Missouri vs South Carolina final score: Tigers come back late, beat Gamecocks 21-20

By Hayden Kane | Sep 27, 2014

Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports /

Points were hard to come by in the first half of Saturday night’s game between the Missouri Tigers and the 13th ranked South Carolina Gamecocks. Things loosened up in the fourth quarter, however, and once the Missouri offense got things going they mounted a late comeback to earn a huge victory on the road by a final score of 21-20.

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The score was 10-7 in favor of the Gamecocks after Mike Davis ran in a touchdown from 17 yards out right before halftime. A field goal in the third quarter made it 13-7 in favor of South Carolina, with the defenses the story for most of this game.

It is because of that lack of offense that a 20-7 lead in favor of South Carolina in the fourth quarter felt insurmountable. Pharoh Cooper made an absolutely incredible catch in traffic to give his team that two-score lead.

Unlikely as it felt at that point, the Tigers started their comeback. They got down in the red zone twice, and at that point Russell Hansbrough took over with an impressive nose for the end zone to carry his team on a 14-0 run to win the game.

It was the running game that got most of Missouri’s yards on offense: Marcus Murphy ran for 98 yards on 16 attempts, while Hansbrough chipped in another 43 yards and three touchdowns.

Missouri quarterback Maty Mauk didn’t exactly put up gaudy numbers in this game, with his struggles reflective of the stellar play of the Gamecocks’ defense in three quarters of this game. In the end, Mauk went 12-for-34 for 132 yards. That’s 3.9 yards per attempt if you’re keeping track at home. Amazingly enough, he still might have been better than his counterpart at quarterback: Dylan Thompson went 21-for-37 for the Gamecocks for 219 yards.

Faced with the task of trying to lead a last-minute drive for a game-winning field goal, Thompson and the Gamecocks never got off the runway. It is that same stagnant offense that has gotten Steve Spurrier’s squad in trouble the last number of seasons, and in this case it sealed the deal on their second loss on the young season.

Missouri is now 4-1 on the season and 1-0 in the SEC. South Carolina is 3-2 with a 2-2 record in the SEC.

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