Ahmad Hardy and the Tigers Run Mississippi State, 49-27

Ahmad Hardy turned simply the second participant in Mizzou historical past to hurry for 300 yards and the Tigers protection scored twice as Mizzou closed out its house schedule with a 49-27 victory over Mississippi State Saturday evening earlier than the twentieth consecutive sellout at Memorial Stadium.

With the victory on Senior Night, the Tigers snapped their two-game shedding streak and improved to 7-3 for the season and 3-3 in Southeastern Conference play. Mississippi State fell to 5-6 and 1-6 in convention video games.

“All week we talked about brothers are born for adversity,” Tigers coach Eliah Drinkwitz stated. “It had been a rough couple of weeks for our team, and for our brotherhood to stand strong and stand resilient in the face of adversity I was really round of the senior class, really proud of those 20 men.”

Hardy carried 25 occasions for 300 yards – second solely to Devin West’s faculty report of 319 in opposition to Kansas in 1998 – and scored three touchdowns on runs of 72, 43 and 10 yards. He had 203 yards within the second half. Hardy, from Oma, Mississippi, raised his season speeding complete to 1,346 yards – fifth most at Mizzou for a single season – and his TD complete to fifteen.

Mizzou’s Toriano Pride Jr. and Marvin Burks Jr. every scored on interception returns within the second half – simply the second time in class historical past that the Tigers had a pair of “pick-sixes” in the identical recreation. The different got here in 2006 in a victory at Texas Tech with the scoring returns coming from William Moore and Stryker Sulak.

In the ultimate house recreation in Mizzou’s first season that featured eight contests at Memorial Stadium, the Tigers obtained off to a fast begin. Chris McClellan sacked MSU quarterback Blake Shapen – certainly one of 5 MU sacks – to pressure a three-and-out on the Bulldogs’ opening sequence. Hardy obtained his day began with a 34-yard run to the MSU 31, and three performs later freshman quarterback Matt Zollers lofted a 26-yard landing cross between two defenders and into the palms of fellow frosh Donovan Olugbode for a 7-0 Tiger lead.

Aided by a pair of private foul penalties, the Bulldogs moved into place for a 47-yard discipline objective by Kyle Ferrie that reduce the Mizzou result in 7-3, however Missouri was again on the board once more 4 performs later when Zollers related with Joshua Manning who broke three tackles on a 34-yard jaunt into the top zone. In his second profession begin, Zollers accomplished 8 of 15 passes for 112 yards with two TDs and an interception.

Shapen related with Brenen Thompson on a 54-yard catch-and-run play all the way down to the Missouri 20-yard line, and Shapen finally scored on a 2-yard run up the center on the final play of the primary quarter to deliver MSU to inside 14-10.

Zollers’ interception got here on MU’s subsequent possession, and Mississippi State moved contained in the Mizzou 10-yard line with the assistance of three Missouri private foul penalties. But the protection stiffened close to the objective line and Ferrie lined up for a 25-yard discipline objective. A low snap bounced off the knee of Bulldog holder Marlon Hauck and the ball popped free. Pride scooped it up, bobbed and weaved by means of would-be tacklers and danced up the sideline for 60 yards to the MSU 23-yard line.

After a Bulldog offsides penalty on a discipline objective try prolonged the MU possession, Hardy ran by means of a wave of tacklers for a 10-yard landing that elevated Mizzou’s result in 21-10.

Hardy fumbled close to midfield on Missouri’s first possession of the second half and State’s Malick Sylla recovered. The Bulldogs used 10 performs to barter 52 yards and Shapen scored on a 3-yard run off left guard that closed the hole to 21-17.

But Hardy redeemed himself later within the third quarter with a 72-yard TD run on which he began left, reduce proper and sprinted untouched to the top zone to revive Missouri’s 11-point lead at 28-17.

On the subsequent play, Shapen’s cross meant for Anthony Evans III was damaged up by Daylan Carnell and the ball caromed into the palms of Pride who returned it 19 yards for a landing. It was the second “pick-six” of Pride’s Missouri profession.

Missouri’s protection scored once more early within the fourth quarter. Mississippi State went for it on fourth-and-four at their very own 18-yard line. Shapen’s cross sailed over the pinnacle of Ayden Williams and into the palms of Burks, who returned it 28 yards for a landing and upped MU’s result in 42-24.

The Bulldogs later failed on a fourth-and-four state of affairs at their very own 43, and on the subsequent play Hardy scored his third landing of the sport. 

Missouri’s defenders stuffed the stat sheet. Burks had a team-leading 12 tackles to go along with his interception return, and linebacker Khalil Jacobs additionally reached double figures with 10 stops. Darris Smith had three tackles for loss together with two sacks and added a QB hurry to his line. The protection recorded a season-high 13 tackles for loss.

UP NEXT

The Tigers head to Norman, Oklahoma to tackle the Oklahoma Sooners on Saturday, Nov. 22. Game time at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium shall be 11:00 a.m. and the sport shall be televised by ABC.

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