Cole Talley’s 41-yard field goal as time expired lifted Army past Missouri 24-22 in the Armed Forces Bowl on Wednesday night in Fort Worth, Texas.
Third-string quarterback Jabari Laws came off the bench to lead the winning drive for the Black Knights (9-4).
No. 2 quarterback Tyhier Tyler threw a 14-yard touchdown pass and starting quarterback Christian Anderson had a 22-yard TD run before sustaining an ankle injury in the third quarter.
Brady Cook completed 27 of 34 passes for 238 yards and a touchdown for Missouri (6-7). He also rushed for 53 yards and a score.
Missouri played without running back Tyler Badie, who ranked third nationally with 1,604 rushing yards and second with 161.6 all-purpose yards per game. On Tuesday, Tigers coach Eli Drinkwitz announced he would protect Badie from injury ahead of the NFL Draft.
Drinkwitz also chose to play Cook over Connor Bazelak, who started 11 of Missouri’s 12 regular season games at quarterback.
The Tigers opened the game with 72-yard touchdown drive capped by Cook’s 30-yard scoring run on an option keeper.
After Talley missed a 43-yard field goal attempt for Army, the Tigers increased their lead to 10-0 by marching 69 yards for Harrison Mevis’ 22-yard field goal.
The Black Knights countered with a 75-yard touchdown drive to cut their deficit to 10-7. The key play was Anderson’s 42-yard pass to Tyrell Robinson, and the finishing play was Anderson’s 22-yard TD run.
Missouri controlled the rest of the half while taking a 16-7 lead on 25- and 39-yard field goals by Mevis. The Tigers outgained the Black Knights 272 yards to 132 while scoring on all four of their possessions before the break.
But Army flipped the script in the second half.
The Black Knights opened by moving 75 yard to cut the deficit to 16-14 on Jakobi Buchanan’s 10-yard TD run.
After stuffing Missouri a fourth-down run, the Black Knights, Army moved downfield to take a 21-16 lead on Tyler’s 14-yard TD pass to Brandon Walters.
The Tigers got the ball on their 17-yard line with 2:44 left. Cook completed 7 of 9 passes for 76 yards and a touchdown to put Missouri up 22-21 with 1:11 left, but he missed a wide-open Dawson Downing on the two-point conversion pass attempt.
That left the door ajar for Laws to come off the bench and lead the winning rally.
–Field Level Media