On Saturday, Auburn gave up a late 4th quarter lead to Missouri to lose 21-17, adding another heartbreak to the 2024 season.
On a decent opening Missouri drive, the Missouri offense stalled deep in Auburn territory, ending with a field goal. Brady Cook exited the game with an ankle injury, one that would take him out for most of the game. That would be the only scoring until the early second quarter as Missouri’s Blake Craig missed another field goal late in the first quarter.
Auburn’s offense wouldn’t get going until late in the first quarter and heading into the second as Payton Thorne got the offense into the redzone before stalling. Towns McGough kicked in a 32-yard field goal to tie the game 3-3 with 11:17 left in the second quarter. Missouri looked like they were about to score again as they got deep into Auburn territory, but Drew Pyne fumbled the ball on a bad handoff, giving Auburn the ball back with the possibility to put up some points before the half.
Auburn fans almost had deja vu on a play that has become very common this season for the Tiger offense: the fumble. Jarquez Hunter almost fumbled just one play after the Auburn defense's fumble recovery, but he was called down beforehand. With one sigh of relief came another of dismay, as Payton Thorne fumbled the ball as he hit the back of an Auburn receiver with six minutes left in the half, stopping their momentum and giving Missouri a great opportunity. Another missed field goal by Missouri gave way to a good starting Auburn drive which stalled out due to penalties and bad execution. To end the half, Mizzou ran out the clock after a good third down conversion by a Luther Burden end-around and a huge sack on the following third down by an Auburn defender.
On the first drive after halftime, Payton Thorne ran for nine yards, but got hit hard by a Missouri defender. That hit knocked some urgency into Thorne, as he quickly came back from that play with a gorgeous throw to Cam Coleman on a post route that put Auburn up 10-3 out of the gate.
After a muffed punt by Mizzou that was recovered by Antonio Kite in the endzone, Auburn led 17-3 just five minutes into the third quarter and the momentum was theirs to lose.
However, the momentum switched just a couple of minutes later.
Brady Cook came back in the late 3rd quarter to a loud cheer by the Missouri faithful and threw a huge 78 yard pass on a third down conversion to end the quarter. This huge pass resulted in Missouri in the red zone and they scored just one play later on a run by Marcus Carroll. That run, along with a two point conversion by Brady Cook, made the game 17-14.
Missouri’s defense came alive, as they did not give up a point for the rest of the game. With 5 minutes left in the game, the game rested on Brady Cook’s shoulders, and he was faced with a game-winning drive. On a long, 17-play drive that took up almost four minutes, Missouri converted a clutch 4th down play and multiple 3rd downs en route to a Jamal Roberts four yard scoring rush, which put Mizzou up 21-17 late in the 4th quarter.
Another Auburn drive ended in disappointment at the end of the game, as Payton Thorne threw three incompletions and took a sack, sealing Auburn's fate in Columbia 21-17. The Auburn Tigers are now sitting at 2-5 in the season and 0-4 in the SEC.
Auburn looks to bounce back next Saturday as they will travel to Lexington to face the University of Kentucky. That game will air at 6:45 p.m. on ESPN.
