COLUMBIA, Mo. – The legs of running back Jamal Roberts and kicker Blake Craig combined with a shutdown defense carried the No. 14 Missouri Tigers to a 27-6 victory over the Texas A&M Aggies on Saturday before the 24th-consecutive sellout crowd at Memorial Stadium.
The victory by the Tigers (5-1, 2-1 Southeastern Conference) snapped a three-game losing streak against the Aggies (3-3, 1-3).
In the fourth quarter, Roberts broke free for a 54-yard scoring scamper that iced the game and finished with a career-high 34 carries for 222 yards to mark his second-straight game with more than 200 yards. It marked the fourth time in the last five games that he had gained more than 100.
Mizzou’s defense was stout all day, holding the Aggies to just 216 yards of offense and 10 first downs. Mizzou became the fourth team to hold Texas A&M without an offensive touchdown since the Aggies joined the SEC in 2012. Through three quarters, the Mizzou defense held A&M to 74 total yards – just 16 in the second quarter and three in the third – while the Tiger offense built a 13-3 lead.
Then, Roberts took over. He scored a touchdown on the last play of the third quarter to give the Tigers a 20-3 lead, capping a 12-play, all-on-the-ground drive that ate up the final 6:51 of the period and culminated with his 2-yard touchdown plunge.
“It wasn’t pretty at times. But that’s an old-fashioned SEC game right there,” Mizzou coach Eli Drinkwitz said. “I knew matchup wise they were really good on defense and really good on offense. Their front, they’re old-school SEC football. I knew it was going to be a hard-fought game, especially how dinged up we were. I was really, really impressed with our defense. Can’t say enough about (safety) Trajen Greco and the performance he had. And really the front to stuff the run and get after the passer. I thought for sure, since I’ve been here, the best defensive performance we’ve had —outside of the (2023) Cotton Bowl (and) in the SEC.”
Craig kicked field goals of 50 and 51 yards – giving him 11 field goals of 50-or-more yards in his career, two shy of the MU record of 13 held by Harrison Mevis.
Linebacker Nicholas Rodriguez again led the defense with 13 tackles, including eight solos, a half-sack, one-and-a-half tackles for loss and a quarterback hurry, marking his fifth-straight game with double-digit stops. A pass interception by Greco preceded Craig’s first field goal in the second quarter, and in the first quarter, he thwarted an Aggie scoring chance, breaking up a pass in the end zone that was intercepted by Elijah Dotson.
The Aggies got on the board first late in the first quarter on a 53-yard field goal by David Olano. But Missouri took the lead early in the second quarter with a 10-play, 77-yard drive. A pair of third-down completions from Austin Simmons to Cayden Lee kept the drive alive. And on a third-and-four, Simmons connected with Lee on a crossing route and he raced through the A&M secondary for a 32-yard touchdown. Lee was Mizzou’s leading receiver with seven receptions for 94 yards.
Craig had a 39-yard FG attempt blocked on the final play of the first half, but he booted a 51-yarder on Mizzou’s opening possession of the third quarter to boost the lead to 13-3.
In between Roberts’ two touchdown runs, Olano kicked a 27-yard field goal for the Aggies’ final points.
Simmons completed 14 of 28 passes for 147 yards, one TD and one interception. A&M quarterback Marcel Reed was 19-39 for 187 yards and two interceptions, but 133 of those yards came in desperation mode in the fourth quarter.
UP NEXT
The Tigers will travel to Oxford, Mississippi for the first time since 2013 to face the Ole Miss Rebels. Game time at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 17 will be 2:30 p.m. and the game will be televised by either ABC, ESPN or the SEC Network.
FOLLOW THE TIGERS
For all the latest on Mizzou Football, stay tuned to www.MUTigers.com and follow the team on Twitter (@MizzouFootball) and like the team on Facebook and Instagram.