The Missouri Tigers are one win away from reaching the SEC Championship game for the second year in a row. Maty Mauk threw two touchdown passes and Marcus Murphy ran for two other scores Saturday night as 20th ranked Missouri won at Tennessee 29-21.
For the Tigers (9-2, 6-1), it was a school record 10th straight road win and now sets the stage for next Friday, when Missouri can clinch the East Division by beating Arkansas next Friday at home.
Tennessee led 10-7 when they faked a field goal and got a 31 yard touchdown pass from holder Patrick Ashford to Alex Ellis in the second quarter. The Volunteers ran 24 of their first 32 plays inside Mizzou territory thanks to great punting and multiple penalties that stymied quite a few Missouri drives and kept the field flipped in Tennessee’s favor. Despite the advantage in field position, The Tigers took a 13-10 lead after Murphy scored on a touchdown but Andrew Baggett missed the first of two extra points.
Andrew Baggett’s 43-yard field goal broke a 13-13 midway through the third quarter and Mauk put the Tigers up by two scores by throwing a 73-yard touchdown pass to Jimmie Hunt and a 13-yard TD to Bud Sasser in the fourth quarter to make it 29-13 with 6:22 to play.
The Volunteers cut the lead to 29-21 when Joshua Dobbs threw a 4-yard touchdown pass to Jason Croom with 1:52 remaining and scored a two-point conversion on a rollout to his right.
Tennessee tried an onside kick and recovered its first attempt, but an offside penalty forced the Vols to kick again. On Tennessee’s next kick, officials ruled the Vols had touched the ball before it went the required 10 yards.z
After two impressive wins with Dobbs at quarterback, the Missouri defense shut him down most of the night, limiting the Vols to just 279 total yards with 79 of those coming on the final drive.
They also sacked Dobbs six times. He had been sacked just three times in the previous three games. (Dobbs entered after the second series in the game with Alabama, before his two starts) The Tigers also forced two turnovers.
