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The Missouri Tigers knocked off the Kentucky Wildcats 20-10 in Columbia, Missouri. Ironically 20-10 was also the score of the Tigers last win in this series back in 2014. The win moves the Tigers to 2-2 on the season while the Wildcats move under .500 at 2-3.
The story of the game was the dominant Missouri defense, or maybe the dreadful performance by the Kentucky offense. I guess it depends on who you’re talking to. The Tigers held the tandem of Terry Wilson and Joey Gatewood to 47 yards total passing. 26 of those yards came on the Wildcats only touchdown of the day, which was a strike from Wilson to Josh Ali. The Kentucky running game which had been a strong unit was held to 98 yards on 23 carries. Hard to really get anything going when you only have the ball for around 17 minutes. The Wildcats had two different carries go for 17 and 29 yards but big gains were limited otherwise. Outside of the one touchdown the Tigers forced one turnover and one 50 year field goal that was made by Matt Ruffolo.
On the flip side of things it was the Larry Rountree III show for the Tigers. The running back took the ball 37 times for 126 yards and two touchdowns. He was the bell cow for the Tigers on several long drives. Weirdly the Tigers longest drive of the day netted them no points. 21 plays 66 yards including two fourth down conversions by Connor Bazelak.
The Tigers ran 92 plays and the Kentucky defense deserves a ton of credit for not breaking in the most important spots despite being on the field for so long. After having his coming out party against LSU, Bazelak was a little more quiet against the Cats. He was taking what an outstanding Kentucky secondary was giving him and finished 21-for-30 for 201 yards and most importantly against this Kentucky defense, no turnovers. That Kentucky defense got six interceptions against Mississippi State and three against Tennessee.
Kentucky will look to rebound in a tough matchup next week against the Georgia Bulldogs, while Mizzou will head down to Gainesville to take on the Florida Gators. Well, hopefully.