In a top-15 matchup between No. 15 Missouri and No. 10 Vanderbilt with ESPN’s College Gameday in Nashville, Mizzou had the opportunity to make a statement on the road and spoil the Vandy party.
Unfortunately,
that wasn’t the case. Saturday belonged to Commodores as they proved why they’re legitimate College Football Playoff contenders.
Let’s get to the five takeaways from a disappointing and gut-wrenching 17-10 loss.
1) Diego Pavia Makes the Winning Plays
Look, in a loss – sometimes you just give credit to the opponent. We knew coming in that Pavia was the real deal. He wasn’t perfect by any means – and that was mostly because of the Mizzou defense, but he found a way to win. He might not be the frontrunner because that currently belongs to Ty Simpson, but it wouldn’t be shocking at all to see Pavia as a Heisman finalist as long as Vanderbilt keeps winning.
2) Eli Drinkwitz is Still Searching for a Statement Win
With the loss today, Missouri is now 27-7 since the start of the 2022 season. That’s still pretty dang good. What’s missing from Drinkwitz’s resume is a statement, signature win to earn national respect. Wins over ranked Kansas State and Tennessee teams plus the Cotton Bowl victory over Ohio State in the 2022 season were great – but not quite to the elite level.
Mizzou had their opportunities against Alabama and Vanderbilt but couldn’t deliver. It’s fair to say that they’re pretty dang close to getting over the hump, though.
3) The Season Isn’t Over, But …
Mizzou fell to 6-2. The Tigers are bowl eligible and there’s still plenty to play for. The sky isn’t falling because a road loss to the No. 10 in the country doesn’t exactly kill the season. Having said that – the room for error to make the CFP is officially gone. The Tigers will now have to win out their final four games of the regular season. Unlikely? Yes, but that’s their only path now.
IF they get to 10-2 with wins over Texas A&M and Oklahoma, they’d be in the 12-team playoff — but I wouldn’t count on it at the current state.
4) Injuries are a part of the game
Look, you can question Kirby Moore’s play calling for going for it on 4th and goal, but it wasn’t the unfortunate reason why Beau Pribula was injured.
It’s football. Injuries suck. Things happen. Pribula was ruled out for the rest of the game — and wh0 kn0ws what his status is for the rest of the season.
At the current moment, Pribula’s status in unclear.
5) Matt Zollers Stepped Up
How about the true freshman? It was an incredibly tough situation for him — replacing Pribula on the road against a Top-10 Vanderbilt team. However, he gave Mizzou a chance to win.
Zollers’ stat-line finished with 14/23 with 138 yards and a touchdown pass. That TD pass freshman tight end Jude James to tie the game at 10-10 with 12:49 remaining in the fourth quarter.
On the final drive, he connected with Kevin Coleman Jr. on a 36-yard Hail-Mary pass — but it was correctly ruled short of the goal-line as time expired.
Missouri was that short. They’re a good, but not great team. They’re close, but not there yet.
