Missouri hangs tough but loses at Kentucky, travels to Georgia next

For four hours Saturday night, Missouri and Kentucky ebbed and surged, struggled and soared, battling in a flawed but fascinating game at Kroger Field. The teams played deep into the Lexington night as light rain fell off and on, the outcome in doubt until the final second.

Of course, that outcome was a 40-34 Kentucky win, Missouri’s fourth straight loss.

As long as it took to play the game, the final seconds seemed to go too fast. Missouri (1-4, 0-3 in SEC play) never led, but had the ball in the last two minutes with a chance to win.

The Tiger offense gradually matriculated down the field, but the time was dwindling. After a catch by J’Mon Moore, the clock was running and he tried to run over and hand the ball to the official to spot it so the Tigers could run their next play. A Kentucky player knocked the ball out of Moore’s hand, and the official seemed to be slow in retrieving the ball, so when Missouri could spike it to stop the clock, only three seconds remained.

Missouri’s final play, from the 28, was an incomplete pass. On Sunday, the SEC issued a statement saying a Kentucky player indeed knocked the ball away and that the officials should have stopped the clock with 16 seconds left. Missouri could have had two or three plays instead of one, and Kentucky could have been hit with a defensive delay of game penalty.

Three things. First, Missouri fans have a right to be upset about the sequence. Second, there’s no guarantee better officiating would have meant a Missouri win. The Tigers did plenty on their own to contribute to the defeat, including bad snaps on missed field goals, defensive breakdowns, penalties, turnovers and wasting a timeout in the second half because they couldn’t get a play off in time. Timeouts are insurance against officiating clock mistakes late in games. And third, it was encouraging to see Missouri play a competitive game.

At this point, Missouri is not a good team, but they fought hard Saturday night, despite the mistakes. Kentucky (5-1, 2-1 in SEC play) is a respectable opponent, and the Tigers hung tough despite falling behind 13-0 early.

Missouri will need that competitiveness plus much better play for their next game, at Georgia on Saturday (6:30 p.m. on SEC Network). The Bulldogs (6-0, 3-0 in SEC) appear to be the class of the SEC East, and are a top-five team in the national rankings. Nick Chubb and Sony Michel give Georgia a robust ground game, and the Bulldog defense is strong, especially against the run.

One of Missouri’s biggest wins as an SEC member came Between the Hedges in 2013, taking out 13th-ranked Georgia. But that is Missouri’s only win against the Bulldogs since joining the SEC in 2012.

Missouri is a huge underdog here, but showing some heart in a storied SEC venue would be nice to see, especially heading into two very winnable games on the other side.