Tigers Defense Shows Off in 23-10 Upset of No. 25 South Carolina
The Missouri Tigers face the South Carolina Gamecocks on Saturday at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia. The winner gets the Mayor's Cup since both flagship schools are located in Columbia of their respective state.
The Gamecocks are trying to win their first game as a ranked team in five years and continue its longest SEC winning streak while the Tigers are simply trying to get to .500 on the year.
South Carolina won the toss to open the game but elected to defer, giving the Tigers the ball first. Mizzou could get nothing going offensively and went three-and-out in its first drive.
South Carolina didn't do much better with just five offensive plays before being forced to punt.
But the Tigers found a little something in their next opportunity, a 15-play, 96-yard drive that took just short of seven minutes off the clock.
Tigers' quarterback Brady Cook carried the ball three yards to the end zone. Cook was 6-of-6 for 54 yards on the drive as the Gamecocks defense seemed confused defensively at times.
The Gamecocks were finally able to get on the board with a touchdown late in the half as quarterback Spencer Rattler carried the ball in from seven yards out.
The Tigers' offense dominated the first half with two touchdowns - the Cook carry and another from Cody Schrader - and a field goal to go along with 254 yards of offense.
That gave Missouri a 17-7 halftime lead.
Scoring stalled in the second half until the 4:12 mark of the third quarter when South Carolina kicker Mitch Jeter hit from 39 yards.
But the Tigers matched it with field goals of 50-yards and 34-yards to close things out late.
Cook finished the game 17-of-26 for 224 yards and a rushing touchdown while Shrader had 81 yards on 22 carries and a touchdown.
Lovett led the way with 10 catches on 10 targets for 148 yards.
The Tigers' defense held South Carolina to just 203 total net yards on the night.
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