Mizzou QB Brady Cook is tackled by a Georgia defender during Saturday’s SEC football game in Athens, Ga. (Photo courtesy: Associated Press)

NCAA Football – Nov. 4, 2023	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Final
#12 Missouri (7-2, 3-2)	7	3	3	8	21
#2 Georgia (9-0, 6-0)	3	7	14	6	30

Terrance Williams
Staff Writer

ATHENS, GA — Two third-quarter touchdowns, two fourth-quarter field goals, and two late-game interceptions allowed the two-time defending national champion and No. 2-ranked Georgia Bulldogs to comeback from behind and hold on late for a 30-21 win over the visiting Missouri Tigers, Saturday afternoon at Sanford Stadium.

The victory was Georgia’s 26th straight overall, 24th straight win at home, and 10th straight over Missouri, which is now 7-2 on the season and 3-2 in SEC play. Georgia is unbeaten this season at 9-0 and 6-0 in the conference.

The win also put the Bulldogs in the driver’s seat to once again win the SEC East. Georgia would have to lose both its remaining conference games (vs. Ole Miss, Nov. 11 and at Tennessee, Nov. 18) to not make it to the SEC Championship Game, which will be played in Atlanta on December 2.

Missouri had plans to be the team to knock Georgia off that route and the Tigers found themselves in position to do just that, when they gained possession of the ball, down 27-21 with 8:59 left in the game. But after driving the ball to midfield on just two plays, quarterback Brady Cook threw an interception to Georgia defensive lineman Nazir Stackhouse.

That led to a Georgia field goal which made the score 30-21. Missouri got the ball back again with 3:57 left, but Cook threw another interception with 1:36 left that essentially ended the game.

“There’s a lot of hurt guys in that (locker) room,” Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz said. “Put a lot into this one. We knew it’d be a four-quarter fight. Disappointed to be so close but so far away at the same time.”

Until those interceptions, Mizzou was right there. The game was tied at 10 at halftime and the Tigers led 13-10 early in the third quarter, after a 42-yard field goal by kicker Harrison Mevis. That play made Mevis, Mizzou’s all-time leading scorer, giving him a career points total of 364, which surpassed former kicker Jeff Wolfert’s 362 points.

Georgia retook the lead, 17-13, minutes later with a 15-yard touchdown run to the right by Kendall Milton then widened its lead to 24-13 with :38 left in the third quarter on a five-yard pass to Oscar Delp.

The Tigers responded in a big way, marching 75 yards in nine plays. Cook hit Cooper with an 11-yard pass on a third-and-10, then found Mekhi Miller with a 23-yard completion down to the Georgia 12.

From there, Cody Schrader, who was the game’s leading rusher with 22 carries for 112 yards, scooted around left end for a touchdown and Cook found Luther Burden III with a two-point conversion pass to cut the lead to 24-21. It was the sixth straight game with a TD for Schrader.

A 23-yard pass from Beck to Delp moved Georgia into Missouri territory, and a pass interference penalty got the Bulldogs into the red zone, but the Tiger defense stiffened and with 8:59 to play, Peyton Woodring kicked a 30-yard field goal to make the score 27-21.

“Game kind of flipped on that defensive pass interference call on third down,” Drinkwitz said. “They were able to capture some momentum there.”

Then, in the fourth quarter, officials flagged Georgia for offensive pass interference. After on-field discussion, they reviewed the play, apparently for whether the ball had crossed the line of scrimmage, which is a pre-requisite for pass interference calls.

The penalty was overturned after the review. The Bulldogs managed only a field goal on that drive, but the premise of the review soured the Missouri sideline.

“The thing about our league is that there’s not really any explanations,” Drinkwitz said. “And there’s no explanations to (the media) from them. You can ask me all you want, but I can’t really say anything. The better question is to ask them because whether or not it was conclusive evidence, I can’t see any conclusive evidence of where the ball is.”

The play of the game though, proved to be the interception by Stackhouse, who appeared out of nowhere on a play where Cook was trying to throw a short pass to tight end Brett Norfleet.

“We were running a little tight end hide play,” Drinkwitz said. “I had my eyes on the tight end and he was open. All of a sudden, I just saw the defender with the ball.”

The loss for Missouri effectively ended the Tigers’ hopes for winning the SEC East. Missouri has two conference losses, one of which is a head-to-head tiebreaker loss to Georgia for the division lead. So no matter what happens the rest of the season, Mizzou can’t pass Georgia.

But the Tigers do have several big games left on the schedule, which will likely determine which bowl game they’ll play in. Mizzou plays current No. 17 Tennessee, next Saturday, then it will host Florida in two weeks, before closing out the regular season with its borderline rivalry game against Arkansas.

“This isn’t the final game of the year,” Drinkwitz said. “We’re disappointed because we put ourselves in a position to contend for the SEC East, which is the goal that we had in place … We got to refocus on what our new goals are.”

Kickoff time for the Tennessee and Florida games have not been set yet, but are expected to be announced by the SEC league office in the coming days.

Scoring Summary

Qtr	Time	Scoring Play	MIZ	UGA
1st	10:17	UGA – Woodring,Peyton 33 yd field goal 12 plays, 65 yards, TOP 04:40	0	3
1st	05:45	MIZ – Burden,Luther 39 yd pass from Cook,Brady (Mevis,Harrison kick) 9 plays, 75 yards, TOP 04:32	7	3
2nd	13:38	UGA – Lovett,Dominic 6 yd pass from Beck,Carson (Woodring,Peyton kick) 12 plays, 70 yards, TOP 07:07	7	10
2nd	04:14	MIZ – Mevis,Harrison 37 yd field goal 11 plays, 61 yards, TOP 05:35	10	10
3rd	11:42	MIZ – Mevis,Harrison 42 yd field goal 8 plays, 59 yards, TOP 03:12	13	10
3rd	08:10	UGA – Milton,Kendall 15 yd run (Woodring,Peyton kick), 6 plays, 65 yards, TOP 03:26	13	17
3rd	00:38	UGA – Delp,Oscar 5 yd pass from Beck,Carson (Woodring,Peyton kick) 10 plays, 67 yards, TOP 05:23	13	24
4th	12:50	MIZ – Schrader,Cody 12 yd run (Burden,Luther pass), 9 plays, 75 yards, TOP 02:48	21	24
4th	08:59	UGA – Woodring,Peyton 30 yd field goal 8 plays, 53 yards, TOP 03:44	21	27
4th	03:57	UGA – Woodring,Peyton 48 yd field goal 7 plays, 40 yards, TOP 03:49	21	30

2023 Missouri Tigers Football Remaining Schedule

Date	Time	At	Opponent	Location	TV
November 11, 2023 (Saturday)	2:30 PM	Home	#13 Tennessee	Faurot Field
November 18, 2023 (Saturday)	6:30 PM	Home	Florida	Faurot Field
November 24, 2023 (Friday)	3:00 PM	Away	Arkansas	Fayetteville, Ark.