BenFred: 'Mizzou beating Mizzou' applied to both Auburn debacle and Georgia heartbreak - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Missouri football fan Aidan Schneiders laments an imminent loss on Saturday, Oct.

1, 2022, when the Tigers squandered a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter and lost 26-22 to top-ranked Georgia in Columbia, Mo.  .

Before Eli Drinkwitz’s Missouri football team captured a lead against top-ranked Georgia on Saturday night and held it until Mizzou’s mistakes invited the undefeated defending national champions to play up to their pedigree, former Tigers football coach and soon-to-be inducted College Football Hall of Famer Gary Pinkel was introduced to the Memorial Stadium crowd.

It applied to this very moment, and to some painful ones that would later loom large in a 26-22 Mizzou loss that spent three quarters flirting with becoming the biggest upset win ever bagged by the Tigers.

After a brutal road loss to a bad team (Auburn) and a heartbreaking home loss to a great team (Georgia), the Tigers have to wonder how both could have been different if there were fewer moments in which Mizzou beat Mizzou?

Tigers right guard Mitchell Walters, making just his second start, committed two costly penalties in a game the Tigers led 13-0 to start and by 10 points in the fourth quarter.

Cody Schrader’s second-quarter gallop of 63 yards, to the Georgia 1-yard line, had the Tigers within a hair of taking a 20-3 lead before a Walters false start on the first-and-goal play that followed moved the ball back five yards to set  the stage for a field-goal settle.

Perhaps not if Walters did not wind up with a handful of Bulldogs facemask during an attempted block in the fourth quarter, negating what would have been the successful conversion of a third-and-7 completion from quarterback Brady Cook to receiver Barrett Banister as the Tigers were across midfield and trying to extend a three-point lead.

The Tigers have proven over the past two weeks that they are a better team than the one that no-showed at Kansas State in week two.

First-year coordinator Blake Baker’s defense, which held high-scoring Georgia without a touchdown until the fourth quarter, has legitimate bite.

The guts and grit the Tigers showed against the Bulldogs can lead them to wins against less resilient opponents moving forward – if they can repeat the good while dropping the bad habit of poorly timed self-sabotage.

Mistakes happen, but Mizzou makes too many for a team that can afford none.

The Tigers entered Saturday’s loss having surrendered an average of 69 penalty yards per game.

Top-ranked Georgia rallied behind its rugged running game in the fourth quarter to rally for Saturday's 26-22 comeback win

Missouri football fan Aidan Schneiders laments an imminent loss on Saturday, Oct

1, 2022, when the Tigers squandered a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter and lost 26-22 to top-ranked Georgia in Columbia, Mo.