Eli Drinkwitz credits 'fight' of Missouri to battle back from early deficit to beat Kentucky

Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz didn’t give up on his team after a slow start Saturday against Kentucky, and that belief paid off in the end. After falling behind by two touchdowns early in the first quarter, the Tigers locked down on both sides of the ball to rally back and win 38-21.

Mizzou got there thanks to a big effort from its defense, which forced three second-half turnovers and gave up only one touchdown over the final three quarters. The win pushed the Tigers record to 6-1 on the season, making them bowl eligible, and Drinkwitz offered his thoughts on the comeback postgame on SEC Network.

“Just talks about the character of our team,” he said. “The leadership of our team. Unbelievable to fight back down 14 and score 38 to win the game. Defense was unbelievable forcing turnovers in the second half. That’s a big-time win.”

The turning point seemed to come early in the second quarter as Missouri had still yet to score its first points of the game. Facing fourth-and-10 from the Kentucky 39-yard line, the Tigers sent out the punt team, but that was just a decoy to catch the Wildcats off guard.

Luke Bauer took the snap and instead of kicking it away, rolled out to pass. Not only did he get enough for the first down, but he found Marquis Johnson downfield as the receiver ran into the end zone to get Missouri on the board for the first time.

That ended up being the first of 17 unanswered points for the Tigers as they capped off the half with a 18-yard touchdown from Brady Cook to Theo Wease to take a 17-14 lead into halftime.

Looking back on the play, Drinkwitz noted its importance in swinging the game in Missouri’s favor, crediting special teams coordinator Erik Link for the call.

“I just think there was a relief that we were gonna be in the game,” he said. “We talked about this coming in being a heavyweight fight. I have a ton of respect for coach Stoops and his team. We knew it was gonna be a four-quarter fight. We just needed to land a land a blow. Hats off to Erik Link. Erik Link spotted that and said we could do it. We practiced it all week, so hats off to him.”

Missouri came out and forced a fumble to start the half, later kicking a field goal to go up 20-14. However, Kentucky answered with a touchdown a couple of drives later to retake a 21-20 lead.

From there, the Tigers defense locked down, as the Wildcats never scored again. Missouri scored touchdowns on its next two drives to pull away for good. Quarterback Brady Cook finished the game 19-of-29 passing for 167 yards, one touchdown and one interception as the Tigers outscored Kentucky 18-0 in the fourth quarter.

It was a much-needed win for Missouri, which was coming off of its first loss of the season to LSU last week. And now that the Tigers are bowl eligible, they’re not planning on slowing up any time soon. They’ve already matched their highest win total in any season with Drinkwitz as coach, and with five more games in front of them, seem bound to pass that mark.

“Why stop now?” Drinkwitz said. “Let’s keep going.”

Drinkwitz and Missouri now move on to face South Carolina in Week 8, where it will aim to carry the momentum from this week’s win.