COLUMBIA, Mo. – Zion Young produced the biggest defensive play of a game full of defensive highlights, returning a fumble 17 yards for a touchdown with 30 seconds to play, giving the University of Missouri a 30-23 victory over Oklahoma before a sellout crowd on Faurot Field.

With the score knotted at 23-23 and Oklahoma (5-5, 1-5) operating from its own 25-yard line, Triston Newson sacked Sooner quarterback Jackson Arnold and forced the fumble that was picked up by Young and returned for the deciding TD. It was the latest defensive score by the Tigers (7-2, 3-2) to decide a game since Jim Whitaker returned an interception 60 yards for a TD with three minutes left in a 21-14 victory over Illinois in 1966.

Young's heroics capped a wild final three minutes of play that saw the two teams combine for four touchdowns. First, Oklahoma used some razzle-dazzle to tie the score at 16-16. On 3rd-and-4 at the MU 18, Arnold flipped a backward pass out to the right to running back Taylor Tatum who threw a pass back to the left to Arnold who took it down the left sideline for an 18-yard touchdown with 3:18 to play.

Shortly thereafter, Jamal Roberts, who was Missouri's leading rusher with 13 carries for 54 yards, fumbled and OU's Billy Bowman Jr. returned it 43 yards for a touchdown that gave the Sooners a 23-16 lead.

But Mizzou rallied in the final two minutes. Quarterback Drew Pyne got things started zinging a slant pass over the middle to Theo Wease Jr. for a 28-yard completion. A 33-yarder down the left sideline to Luther Burden III on a third-and-16 kept the drive alive a short time later, and Pyne then hit Wease Jr. in the back corner of the end zone for a 10-yard touchdown. Kicker Blake Craig completed the drive to tie the score at 23-23 with 1:03 to play.

That's when Young's fumble return produced the win.

Pyne completed 14-of-27 passes for 143 yards and three touchdowns and gained 15 yards on the ground. Under his direction, the offense converted 11-of-19 third downs. Burden III caught five passes for 55 yards and Wease Jr. finished with four for 70 yards with two touchdowns.

The victory was Missouri's ninth straight at home and just the Tigers' eighth in the MU-OU series since World War II.

The Missouri defense held Oklahoma to 257 total yards and recovered four Sooner fumbles. It was the fourth time the Tigers have recovered three-or-more fumbles against an SEC opponent with MU being undefeated in those games.

The defensive heroes were many: linebacker Corey Flagg Jr. had 14 tackles, and his running mate Newson added 10 with a sack, two-and-a-half tackles for loss, and forced a fumble. Safety Daylan Carnell had four tackles, one pass breakup and two forced fumbles in the contest. Besides his touchdown, Young added a quarterback hurry and a pass breakup to his tally.

UP NEXT
The Tigers travel next week for a matchup with South Carolina on Saturday, November 16. Game time at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, South Carolina, is 3:15 p.m. CT with the game being televised on the SEC Network. The two teams will play for the Mayor's Cup.

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