Missouri keeps Battle Line Rivalry trophy by rallying past Arkansas late

BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON

For the fourth home conference game this season, Missouri and its head coach Eli Drinkwitz pulled a home game in Columbia, Mo., out of the fire at the end.

Senior quarterback Brady Cooks 30-yard touchdown run with 1:53 left proved to the game-winning score in Missouri’s 28-21 Battle Line Rivalry win over Arkansas and continued a trend this season at Faurot Field.

The Tigers (9-3, 5-3), who got a late defensive stand against Arkansas as time ran out, had beaten Vanderbilt in double overtime at home this season and also rallied with fourth quarter comebacks to down visiting Auburn and Oklahoma.

“I sum it up just like I sum up this team – just a really gritty, tough team that is not always the prettiest, but always in the fight and finding a way to win the game,” Drinkwitz said on his post-game radio show.

“Just really proud of them. Defense got us big turnovers, obviously got us the big stop right at the end. And for (quarterback) Brady Cook to lead us own that drive right there was pretty awesome.”

It was Missouri’s third straight win over Arkansas (6-6, 3-5) and the fourth in five seasons since the Alma native took over as head coach of the Tigers.

Arkansas had taken a 21-20 advantage on Ja’Quiden Jackson’s third touchdown run of the day with 4:19 remaining.

It was a 9-yard scoring dash after Jackson (18 carries, 87 yards) had earlier gotten into end zone on touchdown jaunts of 2 and 12 yards in the second and third quarters, respectively.

Arkansas quarterback Taylen Green was 21 of 35 passing for 229 yards and rushed 14 times for 53 yards while Andrew Armstrong had 9 catches for 128 yards.

The Razorbacks outgained the Tigers377-361 yards on total offense, but had two fumbles lost that led to 14 points for Missouri while Tigers did not have any turnovers.

The Razorbacks also had 10 penalties for 72 yards while the line team had 7 for 46.

“The team that makes the fewest mistakes is going to win the game and that is what we did tonight,” noted the Alma-born Drinkwitz.

After Jackson’s third scoring run, Missouri took the football 75 in 8 plays with Cook dashing the racing in untouched.

Luther Burden caught the ensuing two-point conversion pass to set the final score.

“That’s called a walk off,” Drinkwitz said. “Again, it’s just a tough gritty team that believes in each other and refuses to give in. I’m really, really proud of them.”

The game was played in temperatures as low as 29 degrees and snow at times.

There was an announced crowd of 62,621, but obviously some with tickets stayed home.

Drinkwitz appreciated those that were in the stands.

“What an amazing crowd,” Drinkwitz said. “Appreciate their ability to show up and affect the game and they were loud when we needed them.”

Photo courtesy of Missouri Athletics