Mizzou's Embarrassing Loss Revealed Possible True Colors of Tigers

The same issues that lingered through the first four weeks for the Missouri Tigers were on full display in Week 6.

Oct 5, 2024; College Station, Texas, USA; Texas A&M Aggies quarterback Conner Weigman (15) runs the ball in the second quarter against the Missouri Tigers at Kyle Field. Mandatory Credit: Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images. / Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images

COLLEGE STATION, Tx. —  Chants of "overrated" filled Kyle Field through the fourth quarter as the No. 25 Texas A&M Aggies hosted the No. 9 Missouri Tigers.

It's difficult to argue against the Aggie fans' assessment.

In what was tuned up to be a crucial mid-season matchup for Missouri, the previously undefeatedTigers failed to show up in a 41-10 loss.

Missouri could’ve suffered a close, competitive loss against Texas A&M and its goals for the 2024 season would be just fine. 

But an embarrassing, lifeless loss is a shot to the chest of Missouri’s postseason hopes. 

There were valid questions surrounding the top-10 Tigers after needing double overtime to put Vanderbilt away in Week 4. But the only number that mattered was the Tigers’ 4-0 record headed into the bye week.

The lifeless performance in its first road game of the season answered those questions in all the wrong ways for the Tigers.

The issues Missouri put on tape early on in the season — inability to generate explosive passes, convert third downs and penalties — were exposed and put on full display for all of Kyle Field to see. 

Missouri entered the game confident coming off a bye week. 

Quarterback Brady Cook provided bulletin board material, saying speakers at practice would be louder than the Kyle Field crowd. 

Head coach Eli Drinkwitz called out the “semantics” of even considering that Conner Weigman would start at quarterback for Texas A&M. 

But the speakers were apparently not apt preparation and Weigman was announced as the starter over Marcel Reed just minutes before kick off. 

Even after the full menacing production of Texas A&M’s painfully loud walkout to “Power,” Missouri came out with an aggressive approach.

On the first play from scrimmage, Cook tossed a 27-yard reception to wide receiver Luther Burden III down the right sideline, marking Cook’s fourth completion for over 20 yards on the season.

Even after the first drive stalled past midfield, Missouri remained aggressive, attempting to convert a 4th-and-2 at the Texas A&M 40, resulting in a turnover-on-downs after officials picked up a defensive pass interference call. 

It was all downhill for Missouri from there, facing a 24-0 deficit by the end of the first half.

Cook’s long reception to Burden seemed to give Cook and the offense false hope that its struggles with deep passes were behind them. After the deep pass was a staple of the Missouri offense in 2023, Cook has been mostly incapable of hitting his receivers in stride.

Even on one of Cook's few successful deep passes, a 75-yard reception that Burden took to the end zone, another lingering issue for the Missouri offense popped up.

An ineligible receiver downfield penalty on offensive lineman Mitch Walters yanked the Tigers back to their own 25 yard line.

Even when Missouri was playing FCS Murray State in Week 1 or Buffalo in Week 2, penalties were a constant issue. Drinkwitz continued to take responsibility for alignment penalties — like the costly inelligible receiver downfield — through the first four weeks. Holding and other execution penalties were a constant focus of practice for the Tigers, racking up 21 penalties in the first four weeks.

Yet, on top of the call on Walters, the Missouri offense was called for a delay of game, an illegal formation and two false starts.

The delay of game and false starts can be partly attributed to the default nauseating environment at Kyle Field. The Missouri offense appeared frazzled to begin the game.

The Texas A&M offense took advantage of the third-straight slow start for Missouri's offense, taking an early lead to put the Tigers in a hole they could not dig themselves out of.

When running back Le'Veon Moss took a carry 75-yards to the end zone to open the second half, putting the Aggies up 31-0, it was the final nail in an already tightly sealed coffin for Missouri.

Week 6 was set up to be a statement win for Missouri to show it could win on the road and get past the struggles that plagued them to open the season. Instead, it turned into Texas A&M's largest margin of victory over a top-10 program history.

It turned out to say quite a bit about the state of the Missouri Tigers in the exact opposite way they would've hoped for.