MU season hits low spot with homecoming loss to Middle Tennessee

COLUMBIA, MO. • The Missouri football team’s bowl-or-bust four-game stretch kicked off with a bust Saturday.

A big one.

Visions of spending Christmas in Southeastern Conference holiday hotbeds such as Shreveport, La., or Birmingham, Ala., probably were dashed.

In a game in which there were six lead changes, a dozen touchdowns, countless missed tackles and more than 1,200 yards of offense, Middle Tennessee turned Barry Odom’s disappointing start to his head-coaching career into a nightmare. The Blue Raiders, from Conference USA, ambushed the Tigers 51-45 to spoil homecoming and perhaps send Mizzou’s season into a spiral.

“Frustrated to no end,” Odom said after a third straight loss dropped his team to 2-5.

Yeah, there’s a lot of that going around.

A bowl game for the Tigers seems almost impossible at this point. Mizzou would have to win four of its final five games to reach the required six wins to qualify for a bowl. Their season resumes Saturday with a visit from Kentucky.

That leaves the Tigers less than a week to figure out what caused Saturday’s meltdown. In front of 52,351, Missouri spent four hours putting together its sloppiest effort of the season.

Tackling problems resurfaced throughout the defense on a day when the offense’s 45 points and 629 yards weren’t enough to overcome a batch of injuries and mistakes from the defense.

The last time Missouri allowed more points in a nonconference home game, Chauncey Simpson was coaching the Tigers. It was 1944, the country was at war overseas and Iowa Navy Pre-Flight demolished Mizzou 51-7.

This time, it was Middle Tennessee’s pass-first spread offense that went to work on Odom’s defense. Tailback I’Tavius Mathers, an Ole Miss transfer, gutted the Tigers for 215 rushing yards. Quarterback Brent Stockstill added 280 passing yards and four touchdowns.

“Our original intention was stop the run and make them pass it,” Missouri linebacker Cale Garrett said. “That’s what we were hoping to do. With the success other teams have had on us we expected them to try to run the ball, too. It just came down to doing our job and we weren’t there the whole time.”

Added Odom: “They ran the ball a lot more efficiently than I sure thought they should.”

On top of the struggles, Mizzou lost at least four players with injuries, including leading tackler Michael Scherer. He went down in the first quarter with a knee injury.

Also hurt were cornerback John Gibson (knee), defensive tackle Terry Beckner Jr. (knee), tight end Jason Reese (ankle) and safety Thomas Wilson (undisclosed injury). A fifth player, defensive end Marcell Frazier, was ejected following a targeting penalty.

Missouri didn’t play with any semblance of discipline, committing 13 penalties for 125 yards, including four defensive penalties on third downs that extended MT possessions.

Left guard Kevin Pendleton had four false start penalties. Safety Greg Taylor was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct covering a kickoff, giving Middle Tennessee possession on the 40-yard line late in the fourth quarter.

The Blue Raiders easily marched the rest of the way to take a 51-45 lead on Canon Rooker’s 21-yard field goal, the final blow that forced Mizzou to go for a touchdown in the final minutes.

It didn’t happen.

Drew Lock threw four incomplete passes to end the game.

Other than two first-half turnovers — lost fumbles by Lock and wideout J’Mon Moore — the Tigers mostly moved the ball at will, especially on the ground.

Damarea Crockett had another career game, with 156 yards and four touchdowns in 129 carries. Ish Witter added 121 yards.

On a day the Tigers rolled up 348 rushing yards, that still wasn’t enough.

“We just got to keep going,” Crockett said. “We’ve got to keep fighting. We cannot give up.”

In the final minutes of the first half, it was Missouri’s special teams’ turn to collapse.

Deep in Mizzou territory, long snapper Jake Hurrell bounced the ball back to Corey Fatony, who couldn’t corral the dribbler and had to fall on the ball at MU’s 7-yard line.

The Blue Raiders needed only one snap for Richie James to run the ball into the end zone.

As sullen as he’s been after any loss this season, Odom was especially frustrated by the breakdowns on defense — which was his specialty as MU’s defensive coordinator last season when the Tigers ranked in the top 10 nationally by several measures.

But not this year.

Saturday marked the third straight game in which the Tigers gave up 40 points or more.

“I didn’t think this would be easy,” Odom said. “I didn’t think there was going to be one easy thing about this. That’s life. I’ve got to deal in reality with who we are and where we are and what we can do to get that fixed as quickly as possible.”

Dave Matter

@dave_matter on Twitter

dmatter@post-dispatch.com

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