COLUMBIA, Mo. ‘- BG held a 20-6 advantage at one point last night against No. 25 Missouri, but they weren’t able to hold their own as the Tigers rallied for a 27-20 win at Faurot Field.
Senior quarterback Tyler Sheehan threw for 206 yards and a touchdown and the defense forced and recovered two fumbles, but it wasn’t enough to stop Mizzou running back Derrick Washington, who ran for 120 yards and a touchdown and quarterback Blaine Gabbert who threw for two touchdowns.
The Falcons also hurt themselves, as they committed eight penalties which cost them 99 yards ‘- one of the worst coming after a Willie Geter rush of over 40 yards was brought back after a hold. The offense also had to settle for two first-half field goals after they were unable to convert two drives in the red zone into touchdowns.
The first half did have some bright spots for BG as the defense kept the Tigers to just 20 yards in the first quarter and 116 yards in the first half. But as the offense and defense tired, Mizzou tagged them for 21 unanswered second-half points.
The comeback began after BG running back Willie Geter capped the first drive of the second-half with a 1-yard touchdown run as Gabbert threw two quick touchdowns; the first with 57 seconds left in the third quarter and the second with 10:15 left in the fourth.
Those two drives also got a crowd of 65,401 ‘- which was quieted for most of the first half ‘- back into the game.
A full recap of this game will appear in Monday’s edition of The BG News.