COLUMBIA, Mo. – In what was perhaps the biggest game played at Faurot Field in the better half of a decade, Missouri football could not get it done.
The Tigers fell to the Alabama Crimson Tide in a heartbreaker Saturday afternoon at Faurot Field, 27-24.
Missouri entered its first top-15 ranked matchup at home since 2023, looking to keep a 15-game home win streak alive and claim its first top-15 victory since Oct. 11, 1975 — exactly 50 years to the day.
“I’m really proud of the way this team fought today,” said head coach Eliah Drinkwitz. “Props to the fans and people for making this an incredible atmosphere and for sticking with us through the ups and downs. Ultimately, we just had too many mistakes in critical situations to win.”
Despite the result, the Tigers held the No. 8-ranked Crimson Tide close throughout the game, even jumping out to a brief but commanding 7-0 lead early in the first quarter.
Nonetheless, aimless mistakes came back to bite Missouri and eventually caught up to it down the stretch.
The No. 14 Tigers once again showed why they’ve emerged as one of the SEC’s most complete teams this season. In front of a sold-out crowd, Missouri matched Alabama’s physicality on both sides of the ball and looked every bit like a team deserving of its ranking. Yet, for all the progress this group has made, the matchup served as a reminder of just how small the margin is between contending and conquering in the SEC.
Following the Tigers’ early score — a 26-yard touchdown from Beau Pribula to Brett Norfleet — the Tide struck right back with relative ease. Alabama took it downfield as the Missouri defense got its first taste of Heisman contender Ty Simpson, who ripped a short six-yard pass to Kevin Riley for the score to knot things up at seven apiece.
On the ensuing drive, the Tide did it again, this time with standout wide receiver Isiah Horton catching a 16-yard score from Simpson to give Alabama a 14-7 advantage.
While Mizzou embarked on a stretch that included three consecutive punts, the Tide extended their lead with a field goal to make it a two-score game. Even so, the Tiger defense began to show life with several huge stops.
“We just weren’t giving them free yards,” said Missouri defensive back Daylan Carnell. “I feel like that was the difference. We just have to stop having silly penalties, play clean football, and we’ll be alright.”
The Tigers got three back off the leg of Robert Meyer, who drilled a 35-yard field goal with 3:32 left in the half to make it 17-10 Alabama.
Heading into the second half, the game appeared very much within reach, even as Alabama was set to receive the kickoff. So when Missouri recovered a fumble on the Tide’s first play of the drive, Faurot Field erupted.
Missouri quickly converted with a five-yard RPO keeper from Pribula, who tied things up with his legs at 17 apiece in what looked to be one of the biggest scores of the game.
It might have been the biggest if not for another Pribula play later on. As both sides traded punts, the Tide regained the advantage with a field goal to make it 20-17.
Then came the first of two game-defining mistakes for Missouri. With 13:19 remaining in the fourth quarter, Pribula stepped up from the 43-yard line looking for his first read, Kevin Coleman Jr., on a seam route across the middle. Coleman wasn’t looking; the ball zipped behind the senior wideout and into the outstretched arms of Alabama safety Bray Hubbard, killing Missouri’s momentum.
“We were playing the seam,” Drinkwitz said. “Once we clear, we’ve got to get our eyes around, and I’m not sure that’s where that ball has to be put. Bottom line is it wasn’t executed the way it was supposed to be, whether that’s the wide receiver or the quarterback.”
Missouri’s defense again played savior, holding Alabama to a field goal attempt that sailed wide left from 49 yards out off the leg of Conor Talty.
After a four-and-out by Missouri, Alabama regained control, driving downfield to punch in a one-yard score from Simpson to Daniel Hill, giving the Tide a 27-17 lead with 7:02 remaining as the Tiger secondary began to wear down against one of the nation’s best passing attacks.
For as good as Missouri’s defensive front was all day, the pass defense — which has notably struggled in big spots this season — allowed Simpson to finish 23-for-31 with 200 yards and three touchdowns. Though the backfield had bright moments, the breakdowns were too costly to overcome.
Still, the fight never left Missouri. The Tigers worked it back downfield as Pribula found true freshman Donovan Olugbode for a 27-yard connection that set them up near the end zone, then hit him again for a three-yard score to cut the deficit to three with 1:40 left.
With three timeouts and one of the nation’s best quarterbacks on the opposite sideline, Drinkwitz opted for the onside kick following the score. The Tigers failed to recover on a play that succeeds roughly 15% of the time.
“You want to give yourself another opportunity to recover the ball,” Drinkwitz said. “There are no guarantees you’re going to stop them, even with three timeouts. So if you kick it deep and don’t stop them, you’re kicking yourself away. At least you give yourself a chance to recover it.”
Though Missouri didn’t recover, the defense stepped up again and forced a punt, getting the ball back to the offense with 1:17 left after burning all three timeouts.
But then came the second of Pribula’s costly mistakes. Driving up to the Missouri 47-yard line, he overthrew Olugbode — and Alabama’s Dijon Lee Jr. intercepted it, sealing the game with 43 seconds remaining.
“Obviously, it wasn’t good enough,” Pribula said. “We didn’t win the game. My job was to lead scoring drives so we score more points, and I wasn’t able to do that.”
Pribula has been a major talking point this season. Coming from Penn State with limited experience, he was one of the sparks behind Missouri’s early success. But over the past few weeks, as turnovers have piled up and production has slowed, he’s come under scrutiny — and now faces the challenge of bouncing back after two critical mistakes that could have made the difference between victory and defeat.
Just as the Tigers saw a new kind of opponent in a top-ranked team this week, they’ll face another test next weekend as they head on the road for the first time this year in Week 7, traveling to Auburn, Alabama, for an SEC Tiger battle at the always raucous Jordan-Hare Stadium.
You can hear every Missouri football game for the rest of the season on KCOU 88.1 FM.
Photographs: Jeffrey Calhoun