COLUMBIA, Mo. — Vanderbilt had all the opportunities it could have ever asked for in an SEC contest on the road.
It hardly took advantage of any of them Saturday inside Memorial Stadium.
The Commodores lost 17-14 at Missouri in a game in which they had a defensive touchdown, a converted fake punt, a recovered onside kick, an interception and a recovered fumble. It all amounted to an excruciating way for Vandy to drop its fourth game in a row.
“For us there’s going to be plenty of things that we can look back on and determine to do better,” Vandy head coach Clark Lea said. “Right now we have to capitalize on all those opportunities in order for us to win.
“I’m interested in growing from this. I’m interested in learning from it. And that’s what we’ll do.”
Despite Vanderbilt’s inability to make Missouri pay for its mistakes Saturday, the Commodores still had life late in the fourth quarter.
Vandy took possession with 4:13 on the clock and watched as quarterback Mike Wright hit Gamarion Carter on a wide receiver screen on the right sideline. The true freshman burst down the field 80 yards for his first career touchdown, cutting Missouri’s lead to three.
The Vandy defense then got a stop in less than a minute of game clock and got the ball back to its offense with 2:57 to go, but another missed opportunity would follow.
On fourth down at the Missouri 44 with 1:23 left, Vanderbilt running back Ray Davis was stopped short of the first down, and the Commodores turned the ball over one last time.
“You can always second-guess plays, you can always make assumptions about what would have happened if something else were called, but it’s fourth-and-inches and for us we’re going to put that on our front, we’re going to create the space we need and we’re going fall forward and get the first down.
“We weren’t able to do it.”
The Commodores began to get back into the game after a scoreless first half thanks to a highlight-reel play from CJ Taylor. On a third-down blitz, Taylor hurdled Missouri running back Cody Schrader into the backfield and, with his right hand, knocked the ball out of Missouri quarterback Brady Cook’s hand.
Taylor then scooped it up at the 3 and ran it in, making it a 17-7 game after the extra point.
Vandy got some serious good mojo on the ensuing kickoff when Joseph Bulovas’ kick landed short at the 16 and bounced back toward the rushing Commodores. Jack Barton was the first into the scrum to try to recover the loose ball, and teammate Langston Patterson emerged with possession.
The Commodores, once again, failed to capitalize—missing a 27-yard field goal.
“There’s no magic potion or anything,” Vandy senior tight end Ben Bresnahan said. “Whenever a play comes to you, you have to execute. It is what it is—play your 1/11th and beat the guy across from you. We just have to be more consistent in that area.”
Vanderbilt got off to a slow start and was its own worst enemy—foreshadowing how the day would progress.
After allowing a 35-yard touchdown pass less than three minutes into the game, Vandy’s offense drove the field to set up a 45-yard field goal. Bulovas’ kick, however, sailed wide.
The Dores then seemed to flip momentum thanks to an Anfernee Orji interception on the Missouri 34. But an offensive pass interference penalty followed by two negative plays led to a punt—one of three consecutive punts for Vanderbilt.
The Tigers put another dent in the scoreboard a mere second into the second quarter with a 10-yard by Luther Burden run to make it 14-0.
Circumstances went from bad to worse with 72 seconds left in the half. On first down from the Missouri 10, quarterback AJ Swann threw an interception into the end zone leaving the Commodores scoreless despite two trips into the red zone.
The Tigers took advantage of the miscue by going 59 yards in the other way in only 71 seconds, though they wound up settling for a 38-yard field goal that made it 17-0. That drive was aided by an offsides penalty on the Commodores.
After 30 minutes of football, Vanderbilt had just 119 yards, had missed a field goal, punted the ball four times and committed a turnover.
“I challenged the defense at halftime,” Lea said. “It was 17-0, and we had a 10-point swing there at the end of the first half. It was a disappointing moment for our program, but I challenged the defense to keep it at 17 and the offense to keep battling and to stay in the fight.
“I thought our defense responded and played well enough to win the game there in the second half.”
Vandy only mustered 57 rushing yards, missed 12 third down conversions and two fourth down conversions. It also had five penalties.
Vanderbilt’s defense, though, played one of its best games of the season by containing Missouri to 308 yards of offense and forcing three turnovers. Orji and Jaylen Mahoney each made 12 stops, combined for 7.5 tackles for loss and two sacks.
All those numbers were little consolation for a Vandy team heading into its second off weekend of the season. They will play South Carolina at FirstBank Stadium on Nov. 5.
“We’re rebuilding. We’re building something together through adversity,” Lea said. “This is what it looks like and feels like. We got to keep swinging.
“We’re on track. Success isn’t linear. There’s going to be peaks and valley. We’ve got to battle. Today I thought we battled. When you don’t have results, it’s hard, but the only way to get the results is that we take the next step. We’ll do that.”
Swann Leaves Contest With Injury
Swann, Vanderbilt’s starting quarterback, left Saturday’s game during the third quarter with an injury. Lea said after the game that he did not have any further information about the injury or its extent.
- Carter’s touchdown reception in the fourth quarter was the longest touchdown reception for Vanderbilt since Brandon Smith’s 80-yard scoring catch against Tennessee on Nov. 20, 2004.
- The defensive touchdown for Taylor in the third quarter was his second of the season.
- The interception by Orji in the first quarter was the first of his career.
- Orji has made at least nine tackles in seven straight games.
- Mahoney made five tackles for loss Saturday, tying the program’s single-game record set by Stephen Weatherly against Tennessee on Nov. 29, 2014.
- Swann now has the fourth-most passing yards by a freshman quarterback in Vanderbilt history. Jay Cutler is third with 1,433 in 2002.
- Swann had gone 159 passing attempts without an interceptions before his second-quarter miscue Saturday.
- Vanderbilt opponents are now 5-for-16 on fourth down this season.
- The Commodores are now 21-for-24 in the red zone this season but have failed on their last three trips inside the 20.
- Vandy now trails the all-time series against Missouri 4-10-1 and has dropped three straight in the series.
- Attendance on Saturday was announced as 60, 618.
— Chad Bishop covers Vanderbilt for VUCommodores.com.
Follow him @MrChadBishop.
