Missouri’s Blake Craig hit a 37-yard field goal in double overtime, lifting the No. 7 Tigers to a 30-27 win over Vanderbilt at Faurot Field in Columbia, Mo., on Saturday.
Vanderbilt (2-2, 0-1 Southeastern Conference) had a shot to tie in its second overtime period, but Brock Taylor missed a 31-yard field goal on the game’s last play.
Diego Pavia threw for 178 yards and a pair of scores and added 84 rushing yards, including a 2-yard touchdown pass to Gabe Fisher in the first overtime to put Vanderbilt ahead.
The Commodores, 21-point underdogs, led much of the day and never trailed by more than the final margin. Coach Clark Lea was asked if the performance showed the program was moving in the right direction.
“I don’t like that perspective because we’ll form our opinion around the standards we measure ourselves to. … We didn’t do enough today to be one point better than them,” Lea said.
It’s Vanderbilt’s 28th-straight loss to a team ranked in the AP top 10.
Vanderbilt led 27-20 after Fisher’s first career touch went for a score in the first overtime.
But the Commodores let Missouri All-American Luther Burden get open in single coverage on the first play and Brady Cook hit him with a 25-yard strike in the end zone.
The Tigers got the ball to start the second overtime. The defense forced a three-and-out and that left things to Craig, who’d already missed three field goals on the day.
But the freshman nailed that one, and after an offensive pass interference call pushed the Commodores back on their drive, Taylor set up for a 31-yard field goal just inside the right hash. After a Missouri time out, Taylor pulled the kick to the left of the left upright.
Missouri’s Craig nailed a 55-yard field goal in the first possession of the second half to tie the game at 13.
After a Vanderbilt three-and-out, Missouri’s Nate Noel burst through the middle of the defense for a 64-yard romp to the Vanderbilt 3, setting up Marcus Carroll’s 3-yard scoring run, giving the Tigers their first lead of the day.
But the Commodores, who’d barely moved the ball for three quarters, got a 31-yard run from Sedrick Alexander that set up AJ Newberry’s 4-yard rushing score off an option pitch from Pavia to tie the game.
Vanderbilt led 13-10 at half despite being out-snapped, 38-23 and having minus-2 years in the third quarter.
Pavia scrambled out of pressure and hit a wide-openJoseph McVay for a 65-yard catch-and-run, Taylor’s point-after making it 7-0.
Missouri answered with a 10-play, 76-yard drive when Cook found Burden for a short toss which he turned into a 20-yard touchdown.
Pavia’s 36-yard run helped get Vanderbilt into Missouri territory on the next drive, but the Commodores squandered a first-and-goal at the 4 and settled for Taylor’s 37-yard field goal.
Missouri tried to convert a fourth-and-3 from the 47 with the clock running down in the first half. Khordae Sydnor sacked Cook.
Two plays later, Taylor, aided by a breeze, drilled a 57-yarder by plenty to put the Commodores up 13-10 at half.