Henry Josey‘s 57-yard touchdown right up the middle of Texas A&M’s defense in the fourth quarter may as well have gone for another 678 miles to Atlanta. The No. 5 Missouri Tigers (11-1, 7-1 SEC) will play for the SEC Championship Game in their second year in the conference. Not too many people saw that coming, especially since the Tigers had a rough go in their rookie season in the new conference. After dispatching of No. 21 Texas A&M (8-4, 4-4 SEC) Saturday night in Columbia with a 28-21 victory, Missouri wrapped up the SEC East Division to keep South Carolina from sneaking in to Atlanta.
Missouri appeared to have seized control of the momentum in the game in the third quarter. A short touchdown run by Marcus Murphy finished off a 75-yard drive to tie the game at 14-14 early in the second half. The fast start was essential for Missouri after a sluggish first half against an Aggies defense that played one of their finest halves of the year. Missouri’s defense then started to lock down on Johnny Manziel and the Aggies offense, and they kept Texas A&M off the scoreboard in the third quarter. Missouri had another score in them though.
Midway through the third quarter James Franklin tossed a five-yard pass to L’Damian Washington to give the Tigers the first lead of the night, 21-14. But they could not keep Manziel and Texas A&M’s offense down for long. In the fourth quarter the Aggies drove the length of the field with a 98-yard drive ending with a seven-yard run by Ben Malena to tie the game at 21-21. But Missouri still had a big play left in them. It came on a run right up the heart of the Texas A&M defense by Josey late in the fourth quarter. A 57-yard run by Josey gave Missouri a late 28-21 lead. After that, Texas A&M’s offense was flustered trying to make a play happen that just would not develop. The Missouri defense held strong and regained possession to allow the offense to run the clock out.
Missouri will now represent the SEC East in the SEC Championship Game next weekend in Atlanta. They will face Auburn, who stunned Alabama in a fantastic finish in the Iron Bowl to clinch the SEC West. Missouri will be playing in their first conference championship game since playing in the 2008 Big 12 championship game against Oklahoma. Missouri did not play in a bowl game last season, and now they get to play for the SEC Championship. That is quite the turnaround by Gary Pinkell‘s team.
Texas A&M’s season is certainly not done. The Aggies finish in fourth place in the SEC West behind Auburn, Alabama and LSU, but still figure to receive an attractive bowl match-up. Manziel could also still receive an invite to New York for the Heisman Trophy presentation, although his performance down the stretch has lacked top plays.