zone to give the Aggies a 31-0 lead, it was the final nail in an already tightly closed coffin for Missouri.

Week 6 should be a statement win for Missouri to show it can win on the road and overcome the struggles it faced early in the season. Instead, it became Texas A&M's biggest win in the history of a top-10 program.

It turned out to say exactly the opposite about the state of the Missouri Tigers as they had hoped.